2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 42 - Actions and Proceedings Relating to Property › Article 11 - Government Immunity › Section 42-11-1 - Granting immunity; providing for exceptions.

The state of New Mexico and its political subdivisions or any of their branches, agencies, departments, boards, commissions, instrumentalities or institutions are granted immunity from and may not be named a defendant in any suit, action, case or legal proceeding involving a claim of title to or interest in real property except as specifically authorized by law.
History:
Laws 1979, ch. 110, § 1.
ANNOTATIONS
Action against the state was not barred by the eleventh amendment sovereign immunity.
— Where the public education department reduced the amount of state revenues paid each month to the school district as an offset for funds received by the school district under the federal impact aid statute, 20 U.S.C. § 7709; the federal statute permitted the state to offset federal revenue as long as the state had been granted certification to do so by the federal department of education; the public education department implemented the offset before it had received federal certification; and the school district sued for reimbursement of state funds that had been offset before federal certification had been issued, the action did not violate sovereign immunity under the eleventh amendment because the basis of the action was to compel the public education department to give the school district its full share of state funds in accordance with Section 22-8-25 NMSA 1978 without reduction for federal aid.
Zuni Pub. School Dist. #89 v. N.M. Pub. Educ. Dep't
, 2012-NMCA-048, 277 P.3d 1252, cert. denied, 2012-NMCERT-004.
Action against the state for money damages was not barred by sovereign immunity under New Mexico law.
— Where the public education department reduced the amount of state revenues paid each month to the school district as an offset for funds received by the school district under the federal impact aid statute, 20 U.S.C. § 7709; the federal statute permitted the state to offset federal revenue as long as the state had been granted certification to do so by the federal department of education; and the public education department implemented the offset before it had received federal certification, the school district's action against the public education department for monetary damages in the amount of state revenues that had been deducted before federal certification had been issued was not barred by sovereign immunity under New Mexico law.
Zuni Pub. School Dist. #89 v. N.M. Pub. Educ. Dep't
, 2012-NMCA-048, 277 P.3d 1252, cert. denied, 2012-NMCERT-004.
Broad grant of immunity bars actions to quiet title against political subdivisions of the state.
— In consolidated cases where plaintiffs filed complaints to quiet title to real property, and named defendants, each a political subdivision of the state, as parties who may claim an adverse interest in the respective properties, and where defendants filed motions to dismiss, claiming that this section prohibited naming defendants as parties in an action to quiet title because they were political subdivisions of the state, the court of appeals properly ordered dismissal of the actions, because in enacting this section, the legislature intended to grant broad immunity to the state and its political subdivisions, and although 42-6-12 NMSA 1978 provides a limited waiver of sovereign immunity, it does not include actions to quiet title.
Nash v. Board of Cnty. Comm'rs of Catron Cnty
., 2021-NMSC-005,
aff'g
2019-NMCA-044.
Quiet title actions against political subdivisions of the state are barred.
— Where, in two separate quiet title lawsuits, plaintiffs named the county of Valencia and the board of county commissioners of Catron county as parties who claimed or may claim an interest in the subject properties, and where the counties responded by filing motions to dismiss on the ground that 42-11-1 NMSA 1978 provided them with immunity and barred the lawsuits, the New Mexico court of appeals held that this section controls and acts as a bar to quiet title suits against the state and its political subdivisions unless specifically authorized by law, and that there is no statutory exception to the counties' immunity in these cases.
Belen Consol. Sch. Dist. v. Valencia Cty. and Nash v. Bd. of Cty. Comm'rs
, 2019-NMCA-044, cert. granted.
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. —
Applicability of judicial immunity to acts of clerk of court under state law, 34 A.L.R.4th 1186.