Opinion ID: 891708
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Scope of the Writ

Text: {87} The Land Commissioner exceeded the bounds of permitted authority under the Enabling Act by conducting the Stanley Ranch and the UU Bar Ranch exchanges. Section 10 of the Enabling Act provides that [e]very sale, lease, conveyance or contract of or concerning any of the lands hereby granted or confirmed, or the use thereof or the natural products thereof, not made in substantial conformity with the provisions of this Act shall be null and void. . . . Under NMSA 1978, Section 19-7-8 (1912), the Land Commissioner has the power to cancel any lease, contract or other instrument executed by him which shall have been obtained by fraud or executed through mistake or without authority of law. As such, the Stanley Ranch and the UU Bar Ranch exchanges are null and void and must be cancelled. A Writ of Mandamus will issue ordering the Land Commissioner to cancel all documents or other legal instruments purporting to implement these two exchanges including any transfers of title.
{88} While the CS Ranch and Galloway exchanges have not been consummated with an auction or a transfer of title, they have proceeded thus far in the same manner as the unlawful Stanley Ranch and UU Bar Ranch exchanges. We have held that Public functionaries may be restrained by mandamus from doing what they know is an illegal act. Kiddy v. Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs of Eddy Cnty., 57 N.M. 145, 152, 255 P.2d 678, 683 (1953). If these exchanges were to continue as planned, the Land Commissioner would once again be in violation of the Enabling Act. Therefore, a Writ of Mandamus will issue compelling the Land Commissioner to comply with the sales requirements of the Enabling Act and ordering the Land Commissioner not to consummate or proceed any further with the CS Ranch and Galloway exchanges. See State ex rel. Clark v. Johnson, 120 N.M. 562, 570, 904 P.2d 11, 19 (1995) (It is well settled that the two processes, mandamus and injunction, are correlative in their character and operation. As a rule, whenever a court will interpose by mandamus to compel the performance of a duty, it will exercise its restraining power to prevent a corresponding violation of duty. (quoting In re Sloan, 5 N.M. 590, 628, 25 P. 930, 942 (1891))).
{89} In light of the previously debated state of the law regarding the question of exchanges, we apply our writ and the reasoning behind it only to the exchanges challenged by the Attorney General in this case and not to any exchanges that may have taken place in the past. See Beavers v. Johnson Controls World Servs., Inc., 118 N.M. 391, 397 n. 7, 881 P.2d 1376, 1382 n. 7 (1994) (explaining the availability of selective prospective or modified prospective decisions when the Court explicitly declares such a holding). We do not wish to leave any cloud on previously transferred titles that are not before us. [5] We have previously applied our opinions prospectively when policy considerations compelled such a choice. See Montano v. Gabaldon, 108 N.M. 94, 96, 766 P.2d 1328, 1330 (1989) (holding that Valencia County's revenue bonds were unconstitutional but applying the holding prospectively so as not to disturb similar, previous bond transactions that had taken place in reliance on a then-accepted understanding of the law); see also Hicks v. State, 88 N.M. 588, 592-93, 544 P.2d 1153, 1157-58 (1975) (abolishing common law sovereign immunity prospectively so as to give the legislature opportunity to create a risk management fund and to institute selective statutory sovereign immunity). We also observe that the Attorney General has not sought to challenge the Land Commissioner's authority to engage in any future exchanges with public entities. Accordingly, we express no view on that subject.