Court Opinion

ID: 9543887
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:50:10.689636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:11:24.018048
License: Public Domain

McKINNON, Justice (specially concurring). I concur in Justice Ransom’s well-reasoned opinion and write primarily to emphasize that the dispute here was between the government and private parties. Because of public policy considerations in its role as trustee for the public lands, the government could not be collaterally estopped by the decision in Roe v. State ex rel. State Highway Department, 103 N.M. 517, 710 P.2d 84 (1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1141, 106 S.Ct. 2247, 90 L.Ed.2d 693 (1986), to claim an interest in sand and gravel even though the purchase contracts did not expressly reserve these materials. Similarly, the rule of law requiring a specific reservation under Roe should not be applicable; instead the intention of the parties should be controlling. However, these public policy considerations are not present in similar disputes between private parties. Thus, for a private grantor to reserve land and gravel, a provision so specifying must continue to be included in the purchase contract.