Hearing set for Friday in co-op case
A motion hearing in Socorro Electric Cooperative’s lawsuit against its member-owners is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. this Friday at the 13th Judicial District Courthouse in Los Lunas. The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether decisions resulting from the case would be binding on all co-op members or just those who filed answers to the complaint.
Socorro Electric brought the lawsuit against all of its approximately 10,000 member-owners last June asking for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief from three bylaws passed at the annual meeting in April.
The bylaws in question:
• Call for the co-op’s board of trustees to voluntarily follow the Open Meetings Act and Inspection of Public Records Act
• Allow members access to co-op books, records and audits, with the exception of records protected by the Privacy Act
• Allow members and the press to attend board meetings and that those meetings be advertised in local newspapers and on billing statements
About a dozen answers to the complaint were filed, including one countersuit that requests class action certification. But that one won’t be addressed on Friday.
“We’re not taking up the cross claim petition for damages,” said Judge Albert J. Mitchell Jr., a 10th Judicial District Court judge who was assigned to the case by the New Mexico Supreme Court. “All we’re focusing on is the original complaint, whether or not its binding. If everyone agrees that it’s binding, then we can do it by stipulation. But we’ll see what we hear on Friday.”
Mitchell said he has already received pleadings on the matter from those who filed answers.
“This will give parties an opportunity to argue their position, if they feel they need to. They’ll have an opportunity to elaborate on their argument,” he said.
While the matter of the counterclaim, which seeks damages from current and former members of the board of trustees and former Co-op General Manager Polo Pineda Jr., will not be addressed directly, Mitchell said it may come up for discussion with regard to scheduling.
“Because there are so many attorneys involved, simply scheduling hearings is an ongoing challenge. So we’ll probably talk about getting time reserved,” Mitchell said.
Thirteen attorneys — two for the co-op and the rest representing defendants — showed up for a status hearing in the case in December.
“This should take care of all the procedural issues, so we can focus on the merits,” Mitchell said.
A merits hearing has already been scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on May 18. That hearing will be held in District Court in Socorro.
Contact T.S. Last