2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 37 - Limitation of Actions; Abatement and Revivor › Article 1 - Limitations of Actions › Section 37-1-28 - Real estate; limitation on actions for defects of title.

A. After fifteen years from the date an instrument affecting title to real estate is recorded, no action shall be brought for recovery of the real estate because:
(1) the instrument was not signed by the proper officer of a corporation;
(2) the record does not show any authorization for the instrument by the board of directors or stockholders, or both, of a corporation;
(3) the instrument was executed by a corporation:
(a) that had been dissolved;
(b) whose articles of incorporation had expired;
(c) whose certificate of incorporation had been cancelled or revoked; or
(d) whose certificate of authority to transact business in this state had been revoked or withdrawn;
(4) the executor, administrator, guardian, assignee, receiver, master, agent or trustee or other agency making the instrument signed or acknowledged it individually rather than in his representative or official capacity;
(5) the instrument was executed by a trustee without record of judicial or other determination of his authority or of the verity of the facts recited in the instrument;
(6) the officer, who took the acknowledgment of the instrument and who had an official seal, did not affix his seal or show the date of the expiration of his commission on the certificate of acknowledgment; or
(7) the wording of the consideration in the instrument may or might create an implied lien, other than an express vendor's lien, in favor of the grantor.
B. If the action is not barred by limitation or otherwise and if the instrument is of record fourteen years or more prior to the effective date of this section, no action for the recovery of real estate because of any defect listed in Subsection A shall be brought after one year from the effective date of this section.
C. If any person, who is entitled to bring an action for the recovery of real estate is imprisoned, of unsound mind or under the age of majority when the cause of action first accrues, the time for commencing the action by such person is extended one year after the termination of the disability. No cumulative disability shall prevent the bar of the limitation of this section. This subsection applies only to disabilities that existed when the cause of action first accrued.
D. This section does not apply to:
(1) forged instruments; or
(2) instruments given by any community land grant corporation, as defined by law; or
(3) actions that were pending or that were determined prior to July 1, 1971.
History:
1953 Comp., § 23-1-27, enacted by Laws 1971, ch. 313, § 1; 1973, ch. 138, § 16.
ANNOTATIONS
Severability.
— Laws 1971, ch. 313, § 2, provided for the severability of the act if any part or application thereof is held invalid.
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references.
— 13 Am. Jur. 2d Cancellation of Instruments § 44; 51 Am. Jur. 2d §§ 119, 120, 182 to 193.
Estoppel to rely on statute of limitations, 130 A.L.R. 8, 24 A.L.R.2d 1413.
Fences as factor in fixing location of boundary line - modern cases, 7 A.L.R.4th 53.
Slander of title: sufficiency of plaintiff's interest in real property to maintain action, 86 A.L.R.4th 738.
54 C.J.S. Limitations of Actions §§ 32, 40 to 46.