State ex rel. State Highway Dept. v. Davis

• Decision Date: 28 December 1973
• Docket Number: No. 9553,9553
• Citation: 517 P.2d 743,85 N.M. 759,1973 NMSC 125
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico ex rel. STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT of New Mexico, Petitioner, v. Charles DAVIS et al., Defendants. Benjamin BENAVIDEZ et al., Appellees, v. WESTLAND DEVELOPMENT CO., INC., Appellant.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 743

517 P.2d 743

85 N.M. 759

STATE of New Mexico ex rel. STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT of New

Mexico, Petitioner, v. Charles DAVIS et al., Defendants.

Benjamin BENAVIDEZ et al., Appellees, v. WESTLAND DEVELOPMENT CO., INC., Appellant.

No. 9553.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Dec. 28, 1973.

Sutin, Thayer & Browne, Irwin S. Moise, Albuquerque, for appellant.

Hannett, Hannett, Cornish & Barnhart, Albuquerque, for appellees.

OPINION

MONTOYA, Justice.

This action began in the District Court of Bernalillo County when the petitioner, State of New Mexico through its Highway Department (State), filed three suits under the special alternative procedure provided by § 22--9--39 et seq., N.M.S.A., 1953 Comp. (1973 Pocket Supp.), to condemn property for highway purposes in the area immediately west of the Rio Grande. The three suits were consolidated and handled as one case. After trial, the court found that the property here in issue, being claimed by both appellant Westland Development Co., Inc., and appellees, Benjamin and Erlinda Benavidez, was owned by the appellees under a claim of title from the Town of Atrisco, and under the doctrine of adverse possession. This appeal only concerns the ownership at the time of condemnation of a certain tract by either appellees Benavidez or appellant Westland Development Co., Inc. Accordingly, judgment was entered that the appellees were entitled to the money representing the value of the property being taken by the State. This appeal followed.

The facts of the case are as follows. In 1940, Robert Anaya, Jesus Anaya, Lee Anaya, Felipita Anaya (Apodaca) and Leonides Anaya, all members of the same family and all heirs of the Town of Atrisco Grant, were issued quitclaim deeds by the board of trustees of the Grant to approximately 45 acres of land within the Grant. All of the Anaya tracts were adjoining. Sometime in 1947 Robert Anaya and Isidro Sanchez, the secretary of the board of trustees of the Atrisco Grant, went upon the property and, using natural landmarks, Sanchez showed Anaya several of the exterior corners of the Anaya tracts. After staking two corners of each tract, Anaya and Sanchez stepped off the distance to the other tract corners. Thereafter, in 1954, Robert Anaya, Lee Anaya, Jesus Anaya and Felipita Anaya (Apodaca) conveyed their interests to Leonides Anaya. During the same year, Leonides Anaya had the property surveyed by a Pete Sandoval and then sold the property to Ben Benavidez, one of the parties in this suit. After Benavidez finished paying for the land in 1957, he received a deed from Samuel and Leonides Anaya. The deed description used the language derived from the Sandoval survey. Upon receiving the deed Benavidez moved a trailer in which he and his family lived onto the property. He also built a large corral and put in water tanks. In addition to these improvements, which remained on the property until at least 1968, Benavidez sold gravel off the land and paid the taxes on the property. In 1958, Benavidez and the Town of Atrisco entered into a grazing lease for approximately 12,000 acres of land and that acreage surrounded the tract in question herein. As the annual rental fee was only four cents per acre per year, the board of trustees of the Town of Atrisco and Benavidez agreed it was impractical to exclude the Anaya tracts from the grazing lease because the annual rental on the Anaya tracts was only $1.80 per year. The Grant and Benavidez knew that Benavidez owned lands included within the lease and that other lands in the grazing lease were also in private ownership.

Several years after Benavidez purchased the land from the Anayas, it was discovered that the Sandoval survey was erroneous. A Mr. Whiteman, now deceased, the official surveyor for the Town of Atrisco, was employed to resurvey the property. Together with Isidro Sanchez, the board secretary at the time the Anayas acquired the land and still a member of the board of trustees, Whiteman was shown the boundaries to the property from which he prepared a corrected survey. Benavidez then, in accordance with the then custom and procedure, consulted with the board of trustees of the Grant as to whether or not the Grant claimed an interest in the land. After examining Benavidez' title, including the original deeds to the Anayas, the Grant unanimously adopted the Whiteman survey and disavowed and claim to the land in question. With the exception of the deed to Felipita Anaya, the deeds from the Town of Atrisco to the other Anayas were lost. However, the lost deeds contained essentially the same measurements as appear in the 1954 deeds given to Leonides Anaya by her children, except for the boundaries. The lost deeds, or copies thereof, were used by Pete Sandoval to prepare his description. Subsequent to the Whiteman survey, Benavidez obtained a correction deed from Leonides Anaya. Her husband Samuel Anaya is deceased. Prior to the commencement of this action, the Town of Atrisco was converted into the Westland Development Company, Inc., a general corporation, pursuant to § 8--2--19, N.M.S.A., 1953 Comp. (Repl.Vol. 2, 1966, 1973 Pocket Supp.). Appellant sets out four points as grounds for reversal. First, that the trial court erred in admitting evidence to explain or supply omissions in the deeds that were lost and that, therefore, findings of fact Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13 and 14 are without support in the record, and conclusions of law Nos. 5, 7, 8, 9 and 12 are without foundation in the findings. Second, that the judgment is not supported by substantial evidence, and that the descriptions in the deeds were so vague and uncertain as to make the deeds void and of no effect to establish color of title, and that parol evidence was inadmissible to explain or modify the descriptions in the deeds. Third, that the trial court erred in concluding that the appellee obtained title by adverse possession. Fourth, that the court erred in concluding that appellant had no right, title or interest in the property which is the subject of this lawsuit.

Under appellant's first point, which we feel is dispositive of this appeal, appellant contends that the deeds from the Town of Atrisco to the appellees' predecessors in interest, the Anayas, are invalid because of insufficient descriptions. It is also contended that the lower court erred in admitting evidence to explain or supply omissions in the deeds found to have been lost, leaving findings of fact Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13 and 14 without support in the record. The pertinent findings read as follows:

'2. In 1940, ROBERT ANAYA, JESUS ANAYA, LEE ANAYA, FELIPITA ANAYA (APODACA) and LEONIDES ANAYA, heirs of the TOWN OF ATRISCO GRANT and members of the same family, were issued Quitclaim Deeds by the BOARD OF TRUSTEES of the GRANT to approximately Forty-five (45) acres within the GRANT.

'3. The ANAYA tracts were adjoining and in 1947, or shortly after World War II, ROBERT ANAYA, who had just returned from military service, took ISIDRO SANCHEZ, Secretary of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES of the ATRISCO GRANT, and went upon the lands. The land lay to the Northwest of a small hill known as 'Cerro Pedado' and was cut by a large arroyo. SANCHEZ showed ANAYA several of the exterior corners of the ANAYA tract. These were marked and ANAYA and SANCHEZ stepped off the boundaries of the tract from these corners.

'4. In 1954, ROBERT ANAYA, LEE ANAYA, JESUS ANAYA and FELIPITA ANAYA (APODACA) conveyed their interest to LEONIDES ANAYA. In the same year, the ANAYAS had the property surveyed by Pete Sandoval, and sold said property to BEN BENAVIDEZ for $1,500.00.

'5. BENAVIDEZ finished paying for the land in 1957, and he received a deed from SAMUEL ANAYA and LEONIDES ANAYA. The Pete Sandoval description was used in the deed.

'* * *.

'7. The TOWN OF ATRISCO, through its officers and BOARD OF TRUSTEES knew in 1957 that BENAVIDEZ had purchased the land from the ANAYAS, that he was claiming it and had placed improvements on it.

'* * *.

'12. Such requests were not unusual and the BOARD had a standard procedure to act on such requests. The Secretary of the BOARD, Arthur Herrera and the GRANT attorney examined BENAVIDEZ' title including the original deeds to the ANAYAS, and it was moved and unanimously adopted that the GRANT had no claim to the land and the Whiteman survey was approved.

'13. With the exception of the deed to FELIPITA ANAYA, the deeds from the TOWN OF ATRISCO to the remainder of the ANAYAS were...