NEWS
Congratulations to Santa Fe partner, Caren Friedman, who presented argument on behalf of the Plaintiff in the New Mexico Court of Appeals on January 12, 2023. Plaintiff was catastrophically injured when the grossly overloaded and untethered scaffold on which he was working collapsed. In New Mexico, a negligence claim against an employer is barred by the exclusivity provision of the Workers Compensation Act. Caren argued that the employer’s intentional acts and omissions and utter disregard for the consequences allow Plaintiff’s claim to proceed. The Court will determine whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the employer. You can listen to Caren’s argument in Camarena v. Superior Contracting Corp. d/b/a American Nat’l Insulation and Sealants, N.M. App., A-1-CA-39598; A-1-CA-39269 here.
Congratulations to Santa Fe partners, Caren Friedman and Rosalind Bienvenu, who, along with trial counsel Joseph Zebas of Hobbs, New Mexico, successfully convinced the New Mexico Court of Appeals to reverse summary judgment in a medical malpractice case. The defendant hospital mixed up two patients with the same name and then administered incorrect blood pressure medications to the plaintiff, causing a life-threatening drop in blood pressure. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant based on causation. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings, agreeing that plaintiff’s medical expert testimony permitted a reasonable inference of causation, making summary judgment improper. You can read the opinion in Walker v. Carlsbad Medical Center here.
Congratulations to Santa Fe partners Caren Friedman, Rosalind Bienvenu, and Justin Kaufman, who successfully convinced the New Mexico Court of Appeals to affirm the judgment in a complex water law appeal. DP&S, along with Paul Hultin and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, represented a consortium of individuals and entities (“Protestants”) who opposed Aquifer Science’s water application, which sought to appropriate groundwater for a speculative, luxury, resort-style development with two golf courses in the East Mountains near Albuquerque. In a formal published opinion, the Court of Appeals agreed that the New Mexico State Engineer’s denial of Aquifer Science’s application was proper because granting the application would result in the impairment of existing wells and would be contrary to the conservation of water. On the conservation prong of the governing statute, Protestants argued that the State Engineer should take into consideration climate change when addressing water applications, prompting the Court of Appeals to call on the State Engineer and the New Mexico Legislature to “provide guidance regarding climate change and conservation before it is judicially imposed.” Finally, the Court of Appeals affirmed a cost award of nearly $400,000 to Protestants as the prevailing parties, and, as a matter of first impression, held that Protestants are entitled to post-judgment interest on that award. You can read the opinion in Aquifer Science, LLC v. Verhines, et al. here.
Congratulations to Kirk Pittard who was featured in the Summer 2022 edition of Baylor Law School’s Docket Call. You can read the article here.
Congratulations to DP&S attorney, Shelby White, who won another qualified immunity appeal to the Fifth Circuit. The appeal was by two police officers who used excessive force to remove and arrest a student at a high school basketball game. The trial court denied the officers’ claim of qualified immunity because of material fact disputes between the officers’ and student’s version of events. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the trial court’s ruling, finding that video of the incident did not conclusively establish that the officers’ use of force was reasonable, and that the law clearly prohibited use of the level of force against a teenager who was “not committing a crime, not a threat to others, and not resisting or attempting to flee the police.” You can read the opinion here.
Congratulations to Santa Fe partner and Chair of the New Mexico State Bar Appellate Practice Section, Rosalind Bienvenu, who moderated the Appellate Judges Candidate Forum on October 18.
The Forum featured nine candidates for seats on the New Mexico Supreme Court and the New Mexico Court of Appeals, including Justice Julie J. Vargas, Justice Briana H. Zamora, Judge Katherine A. Wray, and Judge Gerald E. Baca. The Forum, which was open to the public, provided an opportunity for the judicial candidates to answer questions designed to familiarize voters with their backgrounds and philosophies. The Forum can be viewed on the New Mexico State Bar’s YouTube page.
Congratulations to DP&S attorney, Shelby White, who–along with Thad Spalding, and trial attorney, Daryl Washington–successfully reversed a summary judgment order granting qualified immunity to a police officer. The case involved the fatal shooting of Tavis Crane by Arlington police officer Craig Roper after Crane was stopped when his toddler threw a candy wrapper out of the car window. The trial court granted summary judgment to Officer Roper on the basis of qualified immunity, finding that case law precedent built qualified immunity “into a nearly insurmountable obstacle.” On appeal, the Fifth Circuit found that there were fact issues that needed to be decided by a jury as to whether Roper acted used reasonable force, considering–among many other facts–the speed that Roper resorted to using deadly force. As such, the Court reversed summary judgment and remanded the claims against Officer Roper and the City of Arlington to the district court for trial. You can read the opinion here, and a Dallas Morning News article about the case here.
Congratulations to DP&S Dallas partners Leighton Durham, Kirk Pittard, Thad Spalding, and Rick Thompson who were, once again, named “Super Lawyers” in the Appellate category by by Super Lawyers Magazine, a Thomson Reuters publication, for 2022.
On September 9, 2022, Santa Fe Partner Rosalind Bienvenu, current Chair of the Board of Directors of the New Mexico State Bar’s Appellate Practice Section, moderated the Section’s 33rd Annual Appellate Practice Institute, a daylong webinar featuring distinguished panel members from the appellate bench and bar. The Institute addressed topics such as United States Supreme Court jurisprudence, recent developments in New Mexico appellate practice, best practices for appellate briefing and oral argument, and working with trial counsel to prepare for appeal.
DP&S is pleased to announce that Phil Kovnat has joined the firm as an attorney in the Santa Fe Office. Phil comes to us from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia where he was an appellate and trial attorney handling all phases of litigation. Phil also worked closely with the Office of the Solicitor General and other offices within the Department of Justice on certiorari-level and merits-stage proceedings in the U.S. Supreme Court. Before joining the EEOC, Phil served as a law clerk to the Honorable Bruce D. Black in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, and then went on to clerk for the Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Phil obtained his law degree from American University-Washington College of Law, where he served on the American University Law Review and the Washington College of Law Moot Court Honor Society, and is licensed to practice in the State of New York, as well as the United States Supreme Court, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits.