Deaton v. Gutierrez

• Decision Date: 18 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 22,409.,22,409.
• Citation: 135 N.M. 423,2004 NMCA 43,89 P.3d 672
• Parties: Henry D. DEATON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rosarita GUTIERREZ, Hilbert F. Gutierrez, and Delora M. Gutierrez, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

89 P.3d 672

135 N.M. 423

2004 NMCA 43

Henry D. DEATON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rosarita GUTIERREZ, Hilbert F. Gutierrez, and Delora M. Gutierrez, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 22,409.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

December 18, 2003.

Certiorari Denied March 13, 2004.

Kim E. Kaufman, Albuquerque, NM, for Appellee.

Narciso Garcia, Jr., Garcia Law Office, Albuquerque, NM, for Appellants.

Certiorari Denied, No. 28,473, March 13, 2004.

OPINION

PICKARD, Judge.

{1} Rosarita Gutierrez, Hilbert Gutierrez, and Delora Gutierrez (collectively referred to as Defendants), appeal the trial court's order granting summary judgment in favor of Henry Deaton (Plaintiff), in his suit to quiet title. We affirm the order of summary judgment.

BACKGROUND

{2} Plaintiff filed a complaint on July 30, 1997, seeking to quiet title to several tracts of land located in Sandia Park in Bernalillo County, which are identified as Tracts 1, 4, and 5 of Small Holding Claim (SHC) 2994.

{3} This land was conveyed to Plaintiff by Jose Sanchez, an heir of Meliton Espinoza, along with some additional land, via a quitclaim deed executed on January 30, 1990. Meliton Espinoza had applied for a patent to these lands in 1894, which was rejected in 1911. Following the rejection, the General Land Office requested a resurvey of the lands to eliminate small holding claims and show the lands as public lands. Tract 3 was resurveyed, but the remaining Tracts, 1, 2, 4, and 5 remained intact and unpatented. In 1973, in response to a letter from an attorney investigating the situation, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) examined the case file and reached the determination that the claim had been rejected in error. The BLM informed the attorney of the situation and of the actions necessary to ensure patent would issue. However, patent did not issue from the United States to the heirs of Espinoza until December 18, 1990. Prior to patent issuing in 1990, notice was published in the local paper, stating that protests from any adverse claimants or from individuals who knew of any substantial reason why patent should not issue, would be accepted. No protests were filed.

{4} Defendants Hilbert and Delora Gutierrez did, however, answer Plaintiff's complaint to quiet title, in which they argued that they had title through either fee simple ownership or adverse possession. In an amended answer, they later added the theory of acquiescence. They also asserted the affirmative defenses of failure to state a claim, laches, unclean hands, and estoppel, and they filed counterclaims, asking that title be quieted in them and alleging fraud, abuse of process, slander of title, prima facie tort, and negligence.

{5} Defendant Rosarita Gutierrez answered separately, asking to quiet title to the property in her favor and claiming, as affirmative defenses, failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, laches, unclean hands, and estoppel. She also alleged abuse of process by Plaintiff. Her quiet title counterclaim was based on her apparent misconception that the property at issue included SHC 3001, which she owned by virtue of a federal patent. When Rosarita Gutierrez realized that the land at issue was not SHC 3001, but rather SHC 2994, she amended her answer. The amended answer deleted the portion of her answer relying on her patent for SHC 3001, and instead relied upon adverse possession and acquiescence as bases for ownership. Rosarita Gutierrez has lived on a portion of this land since 1931. She traces her claim to tracts 4 and 5 of SHC 2994 to deeds which her husband, Jesus Gutierrez, obtained from Epifanio Garcia in 1934 and 1950. In 1977, Rosarita and Jesus Gutierrez conveyed to Hilbert Gutierrez and his son, by warranty deed, tract 4 of SHC 2994. In 1991, this land was placed in Hilbert and his wife Delora's name. Hilbert and Delora claim title in fee simple through the 1977 deed. Defendants do not claim to be able to show any chain of title to the government.

{6} Defendants also filed a cross-claim against the estate of Meliton Espinoza, as a third-party defendant, to quiet title to the disputed lands and to assert ownership by adverse possession. The trial court issued a default judgment against the estate of Meliton Espinoza and quieted title against the estate of Espinoza, in favor of Defendants.

{7} During the course of litigation, Defendants moved for summary judgment more than once, which motions were denied by the trial court. In denying summary judgment, the trial court determined that, as a matter of law, "adverse possession cannot be initiated before the issuance of a patent." Defendants petitioned this Court for interlocutory review of this ruling, and this petition was denied.

{8} Relying on the trial court's determination that adverse possession cannot be initiated before the issuance of a patent, Plaintiff filed motions for summary judgment against Defendants. Plaintiff argued that any claims made by Defendants of having acquired title to the lands by adverse possession were without merit as the statutory period of ten years could not have begun prior to December 1990. He argued that because the remaining claims all required a claim to title, those claims should also be dismissed. In support of his motion for summary judgment, Plaintiff submitted the 1990 patent demonstrating that the United States had not released the land at issue until 1990. The trial court granted Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment in its entirety. The trial court determined that the issuance of the patent in 1990 was dispositive because the government held title to the land until the patent issued, and the government's ownership of the property negated Defendants' claims to title.

{9} Defendants moved for reconsideration of the grants of summary judgment, filing nearly 100 pages of documentation, most of which were not previously filed. The trial court refused to consider the additional materials and denied the motion for reconsideration. To the extent that Defendants argue that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to consider the materials, and in denying the motion, we disagree. In In re Estate of Keeney 121 N.M. 58, 60-61, 908 P.2d 751, 753-54 (Ct.App.1995), we addressed when the trial court was within its discretion in considering additional materials. In Keeney, we determined that it was appropriate for the trial court to have considered the additional materials because in that case the trial court determined that the late filing was due to excusable neglect. Id. at 61, 908 P.2d at 754. In this case, however, there was no evidence of excusable neglect. Rather, the earlier omission of these documents appears to have been purposeful. Also, in the case before us, unlike in Keeney, Plaintiff moved to strike the additional materials. See id. As we have determined that the trial court was acting within its discretion in refusing to consider the materials, we will not consider the additional materials submitted with the motion for reconsideration. See id. (determining that the reviewing court may consider materials submitted with a motion for reconsideration if the trial court considered the materials); cf. Rivera v. Trujillo, 1999 NMCA 129, ¶ 19, 128 N.M. 106, 990 P.2d 219 (affirming that the trial court may use its discretion not to consider untimely presented materials filed with a motion to reconsider).

{10} Furthermore, to the extent that Defendants argue that the trial court erred in denying the motion because the court did not have "good reason" to deny the motion, we disagree. See Laffoon v. Galles Motor Co., 80 N.M. 1, 3, 450 P.2d 439, 441 (Ct.App. 1969) (stating the action of a court must always be supported by a good reason). Defendants' motion for reconsideration was merely a restatement of the arguments they had already advanced against granting summary judgment, with the new documentation attached. As such, the trial court, having appropriately determined that it would not consider the additional materials, had good reason for denying the motion in its entirety. See Rivera, 1999-NMCA-129, ¶ 19,128 N.M. 106,990 P.2d 219.

{11} Finally, we do not specifically act on Plaintiff's motion to strike portions of the reply brief. The motion requests that we not consider arguments made in the reply brief in reliance on the additional materials. Although Plaintiff appropriately filed the motion because there were no subsequent briefs he was entitled to file, our refusal to consider the improper material makes it unnecessary for us to specifically act on the motion. Cf. In re Aaron L., 2000-NMCA-024, ¶ 27, 128 N.M. 641, 996 P.2d 431 (noting that separate motion to strike is ordinarily unnecessary and that parties can argue inappropriate reliance on materials in their briefs, and this Court will rule on the matter in its opinion).

DISCUSSION

Standard of Review

{12} "Summary judgment is appropriate where there are no genuine issues of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Self v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 1998-NMSC-046, ¶ 6, 126 N.M. 396, 970 P.2d 582. On appeal, we review de novo the district court's decision to grant summary judgment. See Hasse Contracting Co. v. KBK Fin., Inc., 1999-NMSC-023, ¶ 9, 127 N.M. 316, 980 P.2d 641. We view the pleadings, affidavits, and depositions presented for and against a motion for summary judgment in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party. See Gardner-Zemke Co. v. State, 109 N.M. 729, 732, 790 P.2d 1010, 1013 (1990). Summary judgment is foreclosed either when the record discloses the existence of a genuine controversy concerning a material issue of fact or when the trial court granted summary judgment based upon an error of law. See id.; see also Garcia v. Sanchez, 108 N.M. 388, 395, 772 P.2d 1311, 1318 (Ct.App.1989). In addition, summary judgment may be proper even though some disputed facts remain, if the disputed facts relate to immaterial issues. See Oschwald v....