2021 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 41 - Torts
Article 4 - Tort Claims
Section 41-4-16.1 - Civil action; damages incurred while imprisoned; notice to victim.

Upon the filing of a civil action by an individual or his personal representative against the state for damages incurred while imprisoned in a state corrections facility, the district court clerk shall issue notice of the filing of that action to the corrections and criminal rehabilitation department [corrections department] which shall forward a copy of the notice to the victim of the crime for which that individual was imprisoned. If the civil action is filed in a federal forum, the individual or personal representative shall issue the required notice to the department.

History: Laws 1981, ch. 117, § 1.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

Law 1981, ch. 73, § 8 provided that all references in law to the corrections and criminal rehabilitation department shall be construed to be references to the corrections department.

Expert testimony is required to establish the standard of care for monitoring inmates in prisons. — Where plaintiff, who was an inmate at a county detention center and who was assaulted and raped by three inmates, sued defendants for failing to protect plaintiff from the assault; plaintiff claimed that the area in which plaintiff was assaulted was an architectural blind spot that could not be covered by video surveillance, as well as not being directly monitored by guards, and that jurors could use common knowledge to find that it is negligence to allow inmates in an area that was not properly subject to surveillance or monitoring, either due to the existence of a blind spot or lack of guards; and defendant did not offer any testimony as to the standard of care for monitoring of inmates, jail design, video surveillance or any other factors that underlie those standards; the district court properly granted summary judgment for defendants because expert testimony was required in order for a jury to make a decision regarding the standard of care of the monitoring by prison officials and the mere fact that plaintiff was assaulted did not prove that prison monitoring fell below the required standard of care. Villalobos v. Dona Ana Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs, 2014-NMCA-044.