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1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
2 JOSE EMILIO ARAGON,
3 Petitioner-Appellant,
4 v. NO. 35,490
5 CITY OF LAS VEGAS,
6 Respondent-Appellee.
7 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF SAN MIGUEL COUNTY
8 Matthew E. Chandler, District Judge
9 Jose Emilio Aragon
10 Las Vegas, NM
11 Pro Se Appellant
12 City of Las Vegas
13 David E. Romero Jr., City Attorney
14 Las Vegas, NM
15 for Appellee
16 MEMORANDUM OPINION
1 WECHSLER, Judge.
2 {1} Petitioner, Jose Emilio Aragon, a self-represented litigant, appeals from a
3 district court order dismissing his petition for a writ of mandamus. This Court issued
4 a calendar notice proposing to summarily affirm. Petitioner filed a memorandum in
5 opposition to this Court’s notice of proposed disposition, which we have duly
6 considered. Unpersuaded, we affirm.
7 {2} In our calendar notice, we recognized that NMSA 1978, Section 44-2-4 (1884),
8 permits a district court to deny a petition for a writ of mandamus for prudential
9 reasons. [CN 2] We also noted that mandamus is an “extraordinary” remedy. [CN 2]
10 See FastBucks of Roswell, N.M., LLC v. King, 2013-NMCA-008, ¶ 7, 294 P.3d 1287.
11 Finally, we observed that when a district court declines to issue a writ of mandamus
12 out of prudential concerns, we review for an abuse of discretion. [CN 2] Id. ¶ 5. After
13 reviewing Petitioner’s assertions of error, as laid out in his informal docketing
14 statement, we suggested that he had not met his burden to demonstrate error. [CN 4-5]
15 Consequently, we proposed to conclude that the district court did not abuse its
16 discretion in dismissing Petitioner’s petition for a writ of mandamus. [CN 5]
17 {3} In his memorandum in opposition, Petitioner takes issue with our proposed
18 disposition, arguing that he is actually appealing the district court’s failure to grant his
19 motion for default judgment. [MIO 1] See Hennessy v. Duryea, 1998-NMCA-036, ¶
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1 24, 124 N.M. 754, 955 P.2d 683 (“Our courts have repeatedly held that, in summary
2 calendar cases, the burden is on the party opposing the proposed disposition to clearly
3 point out errors in fact or law.”). Petitioner’s specific contention is that he filed a
4 motion for default judgment for Respondent’s failure to timely answer the petition but
5 that the district court never ruled on his motion. [MIO 1-2] However, from our review
6 of the record before this Court, we note that the district court denied Petitioner’s
7 motion for default judgment, as well as Petitioner’s amended motion for default
8 judgment, on January 22, 2016. [RP 101] The district court denied the motions
9 because it found that Respondent filed a timely response to the petition. [RP 101]
10 Petitioner has not put forth any specific challenge to the district court’s findings or
11 conclusions, nor has he provided this Court with authority in support of his position,
12 aside from a general—and inapposite—citation to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55.
13 [See MIO 1-2] We are thus unconvinced that Petitioner has demonstrated that the
14 district court erred in relation to his motion for default judgment. See Farmers, Inc.
15 v. Dal Mach. & Fabricating, Inc., 1990-NMSC-100, ¶ 8, 111 N.M. 6, 800 P.2d 1063
16 (stating that the appellate court presumes that the district court is correct and the
17 burden is on the appellant to clearly demonstrate that the district court erred); see also
18 In re Adoption of Doe, 1984-NMSC-024, ¶ 2, 100 N.M. 764, 676 P.2d 1329 (stating
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1 that where a party cites no authority to support an argument, we may assume no such
2 authority exists).
3 {4} To the extent that Petitioner continues to assert, as he did in his docketing
4 statement, that the district court erred in not addressing his claims regarding the mayor
5 of the City of Las Vegas’s “expropriation of [Petitioner’s] monies[,]” we remain
6 unpersuaded that the district court erred. [MIO 1-2; see also DS 26] As we noted in
7 our calendar notice, Petitioner’s docketing statement actually minimized the aspect of
8 his mandamus petition dealing with his requested recall of the mayor and instead
9 focused on an apparent claim against the mayor and the city for damages. [CN 4-5]
10 We observed that Petitioner had not provided us with facts regarding these claims, nor
11 did he explain how these claims were related to his petition for a writ of mandamus.
12 [CN 5] Notably, Petitioner has not provided us with any amplification or clarity in his
13 memorandum in opposition. [See generally MIO 1-2] “We will not search the record
14 for facts, arguments, and rulings in order to support generalized arguments.” Muse v.
15 Muse, 2009-NMCA-003, ¶ 72, 145 N.M. 451, 200 P.3d 104. This Court will review
16 pro se arguments to the best of its ability, but it cannot respond to unintelligible
17 arguments. See Clayton v. Trotter, 1990-NMCA-078, ¶¶ 12-17, 110 N.M. 369, 796
18 P.2d 262 (declining to address unintelligible and unascertainable arguments).
19 Therefore, we decline to address this undeveloped, unintelligible argument. See
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1 Corona v. Corona, 2014-NMCA-071, ¶ 28, 329 P.3d 701 (“This Court has no duty
2 to review an argument that is not adequately developed.”).
3 {5} We conclude that Petitioner has not met his burden to clearly demonstrate that
4 the district court erred in this case. Accordingly, for the reasons stated above, as well
5 as those provided in our calendar notice, we affirm.
6 {6} IT IS SO ORDERED.
7 ________________________________
8 JAMES J. WECHSLER, Judge
9 WE CONCUR:
10 ________________________________
11 MICHAEL D. BUSTAMANTE, Judge
12 ________________________________
13 TIMOTHY L. GARCIA, Judge
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