Another judge assigned to co-op lawsuit
A new judge has been assigned to the lawsuit filed by the Socorro Electric Cooperative against its member-owners.
Camille Martinez Olguin, a district court judge in Cibola County, was assigned to the case on Aug. 26. She is the fifth judge appointed to the case since it was filed two months ago.
No judge has yet to hear a motion in what has become a convoluted case with many twists and turns.
The Socorro Electric Cooperative’s board of trustees voted in May to challenge three new bylaws passed by member-owners at the annual meeting in April. The lawsuit filed against “all unnamed member-owners” of the co-op — or approximately 10,000 individuals, businesses and public and private entities within the co-op’s service area — asks for a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief from the bylaws, all of which call for the co-op to conduct business with increased transparency.
The board of trustees last week voted to withdraw the lawsuit. But since there have been several answers to the complaint, those would need to be resolved either through acquiescence by the parties or by a judge.
In addition, a countersuit and request for class action certification was filed last week by a team of attorneys. The countersuit names nine of the 10 current trustees, four former trustees and former general manager Polo Pineda Jr. as defendants, alleging negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.
In the meantime, several other filings in the original lawsuit against the member-owners have been entered.
Socorro attorneys Polly Ann Tausch and Thomas Fitch, acting pro se — or on their own behalf as member-owners — filed a reply to the co-op’s response to their motion for a change of venue. Tausch and Fitch are trying to get the case moved to the 7th Judicial District Court in Socorro, where the vast majority of member-owners reside.
A hearing was to be held in district court in Los Lunas on Aug. 10, but the motion still hasn’t been heard because the case keeps getting reassigned to different judges.
Socorro attorney Don Klein Jr., also acting pro se, filed a motion to quash service by publication and motions to dismiss on Aug. 23. At the same time, Klein excused Judge John F. Davis, who was, at that time, assigned to the case.
That same day, however, Davis recused himself from the case.
Bringing some levity to the situation, Socorro resident William D. Colburn filed a peremptory challenge on Aug. 20, which “excuses the currently assigned judge, whomever that might be at this time.”
“My motivation was primarily to avoid the default judgment against me,” Colburn wrote in an Aug. 31 e-mail to El Defensor Chieftain.
Colburn went on to say he filed the challenge as an effort to stir the pot a bit.
“If we can excuse 10,000 judges from this case, it would be hilarious,” he wrote.
Colburn described the whole situation of a co-op suing its member-owners as a “debacle.”
“They (the board of trustees) have expressed such contempt for the owners and for democracy that I’d be willing to vote to disband the co-op and just live in the dark,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, co-op attorney Dennis Francish and El Defensor Chieftain attorney Jim Dines agreed to a stipulation of voluntary dismissal of the newspaper as a defendant in the case. The dismissal is with prejudice, meaning the co-op can’t file against the newspaper again on the same claim.
The dismissal is for El Defensor Chieftain in its capacity as a newspaper. It remains a defendant as a member-owner of the co-op.
Contact T.S. Last