Derringer v. State

• Decision Date: 27 March 2003
• Docket Number: No. 23,084.,23,084.
• Citation: 2003 NMCA 73,133 N.M. 721,68 P.3d 961
• Parties: David DERRINGER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE of New Mexico, New Mexico Livestock Board, John Wortman, Director, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

68 P.3d 961

133 N.M. 721

2003 NMCA 73

David DERRINGER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE of New Mexico, New Mexico Livestock Board, John Wortman, Director, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 23,084.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

March 27, 2003.

Certiorari denied May 13, 2003.

David Derringer, Quemado, NM, Pro Se Appellant.

Sean Olivas, Melanie Frassanito, Keleher & McLeod, P.A., Albuquerque, NM, for Appellees.

William D. Winter, Dines, Gross & Esquivel, P.C., Albuquerque, NM, for Amicus Curiae New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

William H. Carpenter, Albuquerque, NM, for Amicus Curiae New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association.

Randall D. Van Vleck, General Counsel, New Mexico Municipal League, Inc., Santa Fe, NM, for Amicus Curiae New Mexico Municipal League, Inc.

Daniel A. Bryant, Daniel A. Bryant, P.A., Ruidoso, NM, for Amicus Curiae New Mexico Association of Counties County Insurance Authority.

Certiorari denied, No. 28,035, May 13, 2003.

OPINION

PICKARD, Judge.

{1} The Inspection of Public Records Act provides:

C. A custodian who does not deliver or mail a written explanation of denial within fifteen days after receipt of a written request for inspection is subject to an action to enforce the provisions of the Inspection of Public Records Act and the requester may be awarded damages. Damages shall. . . not exceed one hundred dollars ($100) per day [and] accrue from the day the public body is in noncompliance until a written denial is issued[.]

NMSA 1978, § 14-2-11(C)(2), (3) (1993).

D. The court shall award damages, costs and reasonable attorneys' fees to any person whose written request has been denied and is successful in a court action to enforce the provisions of the Inspection of Public Records Act.

NMSA 1978, § 14-2-12(D) (1993). The question we must answer in this case is whether the statutory damages permitted by these sections may be awarded in a later action brought after the public body has complied with the Act. We hold that they may not. We also discuss whether Plaintiff has a tort claim for prima facie tort or violation of constitutional rights and hold that he does not. We finally discuss whether proper procedure was followed in the proceedings below and hold that it was. We therefore affirm the dismissal of Plaintiff's complaint.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

{2} A stray horse wandered onto Plaintiff's land. After unsuccessfully trying to locate the owner by calling neighbors, Plaintiff contacted the Livestock Board in Albuquerque. He contacted the Albuquerque office because he was concerned about the honesty of the local livestock inspector. Some time later, one of the neighbors asserted ownership of the horse and arranged with the local livestock inspector to claim it from Plaintiff. Plaintiff was concerned with the procedures and papers by which this claim was made, and set out to prove what he alleged to be fraud by making requests to the New Mexico Livestock Board for information on the horse and the procedures by which it was reclaimed.

{3} Plaintiff's requests were made on November 29, 2000, January 4, 2001, February 1, 2001, and February 8, 2001. The Board received the November 29 request on December 4 and responded on December 22, received the January 4 request on January 16 and responded on January 29, received the February 1 request on the same day and did not respond to it apparently because it thought its January 29 response complied with this request, and received the February 8 request on the same day and responded on February 28. In February 2001, Plaintiff complained to the Attorney General about the Board's lack of compliance with his requests for information. The Attorney General sought a response from the Board, following which she told the Board that it had not fully complied with the Inspection of Public Records Act because its responses were untimely. However, she concluded that, while there was some miscommunication between Plaintiff and the Board, the Board had ultimately produced to Plaintiff everything in its possession that Plaintiff requested and therefore she would take no further action. The Attorney General concluded her investigation and report in May of 2001.

{4} On February 15, 2002, Plaintiff filed suit against the Livestock Board and its director (Defendants), alleging statutory violations of the Inspection of Public Records Act and prima facie tort. Prior to answering, Defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim. Plaintiff filed a response, which included a motion for sanctions based on his view that Defendants' motion to dismiss was filed for the improper purposes of delay and obstruction. Following the filing of other pleadings, the district court entered an order granting Defendants' motion to dismiss and denying Plaintiff's motion for sanctions. Plaintiff appeals.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

{5} A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, pursuant to Rule 1-012(B)(6) NMRA 2003, tests the legal sufficiency of the complaint, accepting all well-pleaded factual allegations as true. Wallis v. Smith, 2001-NMCA-017, ¶ 6, 130 N.M. 214, 22 P.3d 682. Dismissal is proper when the law does not support the claim under any set of facts subject to proof. Id. The "pleadings must tell a story . . . from which . . . the essential elements prerequisite to the granting of the relief sought can be found or reasonably inferred." Ramer v. Place-Gallegos, 118 N.M. 363, 365, 881 P.2d 723, 725 (Ct.App. 1994) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted), overruled on other grounds by Spectron Dev. Lab. v. Am. Hollow Boring Co., 1997-NMCA-025, ¶ 31, 123 N.M. 170, 936 P.2d 852. We review rulings on Rule 1-012(B)(6) motions de novo. Wallis, 2001-NMCA-017, ¶ 6, 130 N.M. 214, 22 P.3d 682.

DISCUSSION

Damages for Violation of the Inspection of Public Records Act

{6} The Attorney General determined, and Defendants do not dispute, that the Board did not fully comply with the Inspection of Public Records Act between November 2000 and February 2001. The Attorney General also determined that upon the last mailing from the Board on February 28, 2001, the Board had furnished or provided access to all of the documents in its possession that Plaintiff had requested, meaning that the Board was in substantive compliance with the Inspection of Public Records Act at that time. Plaintiff filed his complaint on February 15, 2002, nearly a year after his request for documents had been satisfied.

{7} Plaintiff and Amici New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association contend that Section 14-2-11 of the Act must be interpreted to award damages for the Livestock Board's delay in permitting inspection of public records, lest the government be allowed to delay and obfuscate requests so as to defeat the intention of the Legislature. Defendants assert that the plain language of the Act does not allow for damages when no action has been brought to enforce the provisions of the Act. We agree with Defendants.

{8} Questions of statutory interpretation are reviewed de novo. Gordon v. Sandoval County Assessor, 2001-NMCA-044, ¶ 12, 130 N.M. 573, 28 P.3d 1114. "A statute should be interpreted to mean what the Legislature intended it to mean, and to accomplish the ends sought to be accomplished by it." State ex rel. Newsome v. Alarid, 90 N.M. 790, 794, 568 P.2d 1236, 1240 (1977). If the meaning is plain, we give effect to the statute's language and refrain from further interpretation unless "the intentions of the legislature suggest a different meaning from that suggested by the plain meaning of the statute." Sims v. Sims, 1996-NMSC-078, ¶¶ 17, 21, 122 N.M. 618, 930 P.2d 153.

{9} The purpose of the Act is to "ensure. . . that all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of public officers and employees." NMSA 1978, § 14-2-5 (1993). The Act further states that providing such information is an "essential function of a representative government." Id. Our Supreme Court has held that a citizen has a fundamental right to have access to public records, and when there is no contrary statute or countervailing public policy, the right to inspect public records must be freely allowed. Newsome,90 N.M. at 797,568 P.2d at 1243.

{10} The procedure for denied requests, noted above, plainly states that a custodian who does not deliver or mail a written explanation of denial within fifteen days after receipt of a written request, "is subject to an action to enforce the provisions of the Inspection of Public Records Act and the requester may be awarded damages." Section 14-2-11(C). The language, "is subject to an action to enforce the provision," is not independent from the rest of the sentence, nor is it set off by a comma or a semicolon, so it is not a separate clause or idea. Plainly, this provision provides a citizen with the means to enforce the Act if the public body does not comply. Conversely, then, once the custodian complies, the public body is no longer subject to an enforcement action. Contrary to Plaintiff's assertion that he should be awarded damages even if he is not bringing an action to force compliance with the Act, it is only in the event that a court action is brought to enforce the Act that a plaintiff is awarded mandatory costs, fees, and damages, and then only if the plaintiff is successful in that action. See § 14-2-12(D).

{11} By requiring that each public body have a public records custodian, see NMSA 1978, § 14-2-7 (2001), and requiring compliance immediately, but no later than fifteen days, see NMSA 1978, § 14-2-8(D) (1993), the legislature's focus was to provide prompt compliance. The sections at issue, Sections 14-2-11(C) and -12, are titled "Procedure for denied requests" and "Enforcement," both of which are necessary to achieve the legislative purpose of freely allowed, prompt compliance. Plaintiff's claim was not brought to enforce compliance with the Act because...