New Mexico Bank & Trust v. Corliss

1 This memorandum opinion was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Reports. Please 2 see Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished memorandum opinions. 3 Please also note that this electronic memorandum opinion may contain computer-generated 4 errors or other deviations from the official paper version filed by the Court of Appeals and does 5 not include the filing date. 6 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO 7 NEW MEXICO BANK & TRUST, 8 Plaintiff-Appellee, 9 v. NO. 29,446 10 GLADYS CORLISS, 11 Defendant-Appellant. 12 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF QUAY COUNTY 13 Matthew Sandoval, District Judge 14 Doerr & Knudson, P.A. 15 Randy Knudson 16 Portales, NM 17 David Romero 18 Las Vegas, NM 19 for Appellee 20 Gladys Corliss 21 Tucumcari, NM 22 Pro Se Appellant 23 MEMORANDUM OPINION 24 WECHSLER, Judge. 1 Appellant is appealing, pro se, from an order granting summary judgment. We 2 issued a calendar notice proposing to dismiss. Appellant has responded with a 3 memorandum in opposition. Not persuaded that our calendar notice was incorrect, we 4 dismiss the appeal. 5 A judgment is not final and appealable unless it practically disposes of the 6 merits of the underlying controversy, leaving only issues collateral to and separate 7 from that underlying controversy to be resolved. See Kelly Inn No. 102 v. Kapnison, 8 113 N.M. 231, 236-37, 824 P.2d 1033, 1038-39 (1992); Rule 12-201(A) NMRA. 9 Appellant is appealing from several district court orders, including an order granting 10 New Mexico Bank & Trust’s (NMBT) motion for summary judgment on its complaint 11 for declaratory judgment. [RP 1205] Appellant timely filed a notice of appeal on 12 April 3, 2009. [RP 1237] However, the district court had consolidated a separate civil 13 suit that had been brought by Appellant against NMBT, having the effect of creating 14 an outstanding counterclaim against NMBT. [RP 1209] Appellant’s beliefs that 15 NMBT’s complaint was filed in bad faith, was legally defective, or should not have 16 been consolidated with this action, do not affect our review for purposes of finality in 17 the absence of any indication that the claim has been dismissed. Pursuant to Rule 1- 18 054(B)(1) NMRA, this outstanding claim against NMBT makes the underlying 19 summary judgment order non-final. Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal. I IS TS O 20 ORDERED. 2 1 _______________________________ 2 JAMES J. WECHSLER, Judge 3 WE CONCUR: 4 ____________________________ 5 ROBERT E. ROBLES, Judge 6 ____________________________ 7 LINDA M. VANZI, Judge