Ramirez v. City of Santa Fe
| Decision Date | 07 April 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 13312,13312 |
| Citation | 852 P.2d 690,1993 NMCA 49,115 N.M. 417 |
| Parties | C.C. RAMIREZ, Joanne Herrera, Patty Diekman, Shirley Bishop, Suzanne Preith, Dorothy Senter, Jerrilou Hammett, Kingsley Hammett, Gary Epler and Joe L. Martinez, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF SANTA FE, a New Mexico municipal corporation, the City Council of the City of Santa Fe, in their official capacities as City Councilors for the City of Santa Fe, Peso Chavez, John Egan, Phil Griego, Bernie Beenhouwer, Peter Goodwin, David Schutz, the Urban Policy Committee, in their official capacities as members of the Committee, Nancy Long, Ouida McGregor, Ernesto B. Baca, Mercedes Romero, Janet Stoker, Karen Walker and Dolores Lee-Burciaga, Defendants-Appellees, and Camino Carlos Rey Partnership, Intervenors-Appellees. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of New Mexico |
Plaintiffs appeal the district court's order of dismissal due to two jurisdictional defects: (1) lack of standing to challenge a City Council amendment to the General Plan which changed the classification of a thirty-acre tract of land from residential to industrial and commercial; and, (2) untimely filing of the petition for writ of certiorari in district court. Plaintiffs are landowners who own residential property near the Camino Carlos Rey Industrial Park, the thirty-acre parcel of land designated in the contested amendment (hereinafter "the Amendment") to the General Plan. Defendants in this case include the City of Santa Fe, City Council members, members of the Urban Policy Committee (hereinafter "the UPC"), and intervenors Camino Carlos Rey Partnership (hereinafter "the Developer"). The UPC is a committee of the Santa Fe City Council, and is responsible for making long-range policy and advisory recommendations to the City Council on the urban area General Plan and its amendments.
Plaintiffs raise four issues on appeal: (1) whether the district court erred in finding that Plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the Amendment to the General Plan; (2) whether the district court erred in determining the petition for writ of certiorari was not timely filed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 3-21-9 (Repl.Pamp.1985); (3) whether the City Council's decision to grant the Amendment to the General Plan violated Plaintiffs' procedural due process rights; and, (4) whether Plaintiffs are entitled to a trial de novo pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 3-19-8(C) (Repl.Pamp.1985). The Developer also raises the issue that Plaintiffs were required to request a supersedeas and stay pursuant to SCRA 1986, 12-207 (Repl.Pamp.1992).
We decline to address the issue of whether Plaintiffs' procedural due process rights were violated. There is nothing in the district court's order indicating it considered the many factual issues necessary for a conclusion that the UPC failed to hold a public meeting on the proposed amendment as required by Section 3-8-1.1 of the 1981 Santa Fe City Code () or that the City Council violated Plaintiffs' procedural due process rights by granting the Amendment to the General Plan. We will not resolve those factual issues before the district court has an opportunity to do so. See Miller v. Smith, 59 N.M. 235, 241, 282 P.2d 715, 719 (1955) (); In re Estate of Farrington, 91 N.M. 143, 145, 571 P.2d 410, 412 (1977) ().
We also decline to address the following legal issues for the reason that appellate courts do not issue advisory opinions: (1) whether judicial review is appropriate under NMSA 1978, Section 3-19-8(A) (Repl.Pamp.1985); (2) what the appropriate standard of review is for that provision; (3) whether the trial de novo pursuant to Section 3-19-8(C) is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers doctrine contravening New Mexico Constitution, article III, Section 1; and (4) whether Plaintiffs are required to request a supersedeas and stay pursuant to SCRA 12-207 in pursuing an appeal in this case. See Sena School Bus Co. v. Board of Educ., 101 N.M. 26, 29, 677 P.2d 639, 642 (Ct.App.1984).
For the reasons that follow, we reverse the district court's order on the jurisdictional issues of standing and timeliness of filing the petition for writ of certiorari and remand to the district court for determinations consistent with this opinion.
The procedural background of this case is extensive. Judge Encinias, in the initial July 19, 1989 district court decision, on a motion to dismiss, dismissed the appeal and petition for writ of certiorari. Judge Encinias held that even assuming the appeal had been timely filed, there was no legal basis for the appeal because the twelve-month rule of Section 14-9.8 of the Santa Fe City Code did not apply to requests to amend the General Plan. Judge Encinias determined that the standing issue was therefore moot. Judge Encinias' decision also treated the motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment because Plaintiffs had submitted evidence in the form of affidavits regarding Plaintiffs' alleged harm and injury resulting from the Amendment. Shortly thereafter, a peremptory challenge disqualified Judge Encinias and the case was reassigned to a second judge. The case was assigned to yet a third judge on July 28, 1989. On October 5, 1989, the third judge issued an order dismissing all claims with prejudice and quashed the writ. However, this order had been improperly entered and was set aside on October 10, 1989. On February 5, 1990, the case was reassigned to a fourth judge, Judge Castellano. Judge Castellano granted the motion to dismiss based on two procedural defects: the statute of limitations for the writ, and lack of standing. Additionally, the motion to dismiss was granted based on violation of the twelve-month rule. Judge Castellano's order, entered on June 11, 1991, explicitly stated that "The prior decision of Judge Encinias is correct." In addition, the order clearly applied an abuse of discretion standard: "On the whole record there is no indication that the City defendants acted arbitrarily, capriciously or contrary to the law and therefor this cause should be dismissed." It is from the June 11, 1991 order that Plaintiffs appeal.
The relevant activities of the Santa Fe City Council and the UPC as regards the amendment process to the General Plan are briefly as follows. The UPC held public meetings on February 25, 1988, and May 4, 1988. The UPC approved the Camino proposal on May 4, 1988 and requested that the City Council amend the General Plan. At the October 12, 1988 meeting, the City Council denied the request to amend the General Plan. At a January 24, 1989 UPC meeting, the UPC was informed about the following proposed changes to the Amendment: (1) a cul-de-sac instead of a through street to Aqua Fria; and, (2) a zoning change from industrial to commercial for a portion of the subject property. The parties dispute whether this was a public meeting within the meaning of Section 3-8-1.1 of the Santa Fe City Code which requires the UPC to review and act on all proposed amendments to the General Plan at a public meeting. On January 30, 1989, the UPC notified the City Council by letter that it sought a waiver of Section 3-8-1.1. The Developer submitted a revised proposal to amend on February 2, 1989. A week later, the City Council voted to publish notice of a March 8th public hearing on the proposed amendment to the General Plan. The City Council passed the Amendment as Resolution No. 1989-13 at the March 8, 1989 hearing pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 3-19-10 (Repl.Pamp.1985).
Standing for judicial review in New Mexico always requires an allegation of direct injury to the complainant. De Vargas Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Campbell, 87 N.M. 469, 472, 535 P.2d 1320, 1323 (1975). The test for standing in New Mexico was clearly set forth in De Vargas: "to attain standing in a suit arguing the unlawfulness of governmental action, the complainant must allege that he is injured in fact or is imminently threatened with injury, economically or otherwise." Id. at 473, 535 P.2d at 1324; see also Hotels of Distinction West, Inc. v. City of Albuquerque, 107 N.M. 257, 260, 755 P.2d 595, 598 (1988); Hawthorne v. City of Santa Fe, 88 N.M. 123, 124, 537 P.2d 1385, 1386 (1975). In liberalizing the standing test for New Mexico, the New Mexico Supreme Court in De Vargas expressly overruled Ruidoso State Bank v. Brumlow, 81 N.M. 379, 467 P.2d 395 (1970). De Vargas, 87 N.M. at 473, 535 P.2d at 1324. The legal interest test enunciated in Ruidoso defined standing in terms of an aggrieved party who:
is one having an interest recognized by law in the subject matter which is injuriously affected by the judgment, or one whose property rights or personal interests are directly affected by the operation of the judgment.... The true test is whether appellant's legal rights have been invaded, not merely whether he has suffered any actual pecuniary loss or been deprived of any actual pecuniary benefit. He must be aggrieved in a legal sense.
Ruidoso, 81 N.M. at 381, 467 P.2d at 397. In overruling the restrictive Ruidoso test, the New Mexico Supreme Court in De Vargas relied on the liberal trend in federal standing law and stated its agreement with the principles enunciated in Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 92 S.Ct. 1361, 31 L.Ed.2d 636 (1972) and United States v. SCRAP, 412 U.S. 669, 93 S.Ct. 2405, 37 L.Ed.2d 254 (1973). De Vargas, ...
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