Opinion ID: 2586233
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: New Mexico Case Law-The McNew Case and Subsequent Developments

Text: {35} Along with Section 19-3-13, the Walkers rely on this Court's 1928 opinion in First State Bank of Alamogordo v. McNew, 33 N.M. 414, 269 P. 56 (1928), to support their argument that they have an implicit right to land incident to their water right. Quoting selectively from particular passages in McNew, the Walkers and their Amici assert that a possessory right to forage on public lands is implicit within a New Mexico water right. They accurately quote from McNew that, although the title to the public range rested with the United States, holder of the water right had appropriated and stocked said range with cattle, and being the owner of permanent water for use upon said range for the maintenance of cattle thereon, had possessory rights in said public lands, which he could protect as against one forcibly entering thereon without right. 33 N.M. at 422, 269 P. at 59 (emphasis added). The Walkers argue that this language, which relies on the predecessor to Section 19-3-13 as well as on Hill and Yates, indicates that a vested water right based on grazing cattle necessarily includes a possessory interest in the very forage which is the object of that grazing. {36} The Walkers also claim that McNew analogizes a stockwater [sic] right to an irrigation right, and thus supports a finding that an interest in land is incident to a water right. In other words, since irrigation water rights become appurtenant to the land on which they are used, stock watering rights, which are also tied to the land through grazing, imply a grazing right on the land surrounding the source of that water. The Walkers point to the following statement from McNew: Since water for stock-raising, as well as for irrigation, may become incident to the beneficial use of land, the cases cited are not distinguishable in that respect. The water right is considered incident or appurtenant to the land irrigated, because that is the use which it is applied and for which appropriated. For the same reason, it should be deemed incident to the land on which W.H. McNew's cattle grazed. 33 N.M. at 423, 269 P. at 60 (citation omitted). The Walkers assert that if stock watering rights can be incident to land, then conversely, a land right utilized to gain that water right, such as forage, can be incident to a water right. {37} Upon careful analysis of the McNew opinion, we conclude that the Walkers have misread its holding as well as its place in New Mexico jurisprudence. McNew addressed whether a water right is appurtenant to a possessory interest in land. 33 N.M. at 422-423, 269 P. at 59-60. Regardless of the holding of McNew on that issue, neither McNew nor any other New Mexico case supports the converse proposition: that a land interest is incident to a water right. In contrast to the facts of McNew, the Walkers do not seek to make a water right appurtenant to land; rather, they seek to make an interest in land appurtenant to a water right. The McNew opinion never addressed such a claim. There is no support for applying McNew in this fashion. See also Hunter v. United States, 388 F.2d 148, 153-54 (9th Cir.1967) (The argument that appurtenance runs both ways claims too much. The appurtenance must be limited to that which is essential to the use of the right granted; it does not include the thing with which the right granted is used.); Cleary v. Skiffich, 28 Colo. 362, 65 P. 59, 63 (1901) (holding that a water right does not include the right to use land on which to beneficially apply the water). {38} While our discussion of McNew could end here, we think this distant opinion deserves further explanation, especially in light of the specific passages the Walkers selectively draw upon to support their argument. The facts of McNew provide important context and are historically interesting, being specific to the time of the open range when the public domain was utilized by settlers seeking to make a living in the arid conditions of the West. The McNews raised cattle on the public range, but held no title to the land. McNew, 33 N.M. at 422, 269 P. at 59. As part of their stock raising operation, the McNews purchased rights to a large amount of water and built the instrumentalities necessary to pipe that water to the range to water their cattle. Id. The McNews later orally conveyed their entire interest to their son, which conveyance was challenged by a creditor bank. Id. at 421, 269 P. at 59. The part of the opinion relevant to our discussion here involved whether those water rights could be conveyed orally, or whether a conveyance of such rights would have to comply with the statute of frauds. McNew, 33 N.M. at 421-22, 269 P. at 59-60. Classifying the McNews' rights as possessory rights, which equity would protect against someone attempting to enter forcibly without better right, and the water rights as appurtenant or incident thereto, this Court agreed with the McNews that a written conveyance was not necessary. Id. at 423, 269 P. at 60 (relying on precedent from Oregon and Montana). {39} Whatever the merits of an oral conveyance may have been in 1928, however, New Mexico water law has since evolved and made this inquiry moot. Since McNew was decided, our courts have recognized water rights as real property interests to which all the rules of real property apply, including the requirement of the statute of frauds that all such conveyances be in writing. See Posey v. Dove, 57 N.M. 200, 210, 257 P.2d 541, 547 (1953) (It is generally conceded by all of the authorities that a water right, or an interest in water, is real property, and it is so treated under all the rules of law appertaining to such property. (quoted authority omitted)); see also McNew, 33 N.M. at 422, 269 P. at 59 (stating that the Court declined to confront the issue of whether water rights were real property). It is now clear under New Mexico law that a transfer of a water right must be in writing. {40} Therefore, all of McNew's language about water being appurtenant to possessory estates in land, utilized to avoid the statute of frauds, seems out of time, would not be viewed the same today, and serves no continuing purpose for the law. As previously discussed, the law of New Mexico is clear that a water right is separate from any land right and not appurtenant, except in the irrigation context. To find any sort of interest in land, one must look to the land, not to a water right upon that land. To the extent McNew appears inconsistent with these principles, it has no contemporary legal effect and should no longer be cited for that purpose. {41} Drawing on this same language from McNew, a later Court of Appeals opinion cited McNew, indicating in dicta that water used for certain domestic purposes, including watering livestock, can be incident to land where the right to continue to use the water on the land is indispensable to the enjoyment of the land. KRM, 1996-NMCA-103, ¶ 7, 122 N.M. 389, 925 P.2d 9 (citing McNew, 33 N.M. at 430, 269 P. at 62-63) (emphasis added). The Walkers seize upon this language in KRM to support their argument that forage rights are implicit in a water right because without the right to forage their water right is valueless. {42} To the extent that KRM, and specifically the final sentence in paragraph seven of that opinion, suggests that uses of water other than for irrigation purposes are appurtenant to land, we hereby correct that language. It relies on the very language in McNew that we have just held to be of no further legal effect. Though only dicta in KRM, that language is potentially confusing to the law; and therefore, in the interests of clarity, that discussion in paragraph seven should no longer be cited for the proposition that water can be incident or appurtenant to land, except in the case of irrigation.