Opinion ID: 2514940
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Raels

Text: {27} In her complaint, Plaintiff alleged that the Raels had been hired by Tafoya to do the excavation work on the highway right-of-way, and that the Raels in turn had hired Decedent. The Raels denied any such role in hiring Decedent. In their motion for summary judgment, the Raels argued that Plaintiff could not present any admissible evidence establishing a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the Raels hired Decedent, such that there would be a legally cognizable relationship giving rise to a duty on their part. Plaintiff responded with a litany of evidence that she argued established a genuine issue of fact as to whether the Raels had agreed to pull a permit from the NMDOT for the excavating work, thereby encouraging and enabling Decedent to perform that work. The district court granted summary judgment for the Raels based on its determination that Plaintiff [was] unable to present admissible evidence that tends to establish the essential elements of her claims against the Rael Defendants as alleged in her complaint. {28} After the court orally granted the Raels' motions for summary judgment, Plaintiff sought leave to amend the complaint to add, among other things, allegations of a common scheme and a civil conspiracy claim. The court denied the motion on the ground that the proposed claim and supporting arguments had not been raised until nine days before trial, when the summary judgment motions were heard, and after extensive discovery had already been completed. The court also observed that it was unlikely that Plaintiff could prevail on her new claim given the general rule that a co-conspirator cannot recover in tort against another co-conspirator. Significantly, Plaintiff did not appeal from that ruling and it is not before us now. {29} Apparently, the theory of the Raels' negligence that Plaintiff presented on summary judgment differed from the theory set forth in her complaint. Plaintiff's complaint was premised on allegations that the Raels hired Decedent to perform the trenching operations. Nowhere in Plaintiff's complaint does she allege, either directly or indirectly, that the Raels agreed to use their license to pull a permit from the NMDOT, or represented to Decedent that they had pulled a permit, thus encouraging Decedent to proceed with the excavation. In fact, on summary judgment, Plaintiff admitted that the Raels did not hire the Decedent to do the trenching work. Thus, the evidence Plaintiff presented on summary judgment was insufficient to establish the cause of action alleged in her complaint, and her complaint was never amended to conform to the evidence. In this respect, the district court's broad statement that Plaintiff did not present admissible evidence that tends to establish the essential elements of her claims against [the Raels] as alleged in her complaint  is correct. (Emphasis added.) Because Plaintiff did not appeal the district court's denial of her motion to amend, she is bound by the allegations contained in her original complaint. Accordingly, we affirm the result reached by the Court of Appeals with respect to the Raels.