Lucero v. Los Alamos County ( 2019 )

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1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
2 SHERIFF MARCO LUCERO,
3 Plaintiff-Appellant,
4 v. NO. A-1-CA-37579
5 LOS ALAMOS COUNTY COUNCIL,
6 Defendants-Appellees.
7 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF LOS ALAMOS COUNTY
8 Francis J. Mathew, District Judge
9 Western Agriculture, Resource and Business Advocates, LLP
10 A. Blair Dunn
11 Albuquerque, NM
12 for Appellant
13 Office of the County Attorney
14 Joseph Alvin Leaphart, IV
15 Joseph L. Romero
16 Albuquerque, NM
17 for Appellant
18 MEMORANDUM OPINION
19 VANZI, Judge.
1 {1} The sheriff of Los Alamos County (Sheriff) appeals the dismissal of his lawsuit
2 seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the Los Alamos County Council. [DS
3 2] This Court issued a notice of proposed summary disposition, proposing to affirm
4 the district court’s dismissal on the basis of claim preclusion. [CN 5] Sheriff has filed
5 a memorandum in opposition to that proposed disposition. Having duly considered
6 that memorandum, we remain unpersuaded and now affirm.
7 {2} As our calendar notice pointed out, Sheriff’s docketing statement challenged
8 neither the factual basis for the district court’s judgment nor the district court’s
9 application of the doctrine of claim preclusion. [CN 3, 4] See State v. Aragon, 1999-
10 NMCA-060, ¶ 10, 127 N.M. 393, 981 P.2d 1211 (explaining that the party claiming
11 error bears the burden of showing such error). Similarly, Sheriff’s memorandum
12 opposing affirmance does not challenge any of the facts relied upon in this Court’s
13 notice of proposed summary disposition and does not assert any legal error contained
14 in that notice. See State v. Sisneros, 1982-NMSC-068, ¶ 7, 98 N.M. 201, 647 P.2d 403
15 (explaining that a response to a calendar notice must specifically point out legal or
16 factual errors in the notice). Instead, Sheriff asserts that if this case is precluded by the
17 judgment in a prior case between these parties, then the earlier judgment should
18 somehow be “overturned” by this Court. [MIO 4] Sheriff does not suggest how this
19 Court might go about “overturning” an unappealed district court judgment. In any
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1 event, we conclude that Sheriff has not met his burden, in opposing the proposed
2 summary disposition, to “specifically point out errors in fact and in law.” Id.
3 {3} Thus, for the reasons stated here and in our notice of proposed summary
4 disposition, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
5 {4} IT IS SO ORDERED.
6 __________________________________
7 LINDA M. VANZI, Judge
8 WE CONCUR:
9 _________________________________
10 J. MILES HANISEE, Judge
11 _________________________________
12 KRISTINA BOGARDUS, Judge
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