Court Opinion

ID: 9591105
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:02:14.58741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:46:56.288631
License: Public Domain

RANSOM, Justice (specially concurring). Under Part III of the Court’s opinion, the question is posed whether failure of a complaint to state a claim upon which relief can be granted operates to deprive the court of jurisdiction over the subject matter. To me, this begs the issue of “power” as a jurisdictional issue separate from “subject matter.” While I concur with the limited overruling of Martinez, Campbell, and Phillips, to the extent they hold a failure to state a cause of action deprives the court of subject matter jurisdiction, I would not abandon so quickly the principle that a court lacks power to grant relief on a complaint that fails to state a cause of action, and that “power or authority” is a jurisdictional issue that may be raised for the first time on appeal or, perhaps, alternatively under Rule 1-060(B)(4). It is obvious to me, nonetheless, that the court had subject matter jurisdiction, and that it had the power to entertain issues of failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. For example, under Rule 1-012(B), on a motion asserting the defense of failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, the court may hear matters outside the pleadings as on a motion for summary judgment. Power to grant relief, however, is a separate issue. For example, because a defaulting party is not deemed to have admitted specific allegations of unliquidated damages, a court is without power or authority to enter default judgment for unliquidated damages until evidence is considered. See Gallegos v. Franklin, 89 N.M. 118, 123-25, 547 P.2d 1160, 1165-67 (Ct.App.) (well-pleaded allegations in a complaint establish a defaulting defendant’s liability, but the amount of unliquidated damages claimed by plaintiff are not considered to be admitted by default), cert. denied, 89 N.M. 206, 549 P.2d 284 (1976). Under a statutory cause of action, no claim is stated if there is a failure to allege an essential element, and it may be said that the court is without power to grant relief under the statute unless the essentials of the statutory cause of action are satisfied. While a defaulting party may not have admitted essentials of a statutory cause of action not alleged in the complaint, the court certainly has the subject matter jurisdiction to consider evidence and satisfy itself that relief may be granted. The court must decide under the circumstances of each case whether, because of the complaint’s failure to state an essential element, the defaulting party did or did not admit liability. I would hold that a defaulting party acts at his or her own peril in saying “So what?” to a statutory cause of action technically deficient but subject to proof as to all essential elements not admitted by the default.