Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-08-30
JUDGES ARE
RE-ASSIGNED
No Changes Made and Asso-
ciate Justice McFie Re-
mains at Santa Fe
SUPREME COURT SETS PACE
Every Case on Docket Disposed
of---Forty-Three Opinions
Handed Down.

lie territorial supreme court mas
disposed of every one of the fifty-six
cases on the docket when the present
session began, five by continuance for
the term, while the others have been
argued and submitted. Forty-three
cases have been decided, and before
the court adjourns tomorrow after
noon, several more opinions will be
handed down. This record is not
equaled, much less surpassed by any
previous session.
An order of assignment of the
judges to the different districts was
handed down this afternoon. No
changes are made, leaving the Fourth
district still without a presiding Judge.
Judge John R. McFie will retain his
headquarters at Santa Fe, a fact
which will greatly please the vast ma
jority of the people of the First dis
trict.
In case No. 1901, Writ, Gomez &
Co., appellants, VS.. George E. Kutz, ap-
pellee, from Rio Arriba county, decid-
ed at this session, motion for rehear-
ing was denied.
Two opinions were handed down
this afternoon
Case No. 1928, Young &, Norton, ct
al, appellants, vs. NJ. C. Hinderlider,
appellee, is remanded to the lower
court for further hearing, in an opin
ion by Associate Justice Ira A. Alb
bott. 1t is most important irrigation
case from San Juan county and the
opinion says: I'VE think the decision
Of the district court was justified and
probably required by the statement
of facts on which it was heard, but we
find that statement very incomplete
and unsatisfactory as the basis of a
decision in such case.
On October l, 1907 NJ. C. Hinder
lder filed with the territorial engi-
neer an application for a permit to
apprOpriate 200 second feet Of the wa
ters of La Plata river in San Juan
county, and for the construction of a
storage reservoir of a capacity Of H.
406 acre feet for the reclamation OF
IA 900 acres. On December 20 of the
same year, Young & Norton filed an
application to appropriate the waters
to irrigate 5000 acres, part of them
lands covered by the Hinderlider pro
ject, and to construct storage res
ervoir to hold 10,149 acre feet. The
territorial engineer rejected the Hin
derlider application, but the territor-
ial board of water commissioners re-
versed the territorial engineers per-
nit and the district court sustained
the board.
In the case of C. E. Thomas, appel
liant, vs. G. E. Gavin, appellee, Chaves
county, the lower court is sustained in
ar opinion by Associate Justice Ira A.
Abbott. The plaintiff, here the ap-
pellee, sought to recover damages
from defendant for breach of written
contract. Appellant had sold out his
lumber business and had agreed not
to engage in that business again in
Roswell, but appellee claims that ap-
pellant sold a car of lumber there
after.
The syllabus says:
An agreement not to engage in the
business of buying and selling lumber
in a certain town or its vicinity Tor
two years in consideration of the pur-
chase at stipulated prices of the en-
tire stock of lumber of the seller than
on hand in the business in which the
seller is then engaged in the lumber
business. is not void as being in re-
straint of trade.
While single sale of lumber
would not in itself amount to en-
gaging in the lumber business, 1t
would be evidence on the question
whether the seller was engaging in
that business and in connection with
other circumstances might furnish
sufficient proof that he was SO engag
ed.
In an agreement for the sale of a
stock in trade and that the seller fol-
a time abstain from engaging in the
business in which it was employed
there was a provision that a sum
named should be considered liquidat
ed damages in case of breach of the
agreement by either party to it. Held
that it was for the court to determine
from the circumstances of the case
whether the sum named should be
considered a penalty or liquidatet
damages. And the trial court having
found actual damages only instead O.
the stipulated sum, for breach Of
such contract, it was at liberty, il
/ addition to its judgment for damages
to enjoin the defendant from further
violating the agreement in question.
The territorial supreme court hand
ed down two opinions this forenoon: