New Mexico Supreme Court Decisions 2014
Date: December 15, 2014
Docket Number: 34,583
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent-guardian Djamila B. was appointed by a family court as kinship guardian to children Mahdjid and Aliah. Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD) brought abuse and neglect proceedings against the guardian…
Date: December 4, 2014
Docket Number: 34,646
Justia Opinion Summary: In the 2014 legislative session, the New Mexico Legislature passed the General Appropriations Act of 2014, which included a pair of salary increases for judges and justices of the state judiciary. The first increase was…
Date: November 6, 2014
Docket Number: 34,128
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review stemmed from a worker's compensation claim. Specifically, the issue the Court had to determine was whether a “wet floor” sign was a safety device and whether a…
Date: November 6, 2014
Docket Number: 34,531
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Walter Brown was arrested in 2011, and indicted two weeks later on an array of charges, including first-degree felony murder and, alternatively, second-degree murder. The district court imposed a $250,000 cash…
Date: October 23, 2014
Docket Numbers: 33,997, 33,999
Justia Opinion Summary: Antonio T., a seventeen-year-old high school student, was taken to the principal's office because he was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol. The assistant principal questioned Antonio about his possession…
Date: September 18, 2014
Docket Number: 33,770
Justia Opinion Summary: In August 2002, plaintiff William Vaughan went to the emergency room at St. Vincent Hospital complaining of symptoms that included abdominal pain. In this medical negligence case, Vaughan alleged that, as the result of a…
Date: September 15, 2014
Docket Number: 33,632
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on whether payees who are entitled to interest on suspended oil and gas royalty payments could contract away their statutorily mandated interest…
Date: September 8, 2014
Docket Number: 34,366
Justia Opinion Summary: There is no hospital in Valencia County. People in Valencia County who are faced with a medical emergency must deal with the emergency itself, and find a way to travel twenty to thirty-five miles to an Albuquerque…
Date: August 25, 2014
Docket Number: 33,382
Justia Opinion Summary: In consolidated appeals, the issue this case presented to the New Mexico Supreme Court was whether pharmacists who dispense prescription drugs to Medicaid recipients must be paid under the formula set forth in NMSA 1978,…
Date: August 21, 2014
Docket Number: 33,483
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury returned a guilty verdict against defendant for intentional and negligent child abuse causing great bodily harm to an infant, which the Court of Appeals affirmed in a memorandum opinion. Upon review of the case,…
Date: August 21, 2014
Docket Number: 33,592
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury convicted Defendant Vincent Montoya of kidnapping with the intent to inflict a sexual offense upon his girlfriend (Victim). Defendant was also convicted of two other crimes not relevant to this appeal. The issue…
Date: August 7, 2014
Docket Number: 33,296
Justia Opinion Summary: A Curry County grand jury indicted Defendant Julian Gutierrez on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor based on the testimony of Defendant’s daughter that he touched or pinched her breasts on several…
Date: August 4, 2014
Docket Number: 34,039
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner-taxpayer CAVU Company was the owner of a twenty-six-acre school campus in Santa Fe that was developed and improved beginning in 1997 solely for operation as a school. Since opening its doors over fifteen years…
Date: July 31, 2014
Docket Number: 33,970
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury found Defendant Gerard Parvilus guilty of the 2008 aggravated burglary of his estranged wife’s separate dwelling, murder of her boyfriend, first-degree kidnapping of his wife and her boyfriend, aggravated assault…
Date: June 30, 2014
Docket Number: 33,014
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with trafficking controlled substances and possession of drug paraphernalia based on evidence obtained by the police, who found evidence of methamphetamine manufacturing in the dumpster of the…
Date: June 30, 2014
Docket Number: 33,589
Justia Opinion Summary: In consolidated cases, homeowners Pinghua Zhao, and Gregg and Janet Fallick appealed the valuation of their residences for property tax purposes as a result of what they alleged was "tax lightning," also known as…
Date: June 26, 2014
Docket Number: 34,266
Justia Opinion Summary: In January 2006, two former payday lenders, defendants B&B Investment Group, Inc., and American Cash Loans, LLC, began to market and originate high-cost signature of $50 to $300, primarily to less-educated and…
Date: June 23, 2014
Docket Number: 34,150
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Kathrin Kinzer-Ellington was appointed guardian ad litem pursuant to Rule 1-053.3 NMRA to help determine the best interests of minor children whose parents were involved in a custody dispute. As the case grew…
Date: June 19, 2014
Docket Number: 33,604
Justia Opinion Summary: In 1997, Martin Ramirez was arrested and charged with possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and two other misdemeanors. He appeared in metropolitan court for a custody arraignment two days later and pleaded guilty…
Date: June 16, 2014
Docket Number: 34,280
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Thomas P. Whelan, Jr.'s decedent father, Thomas P. Whelan, Sr., was in Plaintiff's parked truck when it was hit by a moving vehicle. The collision allegedly resulted in severe injuries and medical costs in…
Date: June 16, 2014
Docket Number: 34,453
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2004, Defendant Anthony Samora pled guilty to the charge of criminal sexual penetration (CSP) in the second degree for raping a fourteen year-old boy. He served a sentence of three years' incarceration. Nearly ten…
Date: June 12, 2014
Docket Number: 34,126
Justia Opinion Summary: The district court concluded that "Grace H.'s" father's parental rights should be terminated pursuant to a finding of abandonment without establishing that the conditions of neglect, by abandonment, could be not be…
Date: June 12, 2014
Docket Number: 34,355
Justia Opinion Summary: After her indictment for second-degree murder, but prior to trial, Petitioner Amy Herrera sought a writ of mandamus from this Court directing the district court to dismiss the indictment. Petitioner contended that the…
Date: June 9, 2014
Docket Number: 33,566
Justia Opinion Summary: Police officers were dispatched in response to reports of an armed subject pointing a rifle at several people from the window of a light beige or tan vehicle. After Defendant Leticia T. (Child) and children passengers…
Date: June 9, 2014
Docket Number: 33,864
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Nieves Ortega was convicted of one count of wilful and deliberate murder. He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, attempted first-degree kidnapping, armed robbery, conspiracy to…
Date: June 5, 2014
Docket Number: 33,938
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Gregg Crocco appealed his conviction for aggravated driving while under the influence of alcohol (aggravated DWI), claiming that his previous attorney provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to…
Date: June 5, 2014
Docket Number: 33,993
Justia Opinion Summary: While working for Vista Care (Employer), appellant Sherrie Fowler suffered a back injury. Appellant began receiving TTD and subsequently underwent back surgery. Several years later, a physician determined that appellant…
Date: May 12, 2014
Docket Number: 34,083
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal stemmed from a dispute between two adjoining landowners over an easement. In 2003, Respondent Amethyst Land Company acquired a quitclaim deed to an undeveloped twenty-two acre parcel (the 22-acre parcel) in…
Date: May 8, 2014
Docket Number: 33,896
Justia Opinion Summary: In consolidated cases, a truck crashed through the front glass of the Concentra Medical Clinic in the Del Sol Shopping Center, killing three people and seriously injuring several others. Both groups of Plaintiffs sued…
Date: May 1, 2014
Docket Number: 33,950
Justia Opinion Summary: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit certified a question of New Mexico Law to the New Mexico Supreme Court: "[i]f an otherwise-qualified person has completed a deferred sentence for a felony offense, is that…
Date: April 21, 2014
Docket Number: 33,226
Justia Opinion Summary: James Olsson was charged with sixty counts of possession of child pornography based on photographs of minors found in three binders seized from Olsson and images found on his computer. Olsson filed a motion for merger of…
Date: April 7, 2014
Docket Number: 32,860
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue before the Supreme Court in this case centered on defendant Lisa Stevens' convictions for second-degree criminal sexual penetration during the commission of a felony, child abuse, and contributing to the…
Date: April 4, 2014
Docket Number: 33,796
Justia Opinion Summary: The question before the Supreme Court in these appeals was: what happens when the prosecutor files an interlocutory appeal yet neglects to make a timely certification to the district court or fails to attach a copy of…
Date: February 27, 2014
Docket Number: 33,789
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Freddie Montoya passed a vehicle in which a single female was driving, and positioned his truck across the roadway to block her path. He and his passenger got out of the truck, forcibly entered the victim’s…
Date: February 20, 2014
Docket Number: 33,025
Justia Opinion Summary: On appeal to the Supreme Court was a final order of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission authorizing Running Bear, d/b/a Rocky Mountain EMS, to provide permanent motor transport authority for non-emergency…
Date: February 13, 2014
Docket Number: 33,224
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, Joseph and Mary Romero signed a mortgage contract with the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) as nominee for Equity One, Inc. They pledged their home as collateral for the loan. The Romeros alleged…
Date: February 6, 2014
Docket Number: 33,497
Justia Opinion Summary: The New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee recognized approximately 400,000 acres of public land on Mount Taylor as a registered cultural property under the New Mexico Cultural Properties Act. One month after…
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