Archuleta v. Jacquez

704 P.2d 1130, 103 N.M. 254
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 18, 1985
Docket7797
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 704 P.2d 1130 (Archuleta v. Jacquez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Archuleta v. Jacquez, 704 P.2d 1130, 103 N.M. 254 (N.M. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION

ALARID, Judge.

This case was commenced by plaintiffs on August 22, 1980 with a complaint for property damage and injunction consisting of three causes of action. Defendants filed a First Amended Counterclaim on August 24, 1983, which also contained three causes of action. Judgment was entered in the district court of San Juan County, New Mexico, on February 27, 1983, following trial without a jury, on September 2, 1983. The judgment awarded plaintiffs $5,963.00 for crop damage from 1978 through September 2, 1983, jointly and severally against defendants. The judgment also granted a permanent injunction against all defendants, except Max Jacquez, enjoining them from allowing their irrigation tail waters, or other idle waters under their control, from coming onto the property of plaintiffs. It denied all of defendants’ claims, allowed plaintiffs their costs and provided that the judgment would bear interest at the statutory rate of 15% per annum.

Defendants filed Notice of Appeal March 20, 1984 and plaintiffs filed Notice of Cross-Appeal April 4, 1984.

In affirming the trial court’s judgment on five of the six issues raised on appeal, we will consider the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law but not plaintiffs’ proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law submitted after the notice of appeal. Although the trial court filed its decision containing its findings of fact and conclusions of law after entry of judgment and the filing of defendants’ notice of appeal, the parties seem to agree that remand is not required in this case. See Brown v. Hayes, 69 N.M. 24, 363 P.2d 632 (1961); Hester v. Hester, 100 N.M. 773, 676 P.2d 1338 (Ct.App.1984). The case will be remanded, however, for correction of the statutory rate of interest to reflect the rate in effect at the time this lawsuit was filed. The cross-appeal will be dismissed.

FACTS

This case involves a dispute between Milton and Lucy Archuleta, plaintiffs, and Max, Marcella, Diolinda and Jose Vincente Jacquez, defendants, concerning water damage to plaintiffs’ crops which allegedly occurred as a result of the drainage of water from defendants’ adjoining land. Plaintiffs claimed monetary damages for crop losses suffered from 1978 through 1983, alleging that water from defendants’ drain pipe spilled onto plaintiffs’ land destroying beans and other crops and basically turning the land into a swamp. Plaintiffs claim that complaints and objections to this conduct were made over several years and that defendants refused to refrain from the objectionable conduct. Additional facts will be discussed as the issues raised on appeal are discussed individually in the body of this opinion.

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN HOLDING THAT THE DEFENDANTS DID NOT HAVE A STATUTORY PRESCRIPTIVE EASEMENT PURSUANT TO NMSA 1978, SECTION 73-2-5, TO USE THE DRAIN PIPE AND/OR DRAIN DITCH FROM DEFENDANTS’ LANDS ONTO PLAINTIFFS’ LANDS.

Defendants in this case are claiming a statutory right to use plaintiffs’ drain ditch and drain pipe under the provisions of Section 73-2-5, which provides:

Hereafter in all cases where there has been a continuous use of a ditch for the purposes of irrigation, for five years, it shall be conclusively presumed as between the parties, that a grant has been made by the owners of the land, upon which such ditch is located, for the use of the same; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the owner of a servient estate from making any alterations, or changes in the location, of any ditch upon his land, so long as such alteration or change of location shall not interfere with the use of such ditch by the owner, or owners, of the dominant estate or estates.

Plaintiffs argued successfully at trial, and on appeal, that the quoted statute did not apply, and even if it did, defendants failed to meet its requirements. After a review of the record in this case, we have concluded that the trial court was correct in its ruling and that plaintiffs were entitled to recover on their claims. The evidence at trial is clear that the ditch and drain in question were used solely for the purpose of drainage and were not used for irrigation, and thus, do not come within the terms of the statute. We can presume that the legislature could have included ditch uses other than irrigation in the statutes had it chosen to do so. Having failed to so expand the rights given under the statute, this court will not do judicially what the legislature has failed to do. Munro v. City of Albuquerque, 48 N.M. 306, 150 P.2d 733 (1943); Patterson v. Globe American Casualty Co., 101 N.M. 541, 685 P.2d 396 (Ct.App.1984). There is also evidence in the record that even if the statute covered this drain, the defendants abandoned the drain system during the period required for an easement. The evidence further shows that the defendants were clearly informed that their use of the drain system was opposed to plaintiffs’ desires, and that defendants’ use was damaging plaintiffs’ property.

II. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN NOT HOLDING THAT DEFENDANTS HAD ESTABLISHED AN EASEMENT BY PRESCRIPTION FOR DRAINAGE THROUGH THE DRAIN PIPE AND/OR DITCH FROM DEFENDANTS’ LANDS ONTO PLAINTIFFS’ LAND BY USE FOR MORE THAN TEN YEARS.

In raising this issue, defendants argue that an easement exists through adverse possession. New Mexico has long recognized the existence of an easement by means of adverse possession and has established the means by which it can be established. Hester v. Sawyers, 41 N.M. 497, 71 P.2d 646 (1937). In Hester, the Supreme Court stated:

The period for acquiring an easement in land corresponds to the local statute of limitation as to land. It would be irrational to hold that an easement may not be acquired by the same lapse of time required to confer title to the land by adverse possession. The period of limitation for the bringing of actions to recover the possession of land is generally adopted as the period for perfecting easements by prescription. This rule is based upon the assumption that if there had been no grant, the owner would have put an end to the wrongful occupation before the full period of limitation had expired. And while it is often said that from such user a grant will be presumed, the presumption in effect amounts to a positive rule of law, and evidence that no grant was made would not be material. (Citation omitted)

Id. at 502, 71 P.2d 646.

Defendants, in this case, enumerate the requirements for a prescriptive easement. They correctly assert that usage must be “open, uninterrupted, peaceable, notorious, adverse, under claim of right and continu[ous]”. The failure of defendants’ claim comes not because they misunderstand the law but because the evidence presented at trial does not support their claim to coverage by the rule.

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704 P.2d 1130, 103 N.M. 254, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/archuleta-v-jacquez-nmctapp-1985.