Dominguez v. Stone

638 P.2d 423, 97 N.M. 211
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 8, 1981
DocketNo. 5250
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 638 P.2d 423 (Dominguez v. Stone) 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
Dominguez v. Stone, 638 P.2d 423, 97 N.M. 211 (N.M. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

OPINION

LOPEZ, Judge.

The plaintiff appeals summary judgment granted in favor of the defendant on her complaint against the defendant for personal damages. We reverse.

The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in granting summary judgment.

We review and discuss four causes of action which constitute the basis of plaintiff’s complaint and which the trial court dismissed in its summary judgment. The four causes of action will be discussed seriatim. 1. Defamation of reputation, 2. Intentional infliction of emotional distress, 3. Violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 4. Unlawful discriminatory practices under the New Mexico Human Rights Act, § 28-1-1 et seq. N.M.S.A. 1978.

Plaintiff’s complaint had its genesis in events which occurred on or about September 16, 1980, in Grant County, New Mexico. The plaintiff is a 22 year-old Mexican National having been born in Mexico. She has been legally residing in the United States since she was 3 years of age and now is living in Grants, New Mexico. In 1976 she graduated from high school. Plaintiff was the director of the Senior Citizens Program in the Village of Central, New Mexico on September 16, 1980. Defendant Stone was a member of the Board of Trustees of Central which is its governing body. On September 16, 1980, during a public meeting of the Village Trustees and later during a closed meeting, or executive session of the Village Trustees, the defendant made certain statements concerning plaintiff which referred to her alienage and ethnicity. The statements were to the effect that plaintiff was not suited for her employment with the Village of Central because she was a Mexican. Defendant’s statements included a statement to the effect that the person performing the duties of program director of the Village of Central Senior Citizens Program should not be a Mexican, part of his reason being that the program is funded with American tax dollars. The defendant interrogated the plaintiff at the meeting concerning payment of income and property taxes and whether she possessed a green card, whether she applied for United States citizenship, and whether she had registered to vote in the United States. On September 17, 1980, the defendant personally went to the office of the Grant County clerk to determine whether plaintiff was a registered voter. He was told she was not.

DEFAMATION OF REPUTATION

The plaintiff’s complaint alleges in paragraph 13 as follows:

13. The aforesaid misconduct defamed the Plaintiff’s name and severely damaged her reputation in the community and among her employers, all to the Plaintiff’s damage in an amount to be determined at trial, which sum the Defendant should be ordered to pay to the Plaintiff as compensation.

The trial court dismissed this cause of action in its summary judgment. Our duty is to review the record to determine if there exists a genuine issue of fact which could preclude summary judgment. We attach as Appendices P and D excerpts from the depositions of plaintiff and defendant, which excerpts are pertinent to our review.

The law of defamation of reputation is well established in New Mexico. Reputation is what a person is thought to be, as distinguished from character, which is what a person is. Proper v. Mowrey, 90 N.M. 710, 568 P.2d 236 (Ct.App.1977). Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 559, states as follows:

Defamatory Communications Defined
A communication is defamatory if it tends so to harm the reputation of another as to lower him in the estimation of the community or to deter third persons from associating or dealing with him.

The question we are confronted with now is whether there is an issue of fact that any of the comments of the defendant lowered the plaintiff’s reputation in the estimation of the community, third parties, or her employers, the Board of Trustees.

The defendant contends that he had some sort of immunity to act as he did because he was a member of the Board of Trustees. We disagree. Public officials are not above the law. “The law protects only those who act reasonably and with a reasonable belief of the truth of their remarks.” Salazar v. Bjork, 85 N.M. 94, 509 P.2d 569 (Ct.App. 1973).

In defendant’s brief and on oral argument, he appears to assume without any basis in the record that plaintiff could not be subjected to defamation of reputation on grounds of discrimination or prejudice because the majority of the members of the Board of Trustees and a large portion of the population of Grant County are of Spanish or Mexican descent. He further appears to assume that all Mexican-Americans, being members of this minority group, would be inclined to act fairly toward other members of the group. Thus, he asks this court to discount the possibility of any defamation of reputation. Defendant’s assumptions about human nature fly in the face of a great deal of social science and research. Social scientists agree that members of minority groups frequently respond to discrimination and prejudice by attempting to disassociate themselves from the group, even to the point of adopting the majority negative attitudes toward the minority. Such behavior occurs with particular frequency among members of minority groups who have achieved some measure of economic or political success and thereby have gained some measure of economic or political success, and thereby have gained some acceptability among the dominant group. See concurring opinion of Justice Marshall in Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977).

There is evidence in the record from which a jury could conclude that the defendant was prejudiced against the plaintiff and that he was attempting to persuade the Board of Trustees to accept his views and attitudes towards the plaintiff. There is an issue of fact of defamation of reputation in this respect.

It is common knowledge in New Mexico that the word “Mexican” when used in circumstances similar to those in the instant case connotes prejudice and disparagement. It is also common knowledge in this State that, like defendant, many citizens of Mexican and Spanish descent also served in the armed forces, and some gave their lives for this country. Hardly an Hispanic family in New Mexico escaped the anguish of the Bataan Death March in World War II; Hispanics have served bravely in other conflicts as well.

We are not impressed with defendant’s contention that because plaintiff is an alien, she should not be employed in Grant County. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an address to the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1938, said: “Remember, remember always, that all of us, you and I especially, are descended from immigrants.”

We hold that the court erred in granting summary judgment in respect to this cause of action.

INTENTIONAL INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS

In paragraph 16 and 18 of plaintiff’s complaint she alleges:

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Bluebook (online)
638 P.2d 423, 97 N.M. 211, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dominguez-v-stone-nmctapp-1981.