United States v. Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co.

13 N.M. 386
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 2, 1906
DocketNo. 1075
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 13 N.M. 386 (United States v. Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co.) 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
United States v. Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., 13 N.M. 386 (N.M. 1906).

Opinion

OPINION OP THE COURT.

M’FIE, J.

— A large number of errors are assigned but they may fairly be grouped into four, namely:

1st. The court erred in permitting the supplemental complaint to be filed.

2nd. The court erred in rendering decree upon default of appearance and answer within the time allowed by law.

3rd. The court erred in its order modifying original decree nunc pro tunc.

4th. The court erred in over-ruling motion to vacate said order and decrees and to reopen said cause for the filing of an answer.

1 As to the first objection, it would seem to be a sufficient answer that at the time the court granted appellee leave to file the supplemental complaint the court was in session during a regular term. It was not a vacation order, therefore, but one made in open court.

This is a matter of practice and governed by the Code of Civil Procedure. Sub-Section 104 of the Code as amended by Chap. 11, Laws of 1901, provides that

"Any hearing of any kind, whether interlocutory or final, unless trial by jury is necessary, may be had in any ease out of regular term time upon five days’ notice, in writing to the opposite party, or his attorney or solicitor, but the court or judge may, upon application, for good cause shown, extend the time of hearing. Such hearing-may be had during the term of court at any time in the discretion of the court.”

Counsel for appellants, insists, that it was error for the court to allow the filing of the supplemental complaint without notice. The section above referred to, provides for notice of five da3s for hearings in vacation but there is no such requirement as to hearings in open court during a regular term. The record discloses that this cause had been pending in the court for almost one year, awaiting further proceedings, and M. Boyd in his affidavit admits Mr. A. B. Fall and Mr. W. A. Hawkins were attorneys of record for appellants at the time the supplemental complaint was filed. The record further shows that the supplemental complaint was served upon Mr. Fall on the same day it was filed'April 7th, 1903. Attorneys of record arc presumed to he present during terms of court wherein their causes ar^ pending, and in contemplation of law chargeable with notice of all proceedings transpiring in open court in causes wherein they are such attorneys. There being no requirement for five days notice, under the facts of this case, counsel are presumed to have been present and to have such notice as the law requires of matters transpiring in open court on the day on which leave was granted to file the supplemental complaint, and the same was filed and served upon them. Youngs v. Broxson, 23 Ala., 684; Sanders v. Savage, 63 S. D., 218.

2 The court was vested with discretion by the last clause of Sec. 104, supra, which does not seem to have been abused, nor was there any abuse of the general diseretion to allow an amended or supplemental bill in equity conferred upon the courts of the Hnited States as may be seen by reference to the case of Berliner Gramophone Co. v. Seamon, 113 Fed. Rep. 750, in which it was held that:

“The granting of leav'e to file an amended and supplemental bill is a matter within the discretion of the court, and its action will not he reviewed in an appellate court unless there has been a gross abuse of this discretion.”

3 The second group of errors assigned, relate both to the order allowing the supplemental complaint to he filed and the rendering of the decree and amended decree thereon, and challenges the power of the court'to do either, 1st, because the supplemental complaint sets up a cause of action irreconcilable and inconsistent with the cause of action set forth in the original and amended complaints. 2nd, It sets up an independent cause "of action which did not exist when the original and amended complaints were filed, 3rd, because the decrees were rendered without service of summons.

That the court has power to allow a supplemental complaint to be filed appears from sub-sections 87 and 89 of the Code which are as follows:

“Sub-Sec. 87. A party may be allowed, on motion, to make a supplemental complaint, answer or reply, alleging facts material to the cause, or praying for any other or different relief, order or judgment.”
“Sub-Sec. 89. In every complaint, answer or reply, amendatory or supplemental, the party shall set forth in one entire pleading all matters which, by the rules of pleading, may be set forth in such pleading, and which may be necessary to the proper determination of the action or defense.”

It being understood that our Code provides for the blending of legal and equitable remedies and defenses in one action, Sub-Sec. 33, Code, these sections clearly allow the allegation of such facts as will authorize the granting of other and different relief than that sought by the original complaint, the object of course being to end the litigation in a single action.

This court had this subject under consideration in the case of Bremen Min. & Mill Co. v. Bremen, 79 Pac. 806. In that case this court said:

“The only limitation upon the right of amendment to be drawn from a majority of the decided cases is that an entirely new and different cause of action, founded upon facts wholly foreign to the transaction attempted to be set up in the original complaint .cannot be set up by amendment.” Ency. PI. & Pr. Vol. 1, 548.

4 In the present case, the matter set up in the supplemental complaint grows out of and is connected^ with the same transaction as that alleged in the original and amended complaint. The original complaint alleged that the Rio Grande was a navigable stream, and as such under the jurisdiction of the United States: that the Rio Grande -Dam and Irrigation Company, threatened, and were about to commence the construction and maintenance of numerous dams, reservoirs, canals, ditches and pipe lines for the purpose of accumulating large, quantities and possibly all of tbe waters of the Rio Grande into such reservoirs, canals, ditches and pipe lines to be used in irrigating large tracts of land; that the construction of the large dam at Elephant Butte, will check the flow of the waters of such stream and interfere with or destroy the navigability and commercial value thereof; alleged that the said acts were in violation of certain acts of Congress therein set forth and prayed for injunction restraining the defendant company from proceeding with the construction of its proposed irrigation system. The amended complaint was in the main identical with the original, except in that it made the Rio Grande Irrigation and Land Company, Limited, also a defendant and contained allegations to the effect that the latter company was an English corporation organized as an adjunct and agent of the former company, for the purpose of securing funds for the construction of the irrigation system and that the Rio Grande Dam and Irrigation Company had entered into a contract to convey all of their rights in such s.ystem to the latter company. The prayer for injunction is the same, but against both corporations.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 N.M. 386, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-rio-grande-dam-irrigation-co-nm-1906.