Sullivan v. Sullivan, 9158

Citation82 N.M. 554,1971 NMSC 55,484 P.2d 1264
Decision Date10 May 1971
Docket NumberNo. 9158,9158
PartiesFrank SULLIVAN and Victor Sullivan, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Marianne SULLIVAN, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtSupreme Court of New Mexico
OPINION

McMANUS, Justice.

Plaintiffs brought this suit for partition of certain lands under the New Mexico Partition Statutes, §§ 22--13--1 through 22--13--8, N.M.S.A.1953. During the proceedings the trial judge appointed commissioners to report to the court on a partition plan. Their first report was not acted upon by the court, and an amended report was rejected. However, a later, amended report was filed, a hearing held, and the court substantially adopted this report from which defendant appeals.

Defendant alleges error by the trial court in its acceptance of the commissioners' report which categorized the lands involved by descriptive names rather than by metes and bounds in accordance with § 22--13--6, supra. However, the applicable metes and bounds descriptions were contained in the various pleadings, exhibits, and in the transcript. With such information before it, the court could certainly ascertain the areas under consideration by the popular names used and the documentary references to metes and bounds. Furthermore, there was no objection to the use of area names at the time of the hearing, and the transcript reflects that the parties were quite alert about the particular areas in controversy. See Sandoval v. Sandoval, 61 N.M. 38, 294 P.2d 278 (1956).

Error is also alleged in that the report of the commissioners went beyond the instructions of the court and made further recommendations as to sale of the property should the parties be dissatisfied with the suggested partition. There was a full hearing on the commissioners' report, after which the court accepted its basic parts, ignoring its supplement. We do not find error in this facet of the report accepted by the court, as the trial judge omitted those portions of the report on which he made no order and this was within his discretionary powers, without prejudicing either of the parties.

Further error is alleged as to the actual partition of the property involved, and as to the fact that partition was also apparently made of state leased lands. Although the defendant alleges that the partitions ordered by the court were inequitable in that she received...

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4 cases
  • 1996 -NMSC- 78, Sims v. Sims
    • United States
    • New Mexico Supreme Court
    • December 6, 1996
    ...who are co-tenants...."). 49 This Court tacitly acknowledged the possibility that leaseholds could be partitioned in Sullivan v. Sullivan, 82 N.M. 554, 484 P.2d 1264 (1971). In that case the parties requested by stipulation that the commissioners consider the partition of state and federal ......
  • Reule Sun Corp. v. Valles
    • United States
    • New Mexico Supreme Court
    • November 23, 2009
    ...did not argue in reference to the control test and would have run the risk of conceding the point to Reule. Cf. Sullivan v. Sullivan, 82 N.M. 554, 555, 484 P.2d 1264, 1265 (1971) (holding that where a defendant did not object to action at trial, he cannot complain about such action to the S......
  • Reule Sun Corporation v. Valles, Docket No. 31,192 (N.M. 11/23/2009)
    • United States
    • New Mexico Supreme Court
    • November 23, 2009
    ...did not argue in reference to the control test and would have run the risk of conceding the point to Reule. Cf. Sullivan v. Sullivan, 82 N.M. 554, 555, 484 P.2d 1264, 1265 (1971) (holding that where a defendant did not object to action at trial, he complain about such action to the Supreme ......
  • Kravik v. Lewis
    • United States
    • Montana Supreme Court
    • December 4, 1984
    ...fact that one party may have received less water than it started with does not make the partition inequitable. See Sullivan v. Sullivan (1971), 82 N.M. 554, 484 P.2d 1264 (fact that lands partitioned to the plaintiff had more water did not render the partition inequitable where there was su......

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