Allen v. McClellan

427 P.2d 677, 77 N.M. 801
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1967
Docket8227
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 427 P.2d 677 (Allen v. McClellan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. McClellan, 427 P.2d 677, 77 N.M. 801 (N.M. 1967).

Opinion

OPINION

CARMODY, Justice.

Our opinion in the prior appeal of this case (75 N.M. 400, 405 P.2d 405) held that the New Mexico Game Commission could not include private land within a game refuge without the consent of the owner, or by acquisition in some lawful manner. Following remand, the trial court granted an injunction against the defendants and others, but dismissed the plaintiffs’ action for damages. All parties were dissatisfied, and this appeal and cross-appeal resulted.

In order to bring the entire situation into proper perspective, we note the following sequence of events:

(1) Order of New Mexico Game Commission declaring a game refuge of approximately 2,500 acres, including 12 acres of plaintiffs;
(2) Arrest of plaintiffs and guests by the named defendants for hunting on the refuge, confiscation of game, and the closing of certain access roads;
(3) Suit in Valencia County, New Mexico for injunction and for damages;
(4) Dismissal;
(5) Reversal;
(6) Order of Game Commission excluding the 12 acres from the refuge;
(7) Order of State Game Commission, establishing 1965 and 1966 hunting seasons and closing to hunting 7,000 acres in Valencia County, including plaintiffs’ 12 acres;
(8) Filing of amended complaints, one of which sought an injunction with respect to the closing order referred to in (7);
(9) Injunction;
(10) Dismissal of damage case (this poxtion of the case was concerned with the original arrest, but plaintiffs restated the allegations in their third amended complaint).

It must be emphasized that the injunction is concerned with matters occurring subsequent to our remand, and the damage action to matters preceding the prior appeal.

The injunction itself (eliminating the description) is as follows:

“INJUNCTION
“TO: Jim McClellan, James C. King, Wally Green, W. A. Humphries, and Ladd S. Gordon, Director of the New Mexico Game Commission.
“Pux'suant to mandate of the Supreme Court of the State of New Mexico, dated September 21, 1965, and the opinion handed down August 30, 1965, in this case, being case number 7681 in the Supreme Court,
“IT IS ORDERED that the defendants, Jim McClellan, James C. King, Wally Green, and W. A. Humphries; and all other persons, including Ladd S. Gordon, Director of the New Mexico Game Commission; be and they are hereby permanently enjoined from prohibiting or interfering with the plaintiffs, Renwick L. Allen and Courtney Vallentine, or any of their guests, in the use and possession of plaintiffs’ lands hereinafter described, including ingress and egress thereto and therefrom, and including hunting thereon, subject to season dates and bag limits. So much of any past or future regulation of the New Mexico Game Commission, particularly Regulation Number 463, dated September 24, 1965, which purports to close plaintiffs’ land to hunting, at a time when such hunting is open on other private land in the Central Flyway, is and shall be void insofar as the plaintiffs’ aforesaid land is concerned.

McClellan, King, Green and Humphries were all officers under appointment of the New Mexico Game Commission, and they were the defendants in the case as originally instituted, which sought both an injunction and damages. Mr. Gordon has never been a party-defendant to the case, although it would appear that his name was inadvertently included in the title of the transcript filed in the earlier appeal. So we note in passing that the injunction, purporting to prohibit not only the named defendants but “all other persons including Ladd S. Gordon, Director of the New Mexico Game Commission,” is patently erroneous. See Alemite Mfg. Corp. v. Staff (2d Cir. 1930), 42 F.2d 832, where, in the words of Judge Learned Hand, it was said:

“ * * * no court can make a decree which will bind any one but a party; * * * it cannot lawfully enjoin the world at large, no matter how broadly it words its decree. If it assumes to do so, the decree is pro tanto brutum fulmen * * % ’>

In the prior appeal, we did not consider any question of venue or jurisdiction of the trial court. This problem was but summarily argued and was only briefly mentioned in the answer and reply briefs. In any event, we do not consider our earlier failure to pass upon this question as in any sense controlling here.

The principal issue on appeal at this time is whether the district court of Valencia County was without jurisdiction to enjoin the defendants, all of whom are state officers. Sec. 21-5-1, N.M.S.A. 1953 (1965 Pocket Supp.) provides:

■“All civil actions commenced in the district courts shall be brought and shall be commenced in counties as follows, and not otherwise:
“ * * *
“G. Suits against any state officers as such shall be brought in the court of the county wherein their offices are located, at the capítol [capital] and not elsewhere.”

That the defendants are state officers is not seriously controverted. There is no question but that they are. Pollack v. Montoya, 1951, 55 N.M. 390, 234 P.2d 336; and see §§ 53-1-5, 53-2-22 and 40A-1-13, N.M.S.A.1953. Insofar as the injunction is concerned, were the defendants sued as state officers “as such?” We believe that they were. It is apparent that the whole force of the injunction is to declare void the Game Commission regulation. For the purpose of the injunction, the naming of the' individual defendants was of little purpose; they were merely agents of the Commission, whose official position required that they enforce the Commission’s order. Thus, in effect, the trial court, by the issuance of this injunction, has nullified the act of the State Game Commission. In this context, we believe that the defendants were sued “as such” in their official position relating to the performance of the statutory functions of the Game Commission. See Tudesque v. New Mexico State Board of Barber Examiners, 1958, 65 N.M. 42, 331 P.2d 1104. Statutes which prescribe venue for suits against state officers, for acts done by virtue of thier office, control suits for acts done by them while purporting to act within the scope of authority or official capacity. See Annot. 48 A.L.R.2d 423, 433. These same rules apply to suits for injunction against such officers. State ex rel. State Bd. of Ed. v.

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Bluebook (online)
427 P.2d 677, 77 N.M. 801, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-mcclellan-nm-1967.