Opinion ID: 2621725
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Present Developments

Text: {13} Water rights adjudication on the Gallinas culminated in the present action. During the course of a general adjudication of the Pecos River stream system, the State Engineer filed a supplemental complaint in 1985 requiring the City of Las Vegas to declare its asserted rights to the use of water in the system, which includes the Gallinas as a tributary of the Pecos River. Oman, 110 N.M. at 431, 796 P.2d at 1127. In a subfile adjudication between the City and the State, the City asserted its pueblo water right under Cartwright, as well as additional water rights that include the City's interest as successor to the 1881 priority right recognized by the Hope Decree as belonging to New Mexico Power Co. The State Engineer challenged the validity of the pueblo rights doctrine, the legitimacy of the City's claim to be the successor to the 1835 colonization grant, and, in the alternative, the application of the City's pueblo water right to groundwater, reservoirs, industrial uses, uses outside the city limits, and return flows from waste treatment facilities. After the district court denied cross motions for summary judgment by the State Engineer and the City, the Court of Appeals addressed a number of issues on interlocutory appeal. Oman, 110 N.M. at 427, 796 P.2d at 1123. {14} In Oman, the Court of Appeals determined that neither Cartwright nor other judicial proceedings involving water rights on the Gallinas operated as res judicata with respect to the State Engineer's challenge of the City's entitlement to a pueblo water right. Oman, 110 N.M. at 432-33, 796 P.2d at 1128-29. Similarly, the Court determined that the Gallinas Decree did not, by operation of res judicata, preclude the City's assertion of a pueblo water right. Id. at 435-36, 796 P.2d at 1131-32. In addition, the Court recognized that stare decisis required that both the Court of Appeals and the district court adhere to the pronouncements made by this Court in Cartwright. Oman, 110 N.M. at 433, 435, 796 P.2d at 1129, 1131. However, the Court of Appeals noted that Cartwright announced only general principles and that factual questions, such as the types of municipal uses of water subsumed within the pueblo rights doctrine, remained unresolved. Oman, 110 N.M. at 433-34, 796 P.2d at 1129-30. Recognizing the controversial nature of the pueblo rights doctrine, id. at 434, 796 P.2d at 1130, the Court of Appeals also determined that the district court could on remand permit an adequate record to be developed so that ultimately the [S]upreme [C]ourt will be in a position to overrule Cartwright I if it chooses to do so. Id. at 435, 796 P.2d at 1131. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's denial of the motions for summary judgment and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings. Id. at 436, 796 P.2d at 1132. {15} On remand, the district court established a bifurcated procedure. For the question of the continued validity of the pueblo rights doctrine in New Mexico, the court allowed a tender of proof by the parties. The court allowed a similar tender on the question of the proper successor to the 1835 colonization grant. However, based on the binding precedent of Cartwright, the court did not make any findings with respect to the tender and did not rule on either of these issues. The court formally refused the tender but accepted it into the record for this Court's ultimate review. For the remaining issues, which focused on the scope of the City's pueblo right, the court conducted a trial on the merits. The court found after the trial that the City's pueblo water right has a priority of March 23, 1835, and, based on a stipulation entered into by the parties, includes the right to an unquantified amount of water reasonably necessary to meet the City's present and future needs. The court further found that the pueblo right applies to ordinary municipal purposes within the city limits and does not extend to industrial uses, groundwater, except as contemplated by the doctrine adopted in Templeton v. Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District, 65 N.M. 59, 67-68, 332 P.2d 465, 470-71 (1958), reservoirs, or return flows from waste water treatment facilities. The district court noted that its judgment resolved all issues regarding the City's pueblo water right and expressly determined that there was no just reason for delay in entering final judgment as to this claim. See Rule 1-054(B)(1) NMRA 2003 ([T]he court may enter a final judgment as to one or more but fewer than all of the claims only upon an express determination that there is no just reason for delay.); State ex rel. State Eng'r v. Parker Townsend Ranch Co., 118 N.M. 780, 782, 887 P.2d 1247, 1249 (1994) ([S]hould a subfile order reserve for future determination some issues contested by the state and the applicant, such as priority date, then under [Rule 1-054(B)(1) ] the trial court would be required to make an express determination that there is no just reason for delay in order to make the subfile order final and appealable.). Following the district court's denial of the City's motion for new trial, both parties appealed.