State ex rel. Madrid v. UU BAR RANCH, No. 23

• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico
• Citation: 114 P.3d 399,137 N.M. 719
• Docket Number: No. 23, No. 418, No. 055., No. 24
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, ex rel., Patricia A. MADRID, Attorney General, and New Mexico State Game Commission of the State of New Mexico, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UU BAR RANCH LIMITED PARTNERSHIP (a Nevada limited partnership), Western States Management Services, Ltd. (a Nevada limited liability corporation), and any other persons unknown, claiming any right, title, estate, lien, or interest in the real property described in the complaint adverse to Plaintiffs' ownership, or any cloud on Plaintiffs' title, Defendants-Appellees.
• Decision Date: 25 April 2005

114 P.3d 399

137 N.M. 719

STATE of New Mexico, ex rel., Patricia A. MADRID, Attorney General, and New Mexico State Game Commission of the State of New Mexico, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UU BAR RANCH LIMITED PARTNERSHIP (a Nevada limited partnership), Western States Management Services, Ltd. (a Nevada limited liability corporation), and any other persons unknown, claiming any right, title, estate, lien, or interest in the real property described in the complaint adverse to Plaintiffs' ownership, or any cloud on Plaintiffs' title, Defendants-Appellees.

Nos. 23,418, 24,055.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

April 25, 2005.

Certiorari Denied June 6, 2005.

Patricia A. Madrid, Attorney General, David K. Thomson, David A. Stevens, Alvin Garcia, Assistant Attorneys General, Santa Fe, Bennett S. Cohn, West Palm Beach, FL, for Appellants.

Henry M. Bohnhoff, William G. Gilchrist, IV, Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb, P.A., Albuquerque, for Appellees.

Certiorari Denied, No. 29,231, June 6, 2005.

OPINION

ROBINSON, J.

{1} The Court has decided to revise the opinion filed on March 8, 2005. Therefore, the opinion is hereby withdrawn and the following opinion is substituted. The Motion for Rehearing filed on March 23, 2005, by Defendant UU Bar Ranch Limited Partnership, is hereby denied.

{2} In this appeal, we are called upon to determine who is the rightful titleholder to a road that provides access to the Whites Peak area of state trust lands in Colfax County. The State of New Mexico and the New Mexico State Game Commission (collectively referred to as Plaintiff) appeal the district court's judgment quieting title in favor of UU Bar Ranch Limited Partnership (Defendant). For the reasons that follow, we reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

{3} The real property at issue in this case is a 2.6 mile stretch of dirt road (the Road) that lies completely within the exterior boundaries of Defendant's ranch. Prior to statehood, the Territory of New Mexico owned the Road as part of the system of territorial public roads, and the Road was recognized as part of El Camino Real and the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail. When New Mexico became a state in 1912, all of the Territory's real property interests, including the Road, were transferred to the State of New Mexico pursuant to our state constitution. The Road came to be designated on most maps as a part of State Highway 21, which was a north/south route from Cimarron south through Rayado to Ocate. The Road itself enjoyed continuous use by hunters during the hunting season, and occasional use by others, for access to state trust lands until 1997.

{4} On October 24, 1985, as part of an effort to reduce the number of unmaintained roads that were part of the state highway system, the State Highway Department executed a declaration of vacation and abandonment for a 4.7 mile segment of State Highway 21. Contemporaneously with the abandonment of the 4.7 mile portion of Highway 21, the Highway Department executed a quitclaim deed that Plaintiff argued conveyed the Road to the Game Commission. Ultimately, the district court found that the 4.7 mile abandoned segment of Highway 21 included the Road, but that the quitclaim deed did not include the Road.

{5} At trial, and now on appeal, the parties expend significant effort arguing about whether the Highway Department's abandonment of the Road was conditioned on a successful administrative transfer of the Road by quitclaim deed to the Game Commission, so that access to the Whites Peak area would remain open to the public. In addition, even assuming that the Highway Department intended to administratively transfer the Road to the Game Commission, the parties vigorously dispute whether the evidence established that the description in the quitclaim deed included the Road. As we will discuss later in this opinion, we need not decide whether the district court correctly concluded that the quitclaim deed did not convey the Road to the Game Commission. Regardless of the effect or intent of the deed, between 1985 and 1997, neither the Game Commission, nor the Game and Fish Department, acting as the Game Commission's agent, asserted any ownership of, control over, or interest in the Road.

{6} In the summer of 1997, Defendant began to investigate whether it was the exclusive owner of the Road. In September and October of 1997, the Game and Fish Department, with the participation of representatives from the Highway Department and Attorney General's Office, investigated whether the Game Commission was the owner of the Road. On October 17, 1997, and November 15, 1997, the Game and Fish Department and the Governor issued respective letters disclaiming any ownership interest by the Game Commission in the Road, concluding instead that the Road was abandoned and privately owned. In a subsequent letter dated November 21, 1997, the Secretary of the State Highway Department also wrote that the Road was abandoned. Upon the completion of its investigation in the fall of 1997, Defendant concluded that it was the exclusive owner of the Road and, therefore, built and locked a gate at the northern terminus of the Road. Since the fall of 1997, Defendant has had exclusive possession of the Road.

{7} In response to Defendant's actions, the Attorney General filed a petition on behalf of the State of New Mexico seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Because the district court ruled that the Attorney General lacked standing in her own right to pursue injunctive relief, the Attorney General's Office filed an amended complaint naming the State of New Mexico and the Game Commission as Plaintiffs. The amended complaint no longer sought injunctive relief, but instead sought to quiet title to the Road. Defendant's answer asserted a number of affirmative defenses, including lack of standing, estoppel, waiver, laches, and abandonment. Defendant also asserted counterclaims for its own declaratory relief and damages for inverse condemnation.

{8} Because the Attorney General filed the amended complaint without joining the Highway Department, Defendant reasserted a motion to dismiss for lack of standing. However, because Plaintiff was no longer seeking injunctive relief, but simply were trying to establish title to the Road, the district court denied the motion believing that Plaintiff did have standing to proceed. Nevertheless, the district court ultimately ruled against Plaintiff and quieted title to the Road in Defendant.

{9} In quieting title to the Road in Defendant, the district court concluded that the Highway Department had abandoned the Road. The district court further concluded that the disputed quitclaim deed did not convey title to the Road to the Game Commission. Accordingly, as a result of the abandonment of the Road, the district court ruled that fee simple title to the Road reverted to Defendant through its predecessor in interest, who owned the abutting land at the time the Road was purportedly abandoned. The district court also ruled that waiver, acquiescence, equitable estoppel, and laches precluded Plaintiff from asserting any claim to the Road. The district court subsequently awarded Defendant its costs. In these consolidated appeals, Plaintiff challenge the district court's quiet title judgment and award of costs.

DISCUSSION

{10} As we explain below, the district court erred in concluding that the Road was abandoned in accordance with New Mexico law. Therefore, without a legally effective abandonment of the Road, the district court's conclusion that the Road reverted to Defendant cannot stand because title remains with the State. And because we conclude that Defendant has no basis for asserting title to the Road, we also conclude that the district court erred in ruling that Plaintiff were equitably barred from asserting a claim to the Road. Finally, we need not decide whether the disputed quitclaim deed was an effective transfer of title to the Road from the Highway Department to the Game Commission because, without a legally-effective abandonment, title remains with the Highway Department who is free to convey, or reconvey, title as it sees fit.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

{11} To the extent that this appeal requires us to review the sufficiency of the evidence to support the district court's quiet title judgment, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the district court's findings, indulge all reasonable inferences in support of the district court's decision, and disregard all evidence to the contrary. See Martinez v. Martinez, 1997-NMCA-096, ¶ 10, 123 N.M. 816, 945 P.2d 1034

. To the extent that our review of the district court's quiet title judgment requires us to interpret a statute, that is a question of law that we review de novo. See Morgan Keegan Mortgage Co. v. Candelaria, 1998-NMCA-008, ¶ 5, 124 N.M. 405, 951 P.2d 1066; see also Cooper v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc., 2002-NMSC-020, ¶ 16, 132 N.M. 382, 49 P.3d 61 ("The meaning of language used in a statute is a question of law that we review de novo.").

A. The Road was not legally abandoned.

{12} Plaintiff argue that the district court erred in ruling that the Highway Department legally abandoned the Road when it executed a formal declaration of vacation and abandonment of the Road on October 24, 1985. Plaintiff does not dispute that the Highway Department wanted to relinquish its own control over the Road. However, as noted above, the parties disagree about whether the Highway Department's attempted abandonment of the Road was conditioned on an administrative transfer of the Road to the Game Commission that would ensure continued public access to the Whites Peak area via the Road. But we need not decide whether the district court correctly resolved that dispute because, regardless of the Highway Department's intent, we agree with Plaintiff that the attempted abandonment was legally ineffective under the relevant statutory law governing the procedures for abandoning...