Roybal v. Lujan De La FuenteRoybal v. Lujan De La Fuente
{1} Plaintiffs appeal a grant of summary judgment to Defendant, which determined that certain water rights were conveyed to Defendant by virtue of her deed even though there was no specific language in the deed granting those rights. We reverse. We note that Plaintiffs also moved for summary judgment but, for the reasons that follow, we decline to consider their motion at this juncture and remand so the district court can consider their arguments in light of the holdings in this Opinion.
I. BACKGROUND
{2} The following facts are undisputed. In 1979, Aaron (also spelled “Aron”) Roybal and his wife, Veronica, divided a parcel of property into fifteen adjoining sections and conveyed a section to each of their children by warranty deed. Plaintiffs are three of Aaron’s children, who were each granted one of the parcels, including Ruth Roybal. All of the deeds contain restrictive language, specifying that they could only be sold to the heirs of Aaron. Specifically, each deed states that “[t]he [condition of this deed is that this [l]ot can [n]ot be sold except to one of the [hjeirs of [Aaron] Roybal.”
[There is] a well [o]n [L]ot [N]o. 13 which belong[s] to Ruth. The well belong[s] to all of the heirs[. A]ll can use the water with the condition that all have [to] fix[] the pump and get [it] to work. One water right in the El Rancho Ditch [is] to be use[d] by every one of the heirs[.]
The deed to Ruth specifies that the owners of the various lots are entitled to the water from the well on her property.
{4} Luciano Roybal, Aaron’s son and one of the original grantees, conveyed his portion, Lot 15, to his daughter, Bernadette Lujan. Her deed also contains language limiting the sale of the land and the water rights to Aaron’s heirs. After some of the other land owner/grantees attempted to stop Bernadette from using the well, she filed a complaint for injunctive relief, Lujan v. Roybal {Lujan case), which was granted by the district court. Later, she conveyed the parcel back to Luciano, his wife, and other relatives, who then deeded the property to Margie Lujan de la Fuente (Defendant). Defendant is not Aaron’s heir.
{5} The deed to Defendant contains only general language, describing the property and its location and then specifying that the conveyance is “[s]ubject to: Reservations, restrictions, easements of record and taxes for the year 2004 and subsequent years.” It does not contain any express grant of a right to use the water from the well on Lot 13. To the contrary, it contains no language whatsoever regarding water rights or the well on Lot 13.
{6} Defendant’s right to the well water became a source of contention, and Plaintiffs sued, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to preclude Defendant from using the well water on Lot 13. The parties submitted cross-motions for summary judgment. Defendant claimed that Plaintiffs were barred from any relief under the doctrine of res judicata based on the Lujan case, the earlier lawsuit involving Bernadette. She also claimed that she had water rights to Lot 13 because any restriction on the transfer of those rights was an unenforceable restriction on alienation and, implicitly, because the water rights were appurtenant to the conveyance of land.
{7} Plaintiffs claimed that, based on the clear language of the earlier deeds, Defendant was not entitled to water rights because she is not Aaron’s heir. They also claimed that the deed to Defendant failed to convey any water rights.
{8} The district court granted summary judgment to Defendant, declaring that she had a non-exclusive right to use the water from the well on Lot 13 “by virtue of the deed granting her Lot 15.” This appeal followed.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
{9} “Summary judgment is appropriate where there are no genuine issues of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Self v. United Parcel Sen., Inc.,
III. DISCUSSION
A. Water Rights by Appurtenancy
{10} As an initial matter, we note that the district court entered no findings or conclusions, and the transcript from the summary judgment hearing was not designated as part of the record. We also note that the undisputed facts set forth in Defendant’s motion for summary judgment only concern the prior Lujan case, Defendant’s prior payments for upkeep and use of the well, and the fact that Defendant is not Aaron’s heir. Therefore, the district court’s reasoning in
{11} New Mexico applies the prior appropriation doctrine. In the absence of an express grant of water rights, a conveyance will only include water rights if they are appurtenant to the land. Walker v. United States,
{12} In Walker, our Supreme Court held that, with the exception of water used for irrigation, water rights are not appurtenant to the conveyance of land.
{13} In light of the dispositive effect of these two recent Supreme Court cases, we briefly discuss the underlying facts in Walker and Hydro Resources Corp. In Walker, the plaintiffs had grazing permits over federal lands.
{14} In Hydro Resources Corp., the plaintiff claimed water rights to be used in connection with certain mining claims. The plaintiffs predecessor-in-interest had leased the mining rights to the defendants’ predecessor-in-interest.
{15} In urging this Court to affirm the order granting summary judgment, Defendant sets out provisions of the warranty deed conveying the property to Luciano and traces the history of the subsequent conveyance to Bernadette — the outcome of the Lujan case — and the reconveyance to Luciano and others. She notes that there is nothing restricting water rights in the deed from Aaron to Luciano. From the lack of any restrictive language, she concludes that “[t]he deed clearly transfers ... the right to use the water from the well on [L]ot 13” and argues that the language stating, “the well belong[s] to all of the heirs [and] all can use the water,” is not a reservation of water rights in Aaron. Defendant then contends that, through her warranty deed, she acquired in fee simple all of the rights her predecessors-in-interest acquired through the deed from Aaron, and all of the rights her predecessors-in-interest acquired by virtue of the judgment in the Lujan case. She argues that these water rights survive despite their absence from her deed.
{16} In light of the clear holdings in Walker and Hydro Resources Corp., we disagree. Regardless of what water rights were transferred to Luciano, it is clear that the deed to Defendant does not include any language conveying water rights to her. Furthermore, as more fully discussed in analyzing Defendant’s arguments based on res judicata, she is not entitled to water rights by virtue of the judgment in the Lujan case.
{17} In urging affirmance despite the recent Supreme Court decisions, Defendant contends that the land was used for irrigation, and the use remains for irrigation because the water rights were never severed pursuant to statute. Plaintiffs vigorously dispute Defendant’s contention about prior irrigation use. Even if Defendant is correct, the district court made no findings regarding irrigation and, at best, it is a factual inquiry that can be assessed on remand. Cf. Garcia-Montoya,
{18} Defendant also continues to question whether irrigation is the only way in which a water right becomes appurtenant and suggests that rights could become appurtenant by virtue of a court order, declaring the water right was “imbedded in her deed” such as the order in the Lujan case, and an expression of the grantor’s intent to transfer the water rights as set forth in Luciano’s affidavit. We disagree for two reasons. First, as discussed in the analysis of Defendant’s res judicata argument which follows, the district court’s language that water rights were “imbedded in her deed” in the Lujan case was interpreting Bernadette’s deed, which expressly included water rights. Moreover, the clear language in Walker corrects any suggestion from prior case law “that uses of water other than for irrigation purposes are appurtenant to land.”
{19} Finally, Defendant argues that the underlying facts in Walker and Hydro Resources Corp. are sufficiently distinguishable from the facts in this case to warrant affirmance of the district court’s order granting summary judgment. She attempts to distinguish Walker and Hydro Resources Corp. because, in those cases, the grantor and the grantee or lessee of the land disputed the ownership of the water rights while, in this case, Defendant’s water rights are being challenged by “strangers to her chain of title.” We fail to see how this distinction warrants a different result. Plaintiffs have the right to use the well and the water appurtenant to that well. The well is located on the lot owned by Ruth, and the complaint specifies that Defendant’s use of the well is diminishing the flow of water and causing actual harm.
{20} Defendant also seeks to distinguish Walker and Hydro Resources Corp. because, in those cases, none of the claimed water
{21} Lastly, Defendant argues that, in Walker and Hydro Resources Corp., none of the losing parties had previously obtained a judgment, declaring that they had an enforceable water right. We understand this argument to reference Defendant’s alternative argument that summary judgment should stand pursuant to the doctrine of res judicata. As discussed in the following section, we are unpersuaded by this argument.
B. Res Judicata
{22} Defendant contends that the doctrine of res judicata bars Plaintiffs’ suit because the same issues were already decided in favor of Bernadette in the Lujan case. It does not appear that the district court relied on this doctrine in granting summary judgment to Defendant. However, to whatever extent the court may have relied on the doctrine of res judicata, it did so in error.
{23} “Claim preclusion, or res judicata, precludes a subsequent action involving the same claim or cause of action.” Bank of Santa Fe v. Marcy Plaza Assocs.,
{24} We first consider whether Defendant has established identity of parties or privies and identity of capacity. In the Lujan case, Bernadette and Harold Lujan filed the complaint seeking an injunction against eight defendants, including two of the Plaintiffs in this action, Lillian Roybal Duran and Julia Roybal Manzanares. We note that Ruth Roybal, the third plaintiff in this case, was not a party in the Lujan case, although she did testify in that matter. In her claim for injunctive relief, Bernadette sought, among other things, access to the water from the well located on Lot 13. Bernadette was a predecessor-in-interest to Defendant on Lot 15 and reconveyed the lot to Luciano and others, who then conveyed it to Defendant. Therefore, we agree that Defendant is the successor-in-interest to Bernadette, one of the plaintiffs in the Lujan case.
{25} Assuming without deciding that there was sufficient similarity between the parties to satisfy the first and second elements of res judicata, Defendant’s reliance on that doctrine still fails because the claim and subject matter in this case are not the same as the claim and subject matter litigated in the Lujan case. See Bank of Santa Fe,
{26} In this case, applying a transactional approach leads us to conclude that the requirements for the same claim or cause of action have not been met. The claim and subject matter in both cases may at first
{27} In light of the language of Bernadette’s deed and her status as Aaron’s heir, the central issue in this case — whether Defendant was entitled to water rights, even though her deed contained no mention of such rights, and even though water rights were purportedly limited to heirs — was not at issue and was never litigated in the Lujan ease. Therefore, while the result sought in both lawsuits appears similar, the underlying facts are different because the respective owners of Lot 15 do not share a common identity as heirs of Aaron, and their deeds are sufficiently dissimilar that different legal theories are invoked. Based upon the foregoing, Defendant has failed to establish the third and fourth elements required for res judicata. See Silva v. State,
C. Unreasonable Restraint on Alienation
{28} In order to grant summary judgment to Defendant, a non-heir, the district court had to conclude that the provision in the deed to Luciano restricting water rights to Aaron’s heirs was invalid and unenforceable as an unreasonable restraint on alienation, even though there is no language in the order so stating. Based upon our decision to reverse summary judgment due to the lack of language in Defendant’s deed expressly granting water rights, we need not consider whether the restriction on the granting of water rights would have been enforceable if Luciano had attempted to expressly convey his water rights to Defendant in her deed. If Luciano or any of Aaron’s heirs conveys his or her parcel to a non-heir and attempts to include an express conveyance of the water rights, the question of whether the restriction on water rights is enforceable can be considered at that time. However, given that Defendant’s deed does not include water rights, we decline to consider whether the water rights restriction would have been enforceable if the deed had attempted to transfer the water rights to a non-heir by expressly conveying these rights. See generally City of Las Cruces v. El Paso Elec. Co.,
D. Need for Remand
{29} Although the parties raised the issue of whether the land was used for irrigation and whether the parties complied with the statutory permitting procedures in their summary judgment pleadings, it does not appear these issues were addressed at the summary judgment hearing. We note that Plaintiffs contend that there are no issues of fact precluding this Court from evaluating their motion for summary judgment as well as the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Defendant. However, Defendant contends there are factual discrepancies concerning whether the land was formerly used for irrigation and concerning the proper file number assigned by the State Engineer to Lot 13. Given that the district court did not consider either of these issues, we are disinclined to consider Plaintiffs’ summary judgment motion at this juncture and instead remand so that the district court can first rule on these matters. See generally Garcia-Montoya,
{30} In summary, it appears that the district court, not having the benefit of the Supreme Court’s opinions in Walker and Hydro
IV. CONCLUSION
{31} For the foregoing reasons, we reverse and remand to the district court for further proceedings.
{32} IT IS SO ORDERED.