Bibo v. Town of Cubero Land Grant
| Decision Date | 19 December 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 6453,6453 |
| Citation | 65 N.M. 103,332 P.2d 1020,1958 NMSC 137 |
| Parties | Phillip BIBO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The TOWN OF CUBERO LAND GRANT, a corporation, Jesus Baca, President, Frank Chavez, Secretary-Treasurer, Cecilio Soto, Manuel Saavedra, J. Sanchez, Members of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Cubero Land Grant, a corporation, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
Gilberto Espinosa, Albuquerque, for appellant.
Tibo J. Chavez, Belen, for appellees.
The plaintiff, Phillip Bibo, prosecutes this appeal from a declaratory judgment holding void his rights in an alleged lease of lands from the Town of Cubero Land Grant in Valencia County, New Mexico.
The Town of Cubero Land Grant is a community grant organized under the provisions of Secs. 8-1-1 to 8-1-19 N.M.S.A., 1953, applying to grants of land in New Mexico by the government of Spain or of Mexico to any community, town or pueblo, etc., which did not incorporate under the authority granted by the Act of the Legislative Assembly of February 26, 1891, Chapter 86 of the Session Laws of 1897, now Secs. 8-2-1 to 8-2-18 N.M.S.A., 1953.
Under the provisions of Sec. 8-1-3, supra, the Board of Trustees, the managing body of the grant, among other powers, is authorized to sell, convey, lease, or mortgage the common lands subject however, to a restriction contained in Sec. 8-1-11, supra, which provides as follows:
'No sale, mortgage or other alienation of the common lands within such grant shall take effect unless authorized by a resolution duly adopted by the said board of trustees, and until after approval of such resolution by the district judge of the district within which said grant or a portion thereof is situate.'
We assume for purposes of this opinion that a least for a term of years comes within the term 'or other alienation' since neither appellant nor appellees have argued this question.
For fifteen years prior to December 26, 1950 the plaintiff and his brother occupied and used for grazing purposes approximately 2,000 acres of the common lands of the community grant under a written lease entered into by the then commissioners on behalf of the defendant, the Town of Cubero Land Grant.
On December 26, 1950 a new lease was executed providing for increased consideration and a term of five years beginning January 1, 1951 with an option to renew for a period of five more years.
The minutes of the meeting held by the Board to discuss the Bibo lease were translated as follows:
As the testimony indicated, and as appears from its absence in the minutes, the Board never formally voted on the lease, and, as found by the trial court, no resolution was ever adopted by the Board authorizing such lease nor was a resolution ever presented by either party to the district court for approval, as required by Sec. 8-1-11, supra.
On December 10, 1957 the Cubero Land Grant through its attorney requested the plaintiff to vacate the premises as of January 1, 1958, on the ground that the lease was not legal.
The plaintiff contended in a declaratory judgment action that he had exercised the option to renew the lease at its expiration period December 31, 1956 by paying the rental for 1957, which was accepted by the Board of Trustees, and for 1958 by depositing with the court the 1958 rental which the Grant refused to accept and, further, that the failure of the Board to present the lease to the district court for approval made the lease one irregularly issued and therefore merely voidable at the instance of the Board which is now estopped from asserting its irregularity by accepting the benefits therefrom for a period of at least six years, including one year of the renewal period.
Thus, the sole issue presented is whether a written lease of a portion of the common lands of the grant for a period of five years with an option to renew for five more years is void or merely voidable in the absence of compliance with the provisions of Sec. 8-1-11, supra.
The law is settled in this jurisdiction that a community land grant is in the nature of a quasi-municipal corporation and is governed by the rules of law applicable thereto. Kavanaugh v. Delgado, 1930, 35 N.M....
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...must, of course, be exercised in the manner and only for the purposes prescribed by the legislative enactment. Bibo v. Town of Cubero Land Grant, 65 N.M. 103, 332 P.2d 1020; Fancher v. Bd. of Commissioners, 28 N.M. 179, 210 P. 237. The fact that there may be residents or property owners in ......
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