New Mexico Supreme Court Decisions 2012
Date: December 6, 2012
Citation: 2013-NMSC-002
Docket Number: 33,830
Justia Opinion Summary: The underlying case in this matter concerned a property dispute between BNSF Railway (BNSF) and Roy D. Mercer, LLC (Mercer) and the interpretation of an easement. BNSF claimed a right to construct large berms on Mercer's…
Date: December 5, 2012
Citation: 2013-NMSC-001
Docket Number: 32,943
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Bruce Hall was convicted of a sex crime in California pursuant to a plea agreement. He then moved to New Mexico and was charged with the fourth-degree felony of failing to register as a sex offender. The New…
Date: November 8, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-040
Docket Number: 32,938
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Joseph C. Perry, Petitioner, was a prison inmate at the Penitentiary of New Mexico serving sentence at the Lea County Correctional Facility for battery against a household member as well as for a parole…
Date: November 1, 2012
Docket Number: 32,704
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue on appeal before the Supreme Court in this case was whether NMSA 1978, Section 72-2-9.1 (2003), provided a constitutional delegation of authority for the Office of the State Engineer to adopt new regulations to…
Date: October 22, 2012
Docket Number: 32,541
Justia Opinion Summary: In this first-degree murder case, the State improperly admitted into evidence a diary of the decedent which was inadmissible hearsay. Because the diary was important to the State's case, and the State repeatedly relied…
Date: October 22, 2012
Docket Number: 33,136
Justia Opinion Summary: By the time Defendant Wayne Bent was indicted, the grand jury allegedly had exceeded its statutory term of service. Having been convicted subsequently of most of the charges in the indictment, Defendant appealed on the…
Date: August 30, 2012
Docket Number: 32,976
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court granted certiorari to review a Court of Appeals opinion that overturned the district court's denial of a motion to suppress drug evidence discovered during a traffic stop of Defendant Gunnar Olson. Upon…
Date: August 24, 2012
Docket Number: 30,470
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Paul Wayne Lovett was charged with murdering two women in two separate, unrelated incidents as well as criminal sexual penetration with respect to one of the victims. Pursuant to Rule 5-203(A) NMRA the two…
Date: August 24, 2012
Docket Number: 32,624
Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from a dispute over the proper calculation of royalty payments on state oil and gas leases. Over the years, the Legislature has enacted several versions of the statutory oil and gas lease, and Lessees…
Date: August 24, 2012
Docket Number: 32,707
Justia Opinion Summary: The property at the center of this dispute was located in San Juan County with productive oil and gas wells thereon. While ownership of the land was the ultimate question the parties sought to resolve in the underlying…
Date: August 24, 2012
Docket Number: 32,828
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the issue before the Supreme Court concerned the use of multiple levels of anonymous hearsay reports in the probable cause portion of a search warrant affidavit. The Court granted Defendant David Haidle’s…
Date: August 24, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-034
Docket Number: 32,838
Justia Opinion Summary: This case began as a quiet title action filed by Respondents Edwin Smith, LLC and Jerry Walmsley, in his capacity as trustee of the June Walmsley Bypass Trust, against Synergy Operating, LLC and numerous individuals.…
Date: August 23, 2012
Citations: 2012-NMSC-032, 2012-NMSC-033
Docket Number: 32,939
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal concerned the construction of a single word, "sudden," within a pollution exclusion clause in a series of liability insurance policies barring coverage for certain damages unless the events causing those…
Date: August 20, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-030
Docket Number: 32,120
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Julian Tafoya shot and killed Andrea Larez, and shot and injured Crystal Brady. Larez and Brady were sitting in the front of a car and Defendant and his girlfriend, Kaprice Conde, were sitting in back.…
Date: August 20, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-031
Docket Number: 32,885
Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Santa Fe (City) charged Julio Marquez with two violations of the Santa Fe City Code (SFCC), including Operating a Motor Vehicle Under the Influence of Intoxicating Liquor or Drugs (DWI). After the City rested…
Date: August 16, 2012
Docket Number: 32,120
Justia Opinion Summary: While aimlessly driving around Roswell in 2008, Defendant Julian Tafoya shot and killed Andrea Larez, and shot and injured Crystal Brady. Larez and Brady were sitting in the front of the car and Defendant and his…
Date: August 16, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-029
Docket Number: 32,430
Justia Opinion Summary: Two cases were consolidated for the purposes of this opinion. In the first, Defendant Abdul Muqqddin was charged with five separate counts when a police officer discovered him lying under a car in an attempt to drain the…
Date: August 13, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-028
Docket Number: 32,937
Justia Opinion Summary: Santa Fe Pacific Trust, Inc. (SFPT) and Bigbyte are Florida corporations doing business in New Mexico. SFPT owns land and an office building on Central Avenue in Albuquerque and leases most of its commercial space to…
Date: August 9, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-027
Docket Number: 33,052
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Luciano Guerra was convicted of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the fatal stabbing of Andrew Gama during a fight in March 2010. In his direct appeal to the Supreme Court, he argued that: (1)…
Date: July 26, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-025
Docket Number: 32,942
Justia Opinion Summary: Eric Schuster appealed a decision of the Taxation and Revenue Department, Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) to revoke his driver's license pursuant to the Implied Consent Act. The primary issue arising from this case was…
Date: July 19, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-024
Docket Number: 32,589
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jose Ordunez pled guilty to a 2004 fourth-offense aggravated DWI. He was incarcerated for six months and then served a lengthy probationary period. In 2007, Defendant was arrested for another DWI in violation…
Date: July 19, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-023
Docket Number: 32,800
Justia Opinion Summary: "Speedy trial analysis under the United States Constitution requires a balancing and weighing of several factors, including the length of delay, the cause of the delay, timely assertion of the right, and prejudice to the…
Date: July 2, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-022
Docket Number: 32,695
Justia Opinion Summary: This case presented the Supreme Court with an issue of first impression: whether the New Mexico Emancipation of Minors Act authorizes a district court to declare a minor emancipated for some rather than all enumerated…
Date: June 28, 2012
Docket Number: 32,524
Justia Opinion Summary: This case presented an issue of first impression for the Supreme Court: whether executive privilege in the context of a public records request presented a conflict with the public's right to access information concerning…
Date: June 28, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-021
Docket Number: 32,985
Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerned the scope of absolute privilege that grants immunity to litigants and their attorneys from being sued for defamation based on public statements they make about a judicial proceedings either before or…
Date: June 14, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-020
Docket Number: 32,756
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court granted certiorari to review a Memorandum Opinion of the Court of Appeals and to address four issues stemming from a lawsuit by LensCrafters to enforce a noncompete provision against optometrist Dennis…
Date: June 1, 2012
Docket Number: 32,510
Justia Opinion Summary: On the morning of January 21, 2006, Defendant-Petitioner Michael Swick, along with his cousin, Benito Lopez, and the victim, Alex Ogle, began a day of cruising and drinking alcohol in a borrowed Jeep. Late in the…
Date: June 1, 2012
Docket Number: 32,789
Justia Opinion Summary: Bani Chatterjee and Taya King are two women who were in a committed, long-term domestic relationship when they agreed to bring a child into their relationship. King adopted a child from Russia. Chatterjee supported King…
Date: May 30, 2012
Docket Number: 32,944
Justia Opinion Summary: Several months after being granted sole legal and physical custody of Patrick D. (Child), Brian D. and Peggy D. (Grandparents) filed a petition for guardianship and custody pursuant to the Kinship Guardianship Act. Julie…
Date: May 24, 2012
Docket Number: 32,291
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant-Petitioner Laybe Torres was convicted by a jury of Driving While Intoxicated (seventh or subsequent offense). While Defendant was initially pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt during a routine seatbelt…
Date: May 21, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-015
Docket Number: 32,055
Justia Opinion Summary: This case required the New Mexico Supreme Court to apply the context-specific inquirt established by the federal Supreme Court in "Michigan v. Bryant" (131 S.Ct. 1143 (2011)) to evaluate whether an out-of-court statement…
Date: May 10, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-014
Docket Number: 31,973
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury found Defendant Graciela Guerra guilty of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of her daughter-in-law, Brenda Guerra, in an Alamogordo motel room. The district court sentenced Defendant to a mandatory term…
Date: May 7, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-013
Docket Number: 31,934
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Angel Arrendondo testified during his trial that he shot and killed Alfego "Ace" Aragon in self-defense. Defendant claimed that Aragon shot at him numerous times, wounding him once in the shoulder. Witnesses…
Date: April 13, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-012
Docket Number: 33,069
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant-Appellee the Village of Angel Fire (the Village) held an election to determine whether a public improvement district (PID) should be formed within its boundaries, after supporters of the PID petitioned the…
Date: April 12, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-011
Docket Number: 32,400
Justia Opinion Summary: Before the 2010 primary election, the Supreme Court was called upon to decide whether Appellant Dennis Montoya, a candidate for a Court of Appeals judgeship, was properly disqualified by the Secretary of State (the…
Date: March 29, 2012
Docket Number: 31,241
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Steve Tollardo was convicted by a jury of being an accessory to first-degree murder, being an accessory to kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He was acquitted of being…
Date: March 22, 2012
Docket Number: 32,776
Justia Opinion Summary: In June 2005, the New Mexico Department of Corrections (DOC) adopted an Employee DWI Policy. The DOC hired Respondent Rudy Sais in April 2006 as a Correctional Officer I. Respondent reviewed the Policy and signed a DWI…
Date: March 6, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-007
Docket Number: 32,570
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue on appeal in this case was the grandfather clause of the Public Employee Bargaining Act applied to the City of Albuquerque Labor-Management Relations Ordinance (the City Ordinance), as it pertained to the…
Date: March 5, 2012
Docket Number: 32,594
Justia Opinion Summary: Former priest of Rio Rancho St. Francis Episcopal Church Plaintiff Walter F. Smith, III brought a defamation action against St. Francis Vestry members Defendants Will Durden and William DeVries, and members of the parish…
Date: February 22, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-004
Docket Number: 32,436
Justia Opinion Summary: Dean Durand crashed his Ford Bronco into a motorcycle driven by Daniel Gutierrez, ultimately resulting in Gutierrez's death. Defendant admitted that while at the business establishment operated by Defendant Meteor…
Date: February 21, 2012
Docket Number: 33,386
Justia Opinion Summary: This issue before the Supreme Court in this case was the appointment of the New Mexico House of Representatives following the 2010 federal census. It was undisputed that the House was unconstitutionally apportioned. The…
Date: February 16, 2012
Docket Number: 33,074
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court addressed the question of what level of participation in an administrative rule-making proceeding gives a participant the right to defend that new rule in an appellate court during a subsequent appeal.…
Date: January 5, 2012
Citation: 2012-NMSC-003
Docket Number: 32,677
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Zirachuen Rivera drove through a DWI checkpoint in Bernalillo County and an officer suspected he had been drinking alcohol. Defendant showed signs of impairment on the standard field sobriety tests and was…
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