Pacheco v. Martinez

636 P.2d 308, 97 N.M. 37
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 20, 1981
Docket4910
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 636 P.2d 308 (Pacheco v. Martinez) 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
Pacheco v. Martinez, 636 P.2d 308, 97 N.M. 37 (N.M. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

OPINION

DONNELLY, Judge.

Plaintiffs filed suit against defendants Solomon Martinez and Engelbert Bauer, for alleged trespass upon lands in Mora County, New Mexico. Plaintiffs sought damages from defendants for allegedly entering and cutting timber upon plaintiffs’ lands, and requested the court to enjoin defendants from entering upon such lands or interfering with such lands being surveyed. The defendants each filed separate answers denying that plaintiffs in fact owned the lands where the timber was cut. They asserted respective counterclaims against plaintiffs, claiming defendants held title to the disputed property and seeking damages for the unlawful entry of restraining orders against defendants.

From a judgment entered by the trial court adjudicating plaintiffs to be owners in fee simple of three tracts claimed by them and permanently enjoining the defendants from entering thereon, defendant Solomon P. Martinez appeals. The defendant Bauer has not joined in this appeal.

The defendant has raised eight separate claims of error. We need only discuss a) the propriety of the trial court’s entering a judgment that in effect quieted title to the disputed lands of plaintiffs, as between the parties, when plaintiffs only sought damages in trespass and injunctive relief; and b) sufficiency of evidence to support the judgment.

I. Propriety of Relief Granted:

Under the first point relied upon for reversal, defendant asserts that the trial court erred in relief granted. Specifically, defendant contends that plaintiffs’ complaint stated a cause of action in trespass, but the court by its final judgment in effect improperly entered a decree quieting title to the lands.

The trial court bifurcated the trial on the issues. It first heard evidence concerning ownership of three tracts of land claimed by plaintiffs, reserving the question as to what, if any, damages had resulted from the claimed acts of trespass. The principle issues contested at the first hearing were the proper location of the boundary lines surrounding plaintiffs’ properties, and the question of which party had proper title to the lands upon which the alleged trespasses occurred.

The court received in evidence three separate deeds under which plaintiffs claimed title to the property in question, survey plats, photos, and heard the testimony of Thomas Klinnehager and Henry Biseman, land surveyors, testimony of the parties and other witnesses.

At the conclusion of the first phase of the trial, the judge requested proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. Thereafter, the court entered a written decision finding that plaintiffs and defendant Solomon Martinez each acquired their titles from a common source, and that upon the death of Tiburcio Martinez, Sr., the common predecessor in title to the parties, his surviving children partitioned the lands owned by their father by execution and delivery of deeds among themselves dividing the properties. The court found that plaintiff, Fermín Pacheco, subsequently acquired the interest of three of the partitioners, that the three tracts acquired by him existed side by side, and when platted constituted a tract of land 100 yards in width, extending from an orchard wall on the north, to lands of the Quintana brothers on the south, and running parallel and contiguous on the west to the tract owned by defendant Martinez. The court concluded that it should retain jurisdiction to determine the issues of claimed damages for the acts of trespass, if any, following the making of a survey of the line dividing the Martinez and Pacheco tracts.

Apparently the court contemplated that the parties would prepare a survey showing the location of the plaintiffs’ and defendants’ boundary lines, pinpointing the location of timber allegedly cut, and revealing upon whose property such timber was actually taken.

In accordance with the court’s instruction, the parties hired Mr. Klinnehager, a land surveyor, to plat the tracts of land claimed by plaintiffs and defendant Martinez, and to determine their common boundary line.

After the surveying of the properties, the remaining issues were brought to trial on September 2, 1980. After an evidentiary hearing, plaintiffs withdrew their claims for damages. The court entered judgment decreeing that plaintiffs held fee simple title to the real estate described in the court’s judgment, and ordered that defendants, and anyone claiming under them, had no right, title or interest in the real estate of the plaintiffs. The court permanently enjoined defendants from further trespass upon such property and directed that plaintiffs recover no damages or costs because such claims were withdrawn.

In light of defendant’s assertion that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate title to disputed property and to permanently enjoin the defendants from entering thereon, we look initially to the issue of whether such relief can properly be granted under the theories relied upon by plaintiffs in their complaint.

The trial court in its judgment decreed:

Plaintiffs are the owners in fee simple .. . and the defendants, and anyone claiming under them, have no right, title or interest in and to said real estate. . . (Emphasis supplied).

A “fee simple” is a present, possessory estate in land of indefinite duration that is freely alienable, devisable, and heritable; the words mean absolute title, wholly unqualified by reversion, reservation, condition or limitation, or possibility of any such thing precedent or subsequent, present or future. 4 G. Thompson, Real Property § 1856 at 412 (Repl.1979).

The gist of an action of trespass to real property is in tort for the alleged injury to the right of possession. John Price Associates, Inc. v. Utah State Conference, Brick Layers Locals Nos. 1, 2 & 6, 615 P.2d 1210 (Utah 1980); Chournos v. Alkema, 27 Utah 2d 244, 494 P.2d 950 (1972). To maintain such action, the plaintiff must have been in actual or constructive possession of the land at the time of the alleged trespass. Harrington v. Chavez, 27 N.M. 67, 196 P. 320 (1921); John Price Associates, Inc. v. Utah State Conference, Brick Layers Locals Nos. 1, 2 & 6, supra; and Chournos v. Alkema, supra; see, Garver v. Public Service Company of New Mexico, 77 N.M. 262, 421 P.2d 788 (1966).

Ordinarily an action of trespass will not lie to obtain possession of lands not already in the possession of a party, and the remedy for trespass is in damages. See, Pueblo of Sandia ex rel. Chaves v. Smith, 497 F.2d 1043 (10th Cir. 1974); Thompson v. Fahey, 94 N.M. 35, 607 P.2d 122 (1980); Garver v. Public Service Company of New Mexico, supra; G & A Contractors, Inc. v. Alaska Greenhouses, Inc., 517 P.2d 1379 (Alaska 1974); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 162 (1965); W. Prosser, Torts § 13, at 66, 68-69, 75 (4th Ed. 1971). Trespass is an action in personam and not in rem. G. W. Bull Co.

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

Related

Kaywal, Inc. v. Avangrid Renewables, Inc.
2021 NMCA 037 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2019)
Martinez v. Munoz
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2016
Jones v. Augé
2015 NMCA 016 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2015)
Yaryan-Parks Trust v. Martinez (In re Martinez)
476 B.R. 627 (D. New Mexico, 2012)
Kerns v. Board of Com'rs of Bernalillo County
707 F. Supp. 2d 1190 (D. New Mexico, 2010)
McNeill v. Rice Engineering & Operating, Inc.
2010 NMSC 015 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2010)
W McNeill v. Rice Engineering
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2009
In Re Crowder
374 B.R. 861 (D. New Mexico, 2007)
New Mexico v. General Electric Co.
335 F. Supp. 2d 1185 (D. New Mexico, 2004)
Garcia v. Herrera
1998 NMCA 066 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1998)
Winrock Inn Co. v. Prudential Insurance Co. of America
928 P.2d 947 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1996)
Townsend v. State Ex Rel. State Highway Department
871 P.2d 958 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1994)
Board of County Commissioners v. Ogden
870 P.2d 143 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1994)
Cunningham v. Otero County Electric Cooperative, Inc.
845 P.2d 833 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
636 P.2d 308, 97 N.M. 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pacheco-v-martinez-nmctapp-1981.