Judge sets dates for co-op case

The judge presiding over the lawsuit involving Socorro Electric Cooperative and its member-owners has set dates for three status hearings to address the countersuit against the co-op. All are scheduled for next year at the 13th Judicial District Courthouse in Los Lunas, where Socorro Electric originally filed suit against its members 18 months ago.

District Judge Albert J. Mitchell Jr., a 10th Judicial Court judge who was appointed to the case by the New Mexico Supreme Court, issued notices of hearings last week. The hearings are set for:

• Wednesday, March 21, 3 p.m.

• Thursday, June 21, 9 a.m.

• Friday, Sept. 28, 9 a.m.

The March hearing is scheduled for one hour. The judge allocated all day for the other two.

The case originated in June 2010 when Socorro Electric took the unusual step of suing all of its approximately 10,000 member-owners in an effort to block newly adopted bylaws that called for the co-op to operate with greater transparency. Mitchell ruled against the co-op in May, saying bylaws that require the co-op to abide by the Open Meetings Act and Inspection of Public Records Act were valid and properly adopted.

Still pending is a countersuit that requests class action certification. The counter claim names nine members of the Socorro Electric’s board of trustees and five former co-op officials as defendants, charging breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. Named as representative of the class of member-owners of the non-profit corporation is Trustee Charlie Wagner, a leader in the movement to reform the co-op.

Members overwhelmingly passed a bevy of reform-related bylaws at the annual meeting in 2010 after it came to light the board of trustees had incurred expenses totaling $492,000 in 2009.

The board continues to resist the changes, recently taking action to propose resolutions at next year’s annual meeting that serve to un-do some of what members voted for in 2010, including a spending cap.

At a status hearing earlier this month, Judge Mitchell urged attorneys to get started with discovery. He said he would revisit the prospect of mediation at the March hearing. The June hearing would address the class action certification and a full hearing on the countersuit would be in September.

The lead attorney in the countersuit is Bill Ikard of Austin, Texas, who helped win a class action case against Pedernales Electric, the largest co-op in the country. His firm is working in concert with Socorro’s Deschamps & Kortemeier.

Socorro attorneys Thomas Fitch and Polly Tausch are loosely attached to the case, having responded to the co-op’s original suit.

Socorro Electric is being represented by the Kennedy Han law firm of Albuquerque.

Co-op attorney Dennis Francish, who filed the original lawsuit, is no longer involved in the case. His contract expires at the end of the year.

The co-op’s board of trustees is in the process of hiring a new attorney. It held a special meeting on Tuesday to interview a candidate and plans to select an attorney at its next regular meeting on Dec. 28.

 

-- Email the author at tslast@dchieftain.com.