Lester v. Lester ( 2015 )

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1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
2 RALPH N. LESTER,
3 Plaintiff-Appellant,
4 v. No. 33,926
5 DEAN G. LESTER and KAREN LESTER,
6 Defendants-Appellees.
7 APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF LEA COUNTY
8 Mark Terrence Sanchez, District Judge
9 Ralph Lester
10 Albuquerque, NM
11 Pro se Appellant
12 Dean G. Lester
13 Karen Lester
14 Ruidoso, NM
15 Pro Se Appellees
16 MEMORANDUM OPINION
17 BUSTAMANTE, Judge.
1 {1} Plaintiff appeals, in a self-represented capacity, from the district court’s
2 dismissal of his case for filing a frivolous lawsuit. [RP 24, 35] Our notice proposed
3 to affirm, and Plaintiff in turn filed an “objection to proposed disposition” (objection).
4 We are unpersuaded by Plaintiff’s arguments and therefore affirm.
5 {2} We acknowledge Plaintiff’s arguments in his objection that the district court
6 should not have ruled on the case in Plaintiff’s absence [objection 1; RP 22] and that
7 the court failed “to take into . . . consideration the facts and law relating to the case.”
8 [objection 1] For the reasons discussed in our notice, however, we conclude that the
9 district court properly exercised its discretion to assess that Plaintiff’s lawsuit was
10 frivolous because Plaintiff failed to make a showing that he was entitled to his
11 requested injunctive relief [RP 1, 2-3, 13] given his failure to satisfy the “irreparable
12 injury” criteria for entitlement to injunctive relief. See generally Moody v. Stribling,
13 1999-NMCA-094, ¶ 30, 127 N.M. 630, 985 P.2d 1210 (providing that whether or not
14 to grant equitable relief is a matter left to the sound discretion of the district court); see
15 also Hines Corp. v. City of Albuquerque, 1980-NMSC-107, ¶ 13, 95 N.M. 311, 621
16 P.2d 1116 (noting that injunctive relief is granted to prevent irreparable injury for
17 which there is no adequate and complete remedy at law). In this regard, in the event
18 Plaintiff is ultimately successful in a claim that trust assets have been wrongfully
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1 distributed or mismanaged, then he has the available remedy of securing an award of
2 monetary damages. We accordingly affirm.
3 {3} IT IS SO ORDERED.
4 _______________________________________
5 MICHAEL D. BUSTAMANTE, Judge
6 WE CONCUR:
7
8 M. MONICA ZAMORA, Judge
9
10 J. MILES HANISEE, Judge
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