Sears v. Board of Trust. of Anton Chico Land Grant

492 P.2d 643, 83 N.M. 372
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 27, 1971
Docket9274
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 492 P.2d 643 (Sears v. Board of Trust. of Anton Chico Land Grant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sears v. Board of Trust. of Anton Chico Land Grant, 492 P.2d 643, 83 N.M. 372 (N.M. 1971).

Opinion

OPINION

OMAN, Justice.

Plaintiffs filed suit to quiet title to a certain tract of land situate within the Spiess and Davis Subdivision of the Anton Chico Land Grant. The named defendants were the Board-of Trustees of the Anton Chico Land Grant and others. Of these, only the ■Board has appealed. A group of residents and claimants of the Grant petitioned for leave to intervene, but their petition was denied.

This appeal is by the Board from the Judgment and Decree quieting title in plaintiffs and from the refusal of the trial court to vacate the Board’s default or grant a new trial, and by those who sought to intervene (hereinafter called Intervenors) from the denial of their petition to intervene and from the Judgment and Decree quieting title in plaintiffs. We affirm.-

The findings of the trial court pertinent to a disposition of this appeal, which are not directly attacked, and, therefore, are conclusive and binding on this court [Springer Corporation v. American Leasing Company, 80 N.M. 609, 459 P.2d 135 (1969)] are as follows:

(A) Findings made in connection with the denial of the Petition in Intervention:

“1. The Anton Chico Land Grant is a pueblo or community land grant to the inhabitants of Anton Chico.
“2. That the petition to the Surveyor General of the United States for a survey and confirmation of the Anton Chico Grant was made by the inhabitants of Anton Chico, New Mexico.
“3. That the Territorial Legislature of New Mexico, by Chapter 42 of the Session Laws of 1907, (Now Chapter 8-Article 1, New Mexico Statutes 1953 Annotated) placed the management of all grants in New Mexico, made by the Governments of Spain or Mexico to any community, town, colony or pueblo or to any individual for the purpose of founding or establishing any community, town, colony or pueblo in a Board of Trustees composed of five members or persons residing within the limits of such Grant and who have an interest in' the common lands and further provided for their election and tenure.
“4. That a Board of Trustees' was elected by the residents of the Anton Chico Land Grant pursuant to Chapter 42 of the laws of 1907, at an election held on the first Monday of May,- 1907, and said grant has been managed under a board of trustees ever since and such board has also continued to act under the provisions of said act until the present time..
"5. That the said Board of Trustees of the Anton Chico Grant is a defendant in this cause and has -filed an answer herein.
“6. That notwithstanding, that the petition to intervene was not timely filed, the court deeming the controversy of .importance considered the matter on its merits.”

(B) A summary of additional pertinent findings made in connection with the entry of the Judgment and Decree quieting title:

1. A patent to the lands comprising the community land was issued by the United States of America to the Town of Anton Chico in 1883, and the nature of this grant has been adjudicated in Reilly v. Shipman, 266 F. 852 (8th Cir. 1920), and Board of Trustees etc. v. Brown, et al., 33 N.M. 398, 269 P. 51 (1928).

2: In Cause No. 98 in the District Court of Guadalupe County (which became Cause No. 2062 on appeal in this court) title to the Grant lands was quieted in the Town, excepting a portion thereof which conflicted with another grant. A decree was entered by this court in the appeal proceedings on May 15, 1918, whereby Charles A. Spiess and S. B. Davis, Jr. were declared to be the owners of cei-tain -Grant lands which have since been known as the Spiess and Davis tract.

3. Thereafter, in Cause No. 2164 in the District Court of Guadalupe County, filed April 18, 1930, the title'to all the-lands in the Spiess and Davis tract was quieted in the plaintiffs.named in said cause. In that cause the Board and the officers and individual members thereof were made parties defendant and were personally served with process, but no appearance was entered by .or on behalf of the Board and .the plaintiffs’ title to the lands was.not-contested.

4. • Thereafter a portion of the Spiess and Davis tract was subdivided, and this subdivision is known as “Unit No. 1 of the Spiess and Davis Tract of the Anton Chico Land Grant.” Thereafter the title to a portion of the lands contained in said Unit No. 1 was quieted in Robert H. Wellborn by the District Court of Guadalupe County in Cause No. 2776 on the docket of that court. In that cause the officers and the individual members of the Board of the Grant were made parties defendant, were duly served with process and were represented by an attorney, who approved the decree quieting the title in the said Robert H. Wellborn.

5. Thereafter Robert H. Wellborn and wife conveyed a portion of the lands here 'in 'question to Alex Sears and wife and C. F. Sears and wife, who in turn conveyed to Arthur Sears, one of the plaintiffs herein. Arthur Sears also acquired additional tracts in Unit No. 1 from the Treasurer of Guadalupe County and from the New Mexico State Tax Commission.

6. Plaintiffs in the present suit had been in the actual, exclusive and visible possession of all the lands here in question for ■more than ten years next preceding the filing of their complaint. This possession on their part was continuous, in good faith, under color of title, inconsistent with, and hostile to the claims of all others. During all this period plaintiffs paid all State and County taxes levied and assessed against the lands, and no claim by suit at law or in equity was asserted against plaintiffs’ claims to the lands at any time during the said ten years.

7. The Board was represented by an attorney in the present suit and filed an answer denying plaintiffs’ title to the lands. On February 9, 1970, notice was given by the Clerk of the Court to the attorney that March 4, 1970 at 10:00 o’clock a. m., at Santa Rosa, New Mexico, had been fixed as the time and place for hearing of the .cause on its merits. Pursuant to this notice the attorney caused to be issued subpoenas for 31 witnesses commanding them ,to be present and testify on behalf of the Board. The cause was called for trial -promptly at 10 :00 o’clock a. m. on March 4, 1970 in the courtroom of the Guadalupe County Courthouse at Santa Rosa. The attorney for the Board was not present, so the court instructed the clerk to ascertain from the attorney’s office in Las Vegas the whereabouts of the attorney. The clerk complied and reported to the court that the attorney was on his way from Las Vegas to Santa Rosa for the trial and would be in the courtroom before 11:00 o’clock a. m. The court thereupon recessed until 11:00 o’clock a. m. At 11:15 o’clock a. m. the attorney had still not arrived, so the court proceeded and directed plaintiffs to begin the presentation of their case. At 12:15 o’clock p. m. plaintiffs had completed their case and the attorney still had not arrived. Thereupon the court adjourned.

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Bluebook (online)
492 P.2d 643, 83 N.M. 372, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sears-v-board-of-trust-of-anton-chico-land-grant-nm-1971.