Family asks 10th Circuit to revive lawsuit over Colorado couple murdered while buying a car off Letgo - Courthouse News Service

Joseph and Jossline Roland were murdered in August 2020 by a man who claimed he was selling a used car on the marketplace app.

DENVER (CN) — The family of an Aurora, Colorado, couple murdered while buying a used car off the marketplace app Letgo in 2020 asked the 10th Circuit on Friday to revive a lawsuit against the company that facilitated the transaction.

Joseph Roland, a father of five, was looking for a used car on Letgo for his oldest daughter in August 2020. He saw a man named James Worthy selling a used 2017 Toyota Rav 4 for $5,000 on the marketplace, not knowing the seller was really 18-year-old Kyree Brown. When Roland and his wife Jossline met the seller at a well-lit Petco in Aurora, Brown lured them back to his home and tried to rob them at gunpoint.

Brown then shot and killed Joseph and Jossline Roland.

Brown was arrested on Aug. 27, 2020, and two years later was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder along with aggravated robbery, theft and arson. He is serving a life sentence.

The Rolands' surviving children sued Letgo and its parent company OfferUp on April 14, 2022, claiming gross negligence and fraud because the company failed to vet Brown's profile as advertised. The district court dismissed the case on Dec. 5, 2022.

The Roland family appealed. At the Byron White U.S. Courthouse, attorney Daniel Tapetillo argued that the Rolands had used Letgo because it advertised a user verification process making it look safer for users than competitor Craigslist.

"Didn't their terms expressly disavow that trust and advise people to proceed with caution in these transactions?" probed U.S. Circuit Judge Joel Carson, a Donald Trump appointee.

Tapetillo, who practices with the Los Angeles firm Geragos & Geragos, drew a difference between what Letgo advertised and what it disclosed in the fine print of its terms and conditions.

"They advertised everywhere that they verify users — that's why people use this service over competitors like Craig's List," Tapetillo said. "Now it's clear what the service does and does not do, but for the average consumer going on their website, they say they verify users and work with law enforcement."

U.S. Circuit Judge Scott Matheson, a Barack Obama appointee, quizzed Tapetillo on why Letgo should be held accountable for the actions of its users.

"That sounds like a but-for argument," he pressed, "but isn't Mr. Brown ultimately the cause of the murders?"

Matheson then asked Letgo's attorney Ari Holtzblatt about the representation that the company worked closely with law enforcement.

Holtzblatt, who practices with the Washington firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, replied by flipping the question: "Ask whether that is really the harmful content — or is the harmful content the ad provided by Mr. Brown?"

As a blueprint Holtzblat offered the 2021 decision in the Colorado case Wagner v. Planned Parenthood in which a Denver jury found the fertility clinic not liable for a 2016 mass shooting that resulted in three deaths.

"This case clearly falls on the 'out of the blue' line. This user had no track record on the app," Holtzblat argued. "Kyree Brown is the predominant cause of the crime."

U.S. Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich, appointed by George W. Bush rounded out the panel. The court did not indicate when it how it would decide the case.

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