Caryl Adams testified at trial that she signed these documents at Ronald Adams' request without reading them. To open the personal account and to effectuate the various transfers, Ronald Adams obtained Caryl Adams' signature on several documents and wrote what purported to be her signature on others. The personal account at Paine Webber was placed "on margin," which meant that the account owner could borrow funds from Paine Webber for the purchase of new securities and that the securities in the account would serve as collateral for such loans. The same arrangement was made with a bank that had loaned money to Ronald *510 Adams. To accomplish this, Paine Webber paid the other firms the amounts owing on the accounts and in return received the securities in the accounts, including the ITW stock certificates, which had been used as collateral for the borrowings in those accounts. After Ocrant began working at Paine Webber in mid-1973, a Paine Webber account was opened in the name of Caryl Adams (the "personal account") at the instance of Ronald Adams and Ocrant, and those two men arranged to transfer the accounts that existed at the other brokerage firms to Paine Webber. Ocrant suggested that Ronald Adams consolidate all of his debts. In April 1973, Ronald Adams met Lawrence Ocrant, who was a stockbroker. All the loans were secured by Caryl Adams' stock. By 1973, Ronald Adams owed large sums of money to several brokerage firms and to a bank. He also opened accounts at several brokerage firms in Denver and used Caryl Adams' stock as collateral for borrowing in those accounts to obtain funds for his businesses. Using the dividends from Caryl Adams' ITW stock, Ronald Adams invested in a variety of businesses in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Caryl Adams and Ronald Adams were named as co-trustees. In 1962, Caryl Adams' mother, Violet Johnson, established a trust for Caryl Adams' children (the "Johnson trust"), the assets of which consisted of 1,000 shares of ITW stock. At the time of that marriage, Caryl Adams' assets, primarily consisting of the ITW stock, were valued at approximately $1.8 million. Prior to her marriage to her first husband, Ronald Adams, in 1961, Caryl Adams had received approximately 150,000 shares of stock in Illinois Tool Works, Inc. Therefore, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals. We conclude that the defendants waived their right to contest the award of exemplary damages and that the evidence supported the trial court's instruction as to the defendants' fiduciary duties.
We agreed to review the issues of whether the trial court had jurisdiction to award exemplary damages in this action and whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury that, as a matter of law, the defendants owed fiduciary duties to Caryl Adams during specified periods of time.
The jury awarded Caryl Adams substantial damages against both defendants, and the court of appeals affirmed the judgment entered on that verdict. (Paine Webber) and one of its account representatives, Lawrence Ocrant, breached the fiduciary duties they allegedly owed her with respect to an individual account and a trust account established in her name at Paine Webber. In that case, the plaintiff, Caryl Adams, claimed that the defendants, Paine, Webber, Jackson & Curtis, Inc. We granted certiorari to review the judgment of the Colorado Court of Appeals in Adams v. Ocrant, Personal Representative of the Estate of Lawrence Ocrant, Petitioners,Ĭaryl ADAMS, Individually and as Trustee of the V.M. PAINE, WEBBER, JACKSON & CURTIS, INC., a corporation, and Sueann A.
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