Erwin v. City of Santa Fe

855 P.2d 1060, 115 N.M. 596
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 21, 1993
Docket13620
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 855 P.2d 1060 (Erwin v. City of Santa Fe) 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
Erwin v. City of Santa Fe, 855 P.2d 1060, 115 N.M. 596 (N.M. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinions

OPINION

BLACK, Judge.

Defendant City of Santa Fe (“the City”) brings this interlocutory appeal from the district court’s denial of the City’s motion for summary judgment. On July 12, 1990, fourteen-year-old Albert Erwin was hit by a car while riding his bicycle; on March 5, 1991, Plaintiffs, Albert and his father, Ralph Erwin, brought suit against the City on a theory of negligent maintenance and inspection of the street where the accident occurred. The Tort Claims Act requires notice of a claim to the governmental entity involved within ninety days of the occurrence. NMSA 1978, § 41-4-16 (Repl.Pamp.1989). The City received notice 125 days after the accident. The district court dismissed the father’s claim because of the late notice, but denied the City’s motion for summary judgment against the child on the ground that the time limitation of Section 41-4-16 was tolled because Albert was a minor. The City filed a motion seeking interlocutory review of the denial of its motion for summary judgment against the child. We find the present record raises questions of material fact as to the City’s motion and affirm.

SECTION 41-4-16 DOES NOT VIOLATE DUE PROCESS ON ITS FACE

Plaintiffs’ action against the City is governed by the New Mexico Tort Claims Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 41-4-1 to -27 (Repl.Pamp.1989 & Cum.Supp.1992) (the Act). The public policy of New Mexico is that a governmental entity, which includes the City, shall only be liable within the limitations of the Act. Section 41-4-2(A); § 41-4-3(B), (C); see Cole v. City of Las Cruces, 99 N.M. 302, 305, 657 P.2d 629, 632 (1983) (a city is a governmental entity under the Act).

Section 41-4-16(A) provides:

Every person who claims damages from the state or any local public body under the Tort Claims Act [41-4-1 to 41-4-27 NMSA 1978] shall cause to be presented ... within ninety days after an occurrence giving rise to a claim for which immunity has been waived under the Tort Claims Act, a written notice stating the time, place and circumstances of the loss or injury.

Appellee argues Tafoya v. Doe, 100 N.M. 328, 670 P.2d 582 (Ct.App.), cert. quashed, 100 N.M. 327, 670 P.2d 581 (1983), “held that application of the ninety (90) day notice requirement of the New Mexico Tort Claim Act to a child ‘is unreasonable and violates due process.’ ” We think this reads Tafoya too broadly. A statute may violate due process on its face, or as applied to a particular litigant. New Mexico State Racing Comm’n v. Yoakum, 113 N.M. 561, 829 P.2d 7 (Ct.App.1991), cert, denied, 113 N.M. 352, 826 P.2d 573 (1992). A statute which is facially constitutional may, then, be unconstitutional as applied. Id.; Jirón v. Mahlab, 99 N.M. 425, 426, 659 P.2d 311, 312 (1983).

The application of the notice requirements of the Act has been challenged on due process grounds and we have held the application of the Act to be both constitutional and unconstitutional, depending on the facts presented. In Ferguson v. New Mexico State Highway Comm’n, 99 N.M. 194, 656 P.2d 244 (Ct.App.1982), cert. denied, 99 N.M. 226, 656 P.2d 889 (1983), the plaintiffs argued the notice requirements of Section 41-4-16 violated due process both on the face of the statute and as applied to them. Speaking for this Court, Chief Judge Walters considered the facts relevant, to whether the notice provisions of the Act, as applied to incapacitated or deceased victims, violated due process:

Appellants contend that the period of giving notice denies an incapacitated victim due process of law. Here, however, Schlueter and the David Chavez Estate had retained counsel before the six-month limit for giving notice had run. There is no showing that counsel, acting on their behalf, could not have given notice within the time provided by the statute. Without a showing that notice could not be given within the statutory period, plaintiffs necessarily urge that the additional time for notice to be given on behalf of an incapacitated person or on behalf of the estate of a deceased violates due process as a matter of law. Our answer to this contention is the same as our answer to the following issue.

Ferguson, 99 N.M. at 196, 656 P.2d at 246. Chief Judge Walters then rejected the argument that the ninety-day notice limitation was unreasonably short per se, and concluded, “The notice provisions of the Act are not unconstitutional on either ground urged by plaintiff.” Id. at 197, 656 P.2d at 247.

In Tafoya, this Court was called upon to determine whether the ninety-day notice requirement violated due process guarantees when applied to a different set of facts. In that case, the plaintiff mother received a transfusion of Rh positive blood at Carrie Tingley Hospital in March 1972. Tafoya, 100 N.M. at 330, 670 P.2d at 584. It was undisputed the mother was in fact Rh negative. After she became pregnant, her physician discovered the Rh sensitization in her blood and alerted her to the likelihood of a blood immunization problem in the child. Id. In August 1979, the baby was born with a severely involved blood immunization condition which required numerous transfusions. Id. This Court, again speaking through Chief Judge Walters, found there was a fact question sufficient to preclude summary judgment as to when the mother knew she was injured and thus when she had a duty to give notice of her tort claim to Carrie Tingley. Chief Judge Walters analyzed how the notice requirement of Section 41-4-16 would apply to the infant:

It cannot be doubted that the baby in this case, from the date of her birth until she was a mere eleven months old, was infinitely less able to comply with the statutory 90-day notice requirement of § 41-4-16 than were any of the minor plaintiffs in the above cited cases, or those in McCrary v. City of Odessa, 482 S.W.2d 151 (Tex.1972); Turner v. Staggs, 89 Nev. 230, 510 P.2d 879 (1973); City of Barnesville v. Powell, 124 Ga. App. 132, 183 S.E.2d 55 (1971); Lazich v. Belanger, 111 Mont. 48, 105 P.2d 738 (1940). All of these cases reflect the view that one unable to comply with a notice requirement by reason of minority is protected by the reasonableness requirements of the common law, the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, or similar provisions in their state constitutions.
... There is nothing suggesting the baby was incapacitated from giving notice by reason of injury, § 41-4-16(B); thus the baby was required to give notice under § 41-4-16(A) within 90 days after the occurrence giving rise to the baby’s claim. In this case, the claim arose when the baby was born, and the baby was required to give notice not later than the 91st day of her life.

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Erwin v. City of Santa Fe
855 P.2d 1060 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1993)

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855 P.2d 1060, 115 N.M. 596, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/erwin-v-city-of-santa-fe-nmctapp-1993.