Cox v. Hanlen

1998 NMCA 015, 953 P.2d 294, 124 N.M. 529
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 10, 1997
Docket17594
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1998 NMCA 015 (Cox v. Hanlen) 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
Cox v. Hanlen, 1998 NMCA 015, 953 P.2d 294, 124 N.M. 529 (N.M. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

WECHSLER, Judge.

1. In this dispute between adjoining property owners concerning an irrigation ditch, Defendants, Karen and Curtis Hanlen (Hanlens), appeal from the district court’s judgment and order which recognized an irrigation ditch easement in favor of Plaintiffs, James L. and Intha N. Cox and Richard L. and Peggy L. Cox (all of whom are referred to as the Cox family) through the Hanlens’ property. In addition, the district court required the Hanlens to take various actions to cease interfering with the Cox family’s use of the ditch. We address, among other issues, whether the alterations which the Hanlens made to the ditch affect the rights of the Cox family under NMSA 1978, Section 73-2-5 (1933, as amended in 1941). We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I. Factual Background

2. Under a share-lease program operated by the Farm Security Administration, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture, Newt H. and Mary Cox, the parents of James L. Cox, farmed a large tract of real property located in Bosque Farms beginning sometime in the 1930s. They acquired the property from the United States on January 1, 1944. The property currently consists of the property of Richard L. Cox and Peggy L. Cox, the property of James L. Cox and Intha N. Cox (both properties referred to herein as the “Cox farm”), and Mary Acres, a subdivision created by Newt H. and Mary Cox in the mid 1960s. The Hanlens purchased Lot 1 Unit 1 in Mary Acres in June 1994.

3. The Cox farm and Mary Acres share a common boundary; the Cox farm on the north and the subdivision on the south. An irrigation ditch runs along the north boundary of Mary Acres to irrigate a portion of the Cox farm. That portion of the Cox farm is owned in part by James and Intha Cox and in part by Richard and Peggy Cox. The ditch ends within the Hanlens’ lot where water is released to the Cox farm.

4. The ditch is fenced on the north by the Cox farm. To the south, until early 1995, the Hanlens and the other lot owners in Mary Acres abutting the ditch built their own fences at least ten feet south of the Cox farm boundary fence as shown on the David Tibbetts survey of May 8, 1995. After the Hanlens acquired their property, they made certain modifications to the ditch and the surrounding area. First, they built a new pipe fence on the south berm of the ditch to the north of the then existing fence, narrowing the lane for the ditch on their property. Later, while this case was pending in district court, the Hanlens placed culverts and water gates in the ditch and disturbed the south berm of the ditch.

II. The Ditch Easement of Section 73-2-5

5. An easement is “a liberty, privilege, right, or advantage which one has in the land of another.” Kennedy v. Bond, 80 N.M. 734, 736, 460 P.2d 809, 811 (1969). In an irrigation ditch easement, the ditch structure, the property of the servient estate, is used to flow water for the benefit of the owner of the easement rather than for the ditch property owner’s interests. See Olson v. H & B Properties, Inc., 118 N.M. 495, 498, 882 P.2d 536, 539 (1994) (ditch easement consists of right of dominant estate for water flow through ditch structure which is property of and located on servient estate); Posey v. Dove, 57 N.M. 200, 212-13, 257 P.2d 541, 549 (1953). As a result, a natural tension exists concerning the degree to which the dominant owner may utilize the servient estate.

6. The purpose of Section 73-2-5 is to reduce this tension. As originally adopted in 1933, Section 73-2-5 provided:

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.

1933 N.M.Laws, ch. 65, § 1. The following provision permitting the owner of a servient estate to make alterations or changes was added by amendment in 1941:

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.

1941 N.M.Laws, ch. 155, § 1.

7. The original 1933 enactment creates a conclusive presumption of an easement as the result of five years of continuous use of a ditch for irrigation purposes. With the 1941 amendment, Section 73-2-5 permits the landowner to use the ditch land so long as the landowner’s use does not interfere with the dominant estate’s use of the ditch.

A. Applicability of the Original 1933 Language of Section 73-2-5

8. The district court found that the ditch is part of the original irrigation system of the original settlement of Bosque Farms and has existed and been in continuous use since the 1930s. It applied the original 1933 language of Section 73-2-5 to conclude that the Hardens, as servient estate owners, had no right to make any alterations whatsoever to the ditch because the ditch was established prior to the 1941 amendment. We do not agree with this statutory interpretation.

9. When construing a statute, this Court will read the statute as a whole, construing each part in connection with the other parts to give effect to all provisions of the statute in a consistent manner. See State v. Sinyard, 100 N.M. 694, 696-97, 675 P.2d 426, 428-29 (Ct.App.1983). Under the 1933 provision, when a ditch has been used continuously for irrigation for five years, it is conclusively presumed that the owners of the ditch land have granted the land for the ditch use. However, the provision establishes this conclusive presumption “as between the parties.” In the case on appeal, during the 1930s, and until 1964, when the Mary Acres Subdivision was created, the Cox family owned or had possession of all the real property in question including the ditch; there were no other persons with ownership or rights to exert with respect to the ditch.

10. The intent of the 1933 statute, which was carried into the 1941 amendment, was to limit disputes between dominant and servient ditch easement estates. If the owner of the ditch land had for five years permitted the continuous use of the land for the purposes of a ditch, the landowner of the servient estate could not be heard to complain that the landowner’s land could not be used for the ditch. To give effect to this legislative intent, and to the clause “as between the parties,” the five-year term of Section 73-2-5 must be applied after the creation of a relationship between parties with different rights to a ditch rather than the creation of the ditch itself.

11. Archibeck v. Mongiello, 58 N.M.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gallegos v. Tow
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2022
Rio Grande Credit Union v. City of Albuquerque
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2019
Southwest Lending v. Recorp.
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2018
Burciaga Segura v. Van Dien
2015 NMCA 017 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2015)
Segura v. Van Dien
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2014
Dethlefsen v. Weddle
2012 NMCA 77 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2012)
Gallegos v. Trujillo
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2009
Kysar v. Amoco Production Co.
2004 NMSC 025 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2004)
Sanchez v. Saylor
13 P.3d 960 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2000)
Pinnell v. Board of County Commissioners
1999 NMCA 074 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1999)
Central Security & Alarm Co. v. Mehler
1998 NMCA 096 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1998)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1998 NMCA 015, 953 P.2d 294, 124 N.M. 529, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cox-v-hanlen-nmctapp-1997.