Court Opinion

ID: 9553006
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:20:23.487525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:29:29.355085
License: Public Domain

BLACK, Judge (specially concurring). While I concur in the entire opinion which we file today, I have some reservations about the decision upon which Point 1 is premised, Blaze Construction Co. v. Taxation & Revenue Department, 117 N.M. 362, 871 P.2d 1368 (Ct.App.) (No. 12,120), cert. granted, (Nov. 1, 1993). In particular, I believe that Blaze may not have adequately considered the holding of our Supreme Court in Tiffany Construction Co. v. Bureau of Revenue, 96 N.M. 296, 629 P.2d 1225 (1981). It may be that more recent United States Supreme Court cases, such as Ramah Navajo School Board, Inc. v. Bureau of Revenue, 458 U.S. 832, 102 S.Ct. 3394, 73 L.Ed.2d 1174 (1982), require a reexamination of Tiffany, but until our Supreme Court engages in such a reex amination, we must follow such recent New Mexico precedent. See State v. Wilson, 116 N.M. 793, 795, 867 P.2d 1175, 1177 (1994) (court bound by recent precedent of our Supreme Court). Notwithstanding my concerns about whether the issue was correctly decided in Blaze, however, I believe it is more important for this Court to follow its own precedent than to allow the rights of the parties to be governed by which panel of judges is assigned to the case. See generally Taylor Mattis, Precedential Value of Decisions of the Court of Appeals of the State of New Mexico, 22 N.M.L.Rev. 535, 537 (1992). I therefore concur.