2019 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 42 - Actions and Proceedings Relating to Property
Article 5 - Partition
Section 42-5-3 - [Unknown persons made parties.]
All persons interested in the lands, tenements or hereditaments of which partition is sought to be made, whose names are unknown, may be made parties to such partition by the name and description of unknown owners or proprietors of the premises, or as unknown heirs of any persons who may have been interested in the same.
History: C.L. 1897, § 2685 (268), added by Laws 1907, ch. 107, § 1 (268); Code 1915, § 4381; C.S. 1929, § 105-1903; 1941 Comp., § 25-1203; 1953 Comp., § 22-13-3.
ANNOTATIONSBracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.
Proceedings against adverse possessors not instituted as against unknown owners. — Where persons are in actual adverse possession of the lands, proceedings in partition may not be instituted against them as unknown owners. Pankey v. Ortiz, 1921-NMSC-007, 26 N.M. 575, 195 P. 906; Rodriguez v. La Cueva Ranch Co., 1912-NMSC-028, 17 N.M. 246, 134 P. 228; Priest v. Board of Trustees, 1911-NMSC-072, 16 N.M. 692, 120 P. 894, aff'd, 232 U.S. 604, 34 S. Ct. 443, 58 L. Ed. 751 (1914).
Obligation to inquire as to persons claiming part of estate. — Plaintiff in a partition proceeding may not sit in his office, refrain from all inquiry as to the persons claiming any part of the estate sought to be partitioned, pursue no sources of information of which he may be aware and, because in fact he does not actually know the names of the adverse claimants to the estate sought to be partition, (partitioned), he may not proceed against them as unknown owners, and thereby deprive them effectually of all of their rights and property. Pankey v. Ortiz, 1921-NMSC-007, 26 N.M. 575, 195 P. 906.
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 59A Am. Jur. 2d Partition §§ 79, 81.
68 C.J.S. Partition §§ 75, 78, 81, 83, 88, 147, 216.
