Weisner v. San Juan County

This memorandum opinion was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Reports. Please see Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished memorandum opinions. Please also note that this electronic memorandum opinion may contain computer-generated errors or other deviations from the official paper version filed by the Court of Appeals and does not include the filing date. 1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO 2 KENT M. WEISNER, 3 Plaintiff-Appellant, 4 v. NO. 31,832 5 SAN JUAN COUNTY NM BOARD 6 OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS and 7 OFFICE OF COUNTY CLERK, 8 Defendant-Appellee. 9 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF SAN JUAN COUNTY 10 Judge Thomas J. Hynes, District Judge 11 Kent M.Weisner 12 Kirtland, NM 13 Pro se Appellant 14 Douglas A. Echols 15 Aztec, NM 16 for Appellee 17 MEMORANDUM OPINION 18 GARCIA, Judge. 1 Plaintiff is appealing, pro se, from a district court order dismissing his 2 complaint. We issued a calendar notice proposing to dismiss. Plaintiff has responded 3 with a memorandum in opposition. Not persuaded by Plaintiff’s arguments, we 4 dismiss the appeal. 5 Plaintiff is appealing from a district court order dismissing his complaint. The 6 judgment was filed on December 1, 2011. [RP 63] On December 7, 2011, Plaintiff 7 filed a motion to reconsider that order. [RP 64] Plaintiff filed a notice of appeal from 8 the underlying order on December 1, 2011. [RP 67] There is no indication in the 9 record proper that the district court ruled on Plaintiff’s motion to reconsider, and 10 Plaintiff’s memorandum in opposition indicates that no ruling has been entered. The 11 district court was required to rule on the post-judgment motion and it was not deemed 12 denied by the passage of time. See Rule 1-059(E) NMRA; Albuquerque Redi-Mix, 13 Inc. v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., 2007-NMSC-051, ¶ 15, 142 N.M. 527, 168 P.3d 99 14 (holding that a Rule 1-059(E) motion is not subject to automatic denial). Thus, we 15 conclude that Plaintiff’s appeal is premature without an order denying his motion. See 16 generally Kelly Inn No. 102, Inc. v. Kapnison, 113 N.M. 231, 236, 824 P.2d 1033, 17 1038 (1992) (discussing principles of finality). 18 For these reasons, we dismiss Plaintiff’s appeal as premature. 19 IT IS SO ORDERED. 2 1 ________________________________ 2 TIMOTHY L. GARCIA, Judge 3 WE CONCUR: 4 _______________________________ 5 MICHAEL E. VIGIL, Judge 6 _______________________________ 7 LINDA M. VANZI, Judge 3