LOS CHAVEZ COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, et al., Petitioners-Appellees,
v.
VALENCIA COUNTY and the Board of County Commissioners, Respondents, and
John Whisenant and Elias Barela, Interested Parties-Appellants.
Court of Appeals of New Mexico.
*477 Hunt & Davis, P.C., Catherine F. Davis, Julie J. Vargas, Albuquerque, NM, for Appellees.
Chavez Law Firm, P.C., Steven M. Chavez, Los Lunas, NM, Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb, P.A., Edward Ricco, Jocelyn Drennan, Albuquerque, NM, for Appellants.
OPINION
CASTILLO, Chief Judge.
{1} The issue in this case is whether a county commissioner is required to recuse herself from voting on an application for a zoning map amendment if she is a first сousin *478 to one of the applicants. We conclude that the due process protections of the state and federal constitutions, as well as the language in Article VI, Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution, require recusal. Thus, we affirm the decision of the district court.
BACKGROUND
{2} The facts are not in dispute. Appellants John Whisenant and Elias Barela (Appellants) applied to the Valencia County Board of County Commissioners (Board) for a zone change to allow a plаnned residential subdivision on adjacent properties they own in Valencia County. Appellants sought to turn three parcels of land encompassing about forty acres into fifteen residential lots of between two and two-and-a-half acres in size. The Board, on a 3-2 vote, approved the change in zoning status from Agricultural Preservation to Rural Residential 2, which would allow division of the land into the smaller lot sizes. Commissioner Georgia Otero-Kirkham, who is a first cousin to Barela, voted in fаvor of the change. Before the vote was taken, a neighborhood resident asked Commissioner Otero-Kirkham at the public hearing whether she would recuse herself from the vote because of her family ties to Barela. Commissioner Otero-Kirkham stated that "we're not that close" and that she had sought an opinion from the Board's attorney who informed her that she need not recuse herself.
{3} After the Board approved the zoning change, Los Chavez Community Association and a number of individuals (Los Chavez) appealed the decision to district court. Los Chavez sought reversal on the grounds that the decision of the Board was arbitrary and capricious and that it lacked substantial evidentiary support. Los Chavez also maintained that the group was denied fundamental due process because Commissioner Otero-Kirkham's refusal to recuse herself presented an appearance of impropriety and bias, essentially denying Appellants' opponents of an opportunity for a fair hearing before the Board. The district court reversed the decision of the Board, relying on the "spirit" of the New Mexico Constitution and citing the failure to recuse as a due process violation. The court remanded the case for a hearing without Commissioner Otero-Kirkham's participation, and Appellants filed this appeal.
DISCUSSION
{4} In addition to the question of recusal and due process, we asked the parties to brief two threshold issuеs: whether the district court's order is final for purposes of this appeal and whether the issue is properly before us pursuant to a discretionary petition for writ of certiorari from the district court's exercise of its appellate jurisdiction or as a direct appeal as of right from the district court's exercise of its original jurisdiction. We address those threshold issues before proceeding to the main issue.
The Doctrine of Practical Finality Applies Here
{5} We first decide whether this appeal is properly before us оn a final order from the district court. "In general, the right to appeal is restricted to final judgments and decisions." High Ridge Hinkle Joint Venture v. City of Albuquerque,
{6} Despite the policy against piecemeal litigation, "our jurisprudence has permitted appeals from certain orders even though a disputed issue remains." Roark v. Farmers Grp., Inc.,
{7} In the matter at hand, we find two bases for allowing this аppeal to proceed under the doctrine of practical finality. First, we agree with Appellants that the question of when a county commissioner must recuse herself in deciding a zoning-use matter involving a relative is one of continuing importance to the Board in Valencia County and to other such bodies statewide. As noted above, even though the circumstances in this case can be distinguished, the reasoning in Cox applies because the issue before us affects the оperation of the Board and potentially other county boards across the state. The issue of the impartiality of a county zoning board commissioner in cases involving a relative is likely to be repeated in Valencia County and elsewhere. The policies of judicial efficiency and meaningful appellate review apply here.
{8} Second, fairness to the parties dictates that we accept this appeal. Appellants should not have to go back to the beginning of the application process if there is a chance that appellate review by this Court would spare them that time and expense in a process that could be burdensome and wasteful. See Begay,
This Appeal Arises From the District Court's Original Jurisdiction
{9} We also asked the parties to brief whether the issue before us is a discretionary appeal pursuant to a writ of certiоrari or if it is an appeal of right based on the district court's original jurisdiction. We agree with both parties that this appeal properly arises from the district court's original jurisdiction. "Whether the district court is possessed of jurisdiction over the subject matter of a case is a question of law that we review de novo." Ottino v. Ottino,
*480 {10} When appeals arise out of administrative proceedings, we distinguish between issues that the district court takes up under its appellate jurisdiction and those it addresses under its original jurisdiction. Our district courts are recognized as courts of general jurisdiction. See id. A district court is given "original jurisdiction in all matters and causes not excepted in this [C]onstitution, and such jurisdiction of special cases and proceedings as may be conferred by law, and appellate jurisdiction of all cases originating in inferior courts and tribunals in their respective districts[.]" N.M. Const. art. VI, § 13. We have previously acknowledged that, regarding the appellate role of district courts in the аdministrative scheme, the idea of original jurisdiction "may appear to be contrary to the rule that when the district court sits as an appellate tribunal, in the absence of a statutory exception, it is limited to consideration of the record below." Maso v. N.M. Taxation & Revenue Dep't,
{11} In the case before us, as in Maso, the district court was faced with a constitutional question of due process. And here, the district court based its ruling exclusively on the question of Commissioner Otero-Kirkham's refusal to recuse herself, which the district court concluded was a violation of Los Chavez's due process right to a fair and impartial tribunal. The fact that Los Chavez's original appeal to the district court invoked only that court's appellate jurisdiction is not fatal to our analysis. See State v. Roybal,
Due Process Requires Recusal
{12} We now turn to the merits of the case. "We review questions of constitutional law and constitutional rights, such as due process protections, de novo." N.M. Bd. of Veterinary Med. v. Riegger,
{13} Under the zoning ordinance for Valencia County, the Board is the ultimate decision-making body for zone changes such as the one requested by Appellants. Valencia County Ordinance No. 2004-05, § 154.061(B)(3)(a) (2004). When making this type of decision, the Board acts in a quasi-judicial capacity. Id. § 154.061. Appellants recognize that when Bоard members act in a quasi-judicial capacity, they "must act like a judicial body bound by ethical standards comparable to those that govern a court in performing the same function." Albuquerque Commons P'ship v. City Council of Albuquerque (ACP),
{14} Relying on West Bluff Neighborhood Ass'n v. City of Albuquerque,
{15} To evaluate Appellants' arguments, we begin by looking to the history of judicial disqualification.[1] "Under early English law[,] a judge could be disqualified from presiding over a matter only when he could bе shown to possess a disqualifying pecuniary interestand then only when another judge was available to hear the cause." Richard E. Flamm, Judicial Disqualification: Recusal and Disqualification of Judges § 1.4, at 7 (2d ed. 2007). Essentially, a judge's bias or prejudice was not enough to require disqualification. Throughout the United States' early independence, the narrow recusal standards of the common law prevailed, but near the turn of the nineteenth century, both federal and state governments began attemрts to restrain judicial bias through statutory control. Id. at 8-9.
{16} Disqualification of judges based on kinship is found in Rule 21-211(A)(2)(a) and requires disqualification when the judge knows that a "person within the third degree of relationship ... is ... a party to the proceeding[.]" The New Mexico Constitution sets a higher standard with regard to judges and the parties who appear before them.
No justice, judge or magistrate of any court shall, except by consent of all parties, sit in any cause in which either of the parties are related to him by affinity or consanguinity within the degree of first cousin, or in which he was counsel, or in the trial of which he presided in any inferior court, or in which he has an interest.
N.M. Const. art. VI, § 18.
{17} The New Mexico Legislature has imposed the higher constitutional restriction on other quasi-judicial tribunals. For example, quasi-judicial unemployment compensation hearing officers are prohibited from sitting "in any administrative or adjudicatory proceeding in which ... either of the parties is related to the hearing officer, mеmber of the board of review or secretary by affinity or consanguinity within the degree of first cousin[.]" NMSA 1978, § 51-1-8(E)(1) (2004). Similarly, the language of Article VI, Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution is repeated in NMSA 1978, § 35-3-8(A)(1) (1968), and it states that no magistrate shall sit in any action in which "either of the parties is related to him by affinity or consanguinity within the degree of first cousin[.]" In determining that Commissioner Otero-Kirkham should have recused herself, the district court referred to these constitutional and statutory requirements.
{18} Los Chavez agrees with the district court's approach. They argue that quasi-judicial decision-makers should be held to the same constitutional standard as judges. Clearly, judges and unemployment compensation hearing officers are restricted from sitting on cases with parties who are related to them within the degree of first cousin. The New Mexico Constitution does not specifically mention quasi-judicial decision-makers, and there is no statute that deals specifically with disqualification of New Mexico county сommissioners when they are acting in a quasi-judicial capacity. Thus, our question is whether board members who sit in a quasi-judicial capacity should be bound by the kinship-based disqualification requirements found in the language of Article VI, *482 Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution based on due process protections of the state and federal constitutions, as construed in applicable case law. We conclude that they do.
{19} We begin by reaffirming the proposition that those who sit on bоards adjudicating individual property applications for changes in zoning designations act in a quasi-judicial capacity. See ACP,
{20} The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects citizens from state action that leads to "deprivations of liberty and property without due process of law." Mills v. State Bd. of Psychologist Exam'rs,
{21} The substance of Article VI, Section 18 has been part of the New Mexico Constitution since statehood. "[T]he disqualification of judges for certain causes, raising a presumption of partiality, has been ever present in our Constitution[.]" State ex rel. Hannah v. Armijo,
{22} Our Supreme Court has determined it to be "imperative" that when governmental agencies adjudicate the legal rights of individuals they "use the procedures which have traditionally been associated with the judicial process." Reid v. N.M. Bd. of Exam'rs in Optometry,
The rigidity of the requirement that the trier be impartial and unconcerned in the result applies more strictly to an administrative adjudication where many of the customary safeguards affiliated with court proceedings have, in the interest of expedition and a supposed administrative efficiеncy, been relaxed.
Id.; see also Ohio Bell Tel. Co. v. Pub. Utils. Comm'n,
{23} Due process requires a "neutral and detached judge in the first instance." Ward v. Vill. of Monroeville,
{24} As Appellants recognize, New Mexico law binds quasi-judicial decisionmakers to "ethical standards comparable to those that govern a court in performing the same function." ACP,
{25} Appellants also argue that such a restriction on local board members adjudicating matters involving first cousins could present hurdles in small communities where relation by blood may be harder to avoid. We also recognize Appellant's arguments that this Opinion could at times hamper administrative efficiency or the rights of residents to fully serve their communities. We have previously observed that city council members are not expected to be "so insulated from their community as to require them to be detached from all issues coming before them." Siesta Hills Neighborhood Ass'n v. City of Albuquerque,
CONCLUSION
{26} For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the district court and remand to the Valencia Board of County Commissioners for action not inconsistent with this Opinion.
{27} IT IS SO ORDERED.
WE CONCUR: JONATHAN B. SUTIN and TIMOTHY L. GARCIA, Judges.
NOTES
Notes
[1] We recognize that the terms "recusal" and "disqualification" are often used interchangeably. See Rule 21-211 comm. cmt. at ¶ 1.