SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Because the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court did not make a record of proceedings in a 2014 eviction case, the court must retry the case, the state’s supreme court says.
In 2014, a landlord asked the metropolitan court to remove a tenant from a home in southwest Albuquerque. The court agreed and ordered the tenant to pay $927 worth of past-due rent.
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The tenant tried to appeal the decision, but the appeal was rejected because the tenant did not request a recording of the metropolitan court trial. The tenant argued that the court was supposed to keep a record of court proceedings, and that it shouldn’t have been up to the individuals in the case to request the court keep records.
Now, the New Mexico Supreme Court has weighed in on the issue. In an opinion issued Monday, February 5, the justices say state law applicable at the time did require the court to keep records as a “court of record.” Since then, however, lawmakers have changed state law so that metropolitan court is no longer a court of record for landlord tenant matters, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.