Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A "no trespassing" sign is posted near the approach of a low water bridge on Quay Road AI. The bridge was the subject of a lawsuit between the landowner, a solar farm and the county.
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday overturned an appellate court and ruled the public may cross a rancher's private property on a road in Quay County under a "prescriptive easement" established by decades of uninterrupted travel on the roadway.
The court's unanimous opinion resolved a dispute over the right to use a 6-mile road - known as Quay Road AI - to access land owned by the state and several other ranchers, including property leased for a solar energy farm near Tucumcari.
The dispute arose after McFarland Land & Cattle Co. sought to stop the solar energy developer, Caprock Solar 1 LLC, from using a low water crossing over an arroyo on its property to reach land it leased from a neighboring rancher to build and operate a 25-megawatt solar array near Mesa Redonda.
The road was rerouted to the low water crossing after a 1954 flood washed out a nearby bridge. The crossing must be used to travel on the southern three miles of the road to access state land and parts of other ranches, including the solar array and its electrical substation.
According to previous filings in the case, McFarland Land & Cattle had wanted compensation from Caprock and its general contractor of a $20,000 initial payment and $15,000 annually for 25 years to use that section of the road.
The county sent McFarland a cease-and-desist letter, stating it had no right to charge for the use of the road.
McFarland responded with a permanent injunction against the defendants, claiming the low water crossing was on private property and they didn't have permission to use it.
The defendants replied that McFarland's claims were barred due to a prescriptive easement and that the public had the right to use Quay Road AI.
McFarland posted "no trespassing" signs near the bridge, stating admittance would be granted only with written permission.
McFarland through its attorney, now-deceased Tucumcari lawyer Donald Schutte, filed the initial lawsuit in 2016.
In the opinion Thursday, the state Supreme Court clarified what is required to prove a claim for a "public prescriptive easement" that allows people to cross a portion of private property without obtaining the landowner's permission.
"The law of public prescriptive easements in New Mexico does not require a showing of a minimum amount of use or number of users, as it is the public character of the road that guides a fact finder's determination of a public prescriptive easement," Justice David K. Thomson wrote in the court's opinion.
In 2018, a district court determined that Quay County, Caprock Solar and a construction company it hired to build the solar farm had proven their claim of a "public prescriptive easement" by showing the road and the low water crossing had been used without interruption for more than a decade.
The bottom of the low water crossing was lined with concrete by a utility company nearly two decades ago to accommodate heavy construction vehicles when the electrical substation was built.
The state Court of Appeals reversed the district court, finding there was not enough evidence of general public use of the road and that travel by neighboring ranchers and those granted permission to cross the land did not constitute use by the general public.
The state Supreme Court overturned the appellate court decision and affirmed the district court's original judgment in the case.
The justices concluded the "Court of Appeals erred in requiring the County and Defendants to prove a minimum amount of use by the public in establishing their public prescriptive easement claim and erred in holding that evidence of neighbor or invitee use can never be considered to prove public use."
The high court determined there was sufficient evidence to support the district court's finding of a prescriptive easement for public use of the roadway.
The evidence, the justices explained, established the road had a "public character," including it had appeared on Quay County road maps since 1956, the county performed maintenance on it and its arroyo crossing, and a local title company identified it as a public road.
Logan attorney Warren Frost, the county's legal counsel, stated in an email Thursday: "Hopefully Caprock Solar can now expand its solar farm."
Kelly McFarland, owner of the land and cattle company, did not return a call or email requesting comment on the ruling.
Emails to Hinkle Law Firm of Albuquerque, which represented McFarland Land & Cattle Co. before the state Supreme Court, were not answered.
