Holcomb v. Rodriguez

2016 NMCA 075, 10 N.M. 390
New Mexico Court of Appeals·Decided June 16, 2016·No. S-1-SC-35998; Docket 33,481·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

OPINION

HANISEE, Judge.

{1} A jury found in favor of W.J. and Sharon Holcomb (Plaintiffs) on their trespass claims against Avedon Rodriguez and Theresa Martinez (Defendants). Defendants appeal, raising six claims of error. Plaintiffs cross-appeal the district court’s refusal to set Plaintiffs’ award of post-judgment interest at a rate of 15 percent per annum. We reject all of Defendants’ arguments and agree with Plaintiffs that the district court abused its discretion by refusing to award post-judgment interest in the amount required by statute. We therefore reverse and remand with instructions to modify the rate of post-judgment interest, but leave the district court’s judgment undisturbed in all other respects.

BACKGROUND

{2} Plaintiffs own land that lies directly adjacent to Defendants’ land to the north. A wash runs southwest across Plaintiffs’ western tract, crossing Defendants’ land before emptying into the nearby San Juan River. Plaintiffs erected a fence running east to west along their driveway. The fence starts near Plaintiffs’ house on the far western end of their property and ends where the wash crosses onto Defendants’ property.

{3} In No vember 2008, D efendant Ro driguez hired Lucas Lucero to channel the wash with earthmoving equipment. Lucero used the equipment to create berms that narrowed and deepened the wash. Without Plaintiffs’ permission, Lucero channeled portions of the wash on Plaintiffs’ property near their driveway and performed other earthwork on the far eastern boundary of Plaintiffs’ land.

{4} On February 5, 2009, Plaintiffs filed a complaint against Defendants seeking injunctive relief and damages arising from claims for common law trespass and violations of criminal trespass under NMSA 1978, Section 30-14-1 (D) (1995). 1 Defendants answered and counterclaimed against Plaintiffs for trespass, criminal trespass, and to quiet title against Plaintiffs based on allegations that Plaintiffs had cleared vegetation and constructed a fence on Defendants’ property. In June 2009, Plaintiffs hired a civil engineer to evaluate the potential for flooding as a result of Lucero’s channel work. The civil engineer concluded that in the event of flooding, Lucero’s modifications to the channel would cause the banks of the wash that supported Plaintiffs’ driveway to erode. In 2010 flooding from rain storms caused significant erosion of the channel banks supporting a portion of Plaintiffs’ driveway. As a result, Plaintiffs hired a professional design firm and a contractor to stabilize the banks of the channel and to install diversion screens to prevent further flood damage.

{5} The district court held a jury trial from April 2 through April 5, 2013. At the close of Defendants’ case, Plaintiffs orally moved for a directed verdict on Defendants’ counterclaims for trespass, arguing that both entry and damages were necessary elements of a claim for trespass and that Defendants had not offered any evidence that could support a finding in Defendants’ favor on either element.

{6} Defendants responded that the jury could find that Plaintiffs had entered Defendants’ property based on the testimony of a surveyor and the results of a survey he performed that showed that Plaintiffs’ fence was built on Defendants’ property. As to damages, Defendants conceded that they had presented no evidence that would allow a jury to fix a dollar amount on the cost of removing and restoring damage to their property caused by the fence, but that photographic evidence showing that Plaintiffs had removed vegetation from Defendants’ land while installing the fence was sufficient to submit the trespass claim to the jury for a determination of liability and damages.

{7} The district court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for a directed verdict on Defendants’ counterclaims for trespass, agreeing with Plaintiffs that Defendants had failed to prove that Plaintiffs’ alleged trespass had caused Defendants to suffer any damages. The jury then returned a verdict in Plaintiffs’ favor on their common law trespass claim and awarded damages of $33,506.40. 2 The parties submitted post-trial briefs on Defendants’ counterclaim to quiet title to the boundary between the parties’ properties, after which the district court ruled in Plaintiffs’ favor and found that the boundary between the parties’ properties was that described in a survey performed by a surveyor hired by Plaintiffs. The district court entered a final judgment against Defendants, awarding Plaintiffs $33,506.40 and quieting title to the boundary line between the parties’ properties.

{8} Defendants appeal the district court’s judgment, raising the following six claims of error:

1. The jury, not the district court, should have fixed the boundary between Plaintiffs’ and Defendants’ land;
2. The district court erred in granting a directed verdict on Defendants’ counterclaims for trespass against Plaintiffs;
3. The district court should have submitted a jury instruction modeled after NMSA 1978, Section 30-14-6 (1979) on Plaintiffs’ trespass claims;
4. There was insufficient evidence of damages to support the jury’s verdict against Defendants on Plaintiffs’ trespass claims;
5. The district court abused its discretion by awarding prejudgment interest to Plaintiffs; and
6. The district court lacked jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ trespass claims because Defendants enjoyed a prescriptive easement over the area of the alleged trespass.

{9} Plaintiffs cross-appeal the rate at which the district court awarded post-judgment interest, arguing that 15 percent, rather than 8.75 percent, is the required rate under NMSA 1978, Section 56-8-4(A)(2) (2004), which applies to judgments awarding damages caused by tortious conduct.

DISCUSSION

1. The District Court Did Not Err in Adjudicating the North-South Boundary Between the Parties’ Properties

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Holcomb v. Rodriguez, 2016 NMCA 075, 10 N.M. 390 (N.M. Ct. App. 2016).

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