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Colorado law does not require title transfer to convey vehicles as gifts, appeals court rules

By Michael Karlik 07/11/2023 | updated 2 years ago

For the first time, the state’s Court of Appeals has decided Colorado law does not require vehicle owners to transfer the title when gifting a car to another person in order for the exchange to be valid.

“Whether parties have transferred ownership depends on the facts of a particular case,” wrote Judge Terry Fox in the court’s June 15 opinion.

The question arose in a case out of Mesa County, where Leonard Paul Liebe Sr. died in January 2022, days after convening a video call from his hospital bed to discuss his last wishes. Liebe told his daughter, Chelsea Ducray, that she would not receive his nearly-new Ford Bronco Sport. Instead, he wanted Myranda Hunter – effectively his adoptive daughter – to have it.

Liebe then instructed one of his longtime employees to give a set of keys to Hunter, and also to transfer $25,000 to Ducray as a gift.

However, Ducray refused to hand over the Bronco’s title to Hunter after her father’s death.

Case: In re the Estate of Liebe

Decided: June 15, 2023

Jurisdiction: Mesa County

Ruling: 3-0

Judges: Terry Fox (author)

Rebecca R. Freyre

Lino S. Lipinsky de Orlov

“The bottom line, very frankly,” said retired District Court Judge Christopher J. Munch after hearing the evidence, “there is no binding authority in Colorado as to whether or not it is necessary to sign over a title in order to gift a motor vehicle.”

Munch ruled in favor of Hunter, finding the vehicle was validly gifted during Liebe’s lifetime and the Bronco was not part of Liebe’s estate upon his death. It would have been unrealistic, Munch noted, to expect Liebe to transfer the title on his deathbed given his short stay in the hospital’s COVID-19 isolation ward.

Ducray turned to the Court of Appeals, arguing a title transfer is necessary to prevent “fraud,” and that her father still had control “symbolically” over the Bronco at the time he died.

But a three-judge appellate panel disagreed with her. While there were no prior court decisions addressing whether possession of a title is necessary to establish ownership of a gifted vehicle, the panel declined to add such a requirement.

“The Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles requires a title transfer to register a vehicle, presumably to reduce instances of theft or fraud and to promote insurance coverage for third parties injured by a vehicle’s driver,” wrote Fox.

With the gifted Bronco, she explained, those risks were not present.

There was “no question,” Fox wrote, that Liebe wanted Hunter to have the Bronco through his statements and his act of arranging for delivery of the keys. The panel agreed the car was Hunter’s.

The case is In re the Estate of Liebe.

The Denver skyline hangs over traffic on Interstate 25. 
The Associated Press file
Michael Karlik

Reporter

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