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Cooper v. Amerada Hess Corp.9/15/2000
ted by the plaintiff's equitable cause of action, which would have had the effect of settling title as between the plaintiff and defendant, the Supreme Court held that the plaintiff's complaint affected an interest in land within the meaning of the 1876 Act.
Jemez Land Co. largely disposes of the argument that venue in the present case is limited to Lea County. Although the 1876 Act has been amended in the intervening decades, the basic structure of the 1876 Act has not been altered. Jemez Land Co.'s observation that a trespass action is not confined to the county where the property is located "if the claim for damages was the sole object of the suit" marks a clear departure from the common-law rule that actions seeking damages for injury to real property are local actions. Jemez Land Co. remains good law and is fully applicable to Section 38-3-1. See Team Bank v. Meridian Oil Inc, 118 N.M. 147, 149, 879 P.2d 779, 781 (1994) (citing Jemez Land Co. for proposition that venue outside county where land located may be proper if claim for damages is sole object of suit).
We note and reject Defendants' argument that Plaintiffs' request for injunctive relief converts this case into an action involving an interest in land. It was well-settled at the time of Jemez Land Co. that in appropriate cases an injunction might issue to restrain continuing trespasses and prevent irreparable harm to the plaintiff. See, e.g., Kerlin v. West, 4 N.J. Eq. 449 (N.J. Ch. 1844); see generally, 75 Am. Jur. 2d, Trespass § 113 (1991). The Supreme Court's observation in Jemez Land Co. that the plaintiff's trespass action would not have been confined to the county where the property is located "if the claim for damages was the sole object of the suit" was not intended to establish a damages-injunction dichotomy for venue purposes. Rather, the distinction the Supreme Court was making was between actions the object of which is to redress tortious injury to real property (whether through damages or injunctive relief) versus actions that adjudicate title to real property as between the parties. In this regard, we note that subsequent to Jemez Land Co., the Supreme Court has stated that to come within Section 38-3-1(D), the suit must implicate title. Team Bank , 118 N.M. at 149, 879 P.2d at 781. In contrast to Jemez Land Co., the pleadings in the present case do not put in issue title to the property on which the pollution allegedly has occurred.
Defendants argue that an interest in lands is involved in the present case because judgment in Plaintiffs' favor will have the practical effect of limiting Defendants' use and enjoyment of their oil and gas rights inasmuch as Defendants must modify their prior manner of conducting oil and gas operations on Plaintiffs' land to avoid further liability. See 75 Am. Jur. 2d, Trespass § 114 (1991) (discussing remedies for continuing trespass). We have no doubt that the Legislature had the power to enact a venue statute under which the indirect effects a successful trespass or nuisance action has on a defendant-landowner's use and enjoyment of its property constitutes a suit affecting an interest in lands. Jemez Land Co. and Team Bank lead us to the conclusion that the Legislature rejected such an approach in enacting Section 38-3-1(D)(1).
To summarize, the 1876 Act manifests a substantial departure from common-law rules of venue. Under the 1876 Act, as carried forward in Section 38-3-1, actions seeking damages or injunctive relief for tortious injury to land are transitory actions subject to the venue rules of Section 38-3-1(A). In the case of trespass, the Legislature has included the county in which the land is located as an additional alternative venue.
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