Opinion
No. CIV 07-1117 JB/WDS.
March 24, 2010
Donald A. Walcott, Holly Hart, Kris C. Knutson, Scheuer, Yost Patterson, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Attorneys for Plaintiff and Counter-Defendant Wheeler Peak, LLC.
Scott P. Hatcher, Hatcher Tebo, P.A., Santa Fe, New Mexico, Attorneys for Proposed Intervenor-Plaintiffs American Hallmark Insurance Company of Texas and Clarendon National Insurance Company.
Alan Maestas, Lee Boothby, Maestas Baker Boothby Warren, P.C., Taos, New Mexico, and Tim L. Fields, Samuel L. Winder, Brian K. Nichols, Cristin M. Heyns, Modrall Sperling Roehl Harris Sisk, P.A., Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorneys for Defendant, Counterclaimaint, and Third-Party Plaintiff L.C.I.2, Inc.
Todd Schwarz, H. Brook Laskey, Bryan Hatherly, Miller Stratvert, P.A., Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorneys for Third-Party Defendant and Third-Party Plaintiff Donner Plumbing and Heating Inc.
Robert J. Perovich, Mariposa Padilla Sivage, Tina Muscarella Gooch, Keleher McLeod, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorneys for Third-Party Defendant De La Torre Architects, P.A., A.I.A.
Steven L. Gonzales, Anita M. Kelley, Silva, Saucedo Gonzales, P.C., Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorney for Third-Party Defendant Parker Excavating, Inc.
Robert Bruce Collins, Holly R. Harvey, Law Office of Robert Bruce Collins, Albuquerque, New Mexico Attorneys for Third-Party Defendant JC Constructors, Inc.
Michael S. Jahner, Yenson, Lynn, Allen Wosick, P.C., Albuquerque, New Mexico, and J. Michael Roberts, Jason R. Scott, Shook Hardy Bacon, LLP, Kansas City, Kansas, Attorneys for Third-Party Defendant Simplex Grinnell, LP.
Julie J. Vargas, Hunt Davis, P.C., Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorneys for Third-Party Defendants David Born, Carl Davis, Lisa Davis, Melissa Deaver-Rivera, Kathy Diklich, Roy Diklich, Joseph Forbess, Lisa Forbess, Phyllis Galanthay, Ted Galanthay, Angela Nix, and Kent Nix.
Linda Holley, Sarasota, Florida, Denied Plaintiff-Intervenor.
ORDER
THIS MATTER comes before the Court on a letter from Linda Holley to the Court (dated March 24, 2010), filed March 24, 2010 in the related matter of Clarendon National Insurance Company et al. v. Wheeler Peak, LLC et al., No. CIV 09-0294 (Doc. 48). In the letter, Linda Holley asserts that she is being treated unfairly by the other litigants in these proceedings, and asks the Court not to allow the other parties to enter a settlement or close the case until her claims have also been settled. The Court denied Holley's Motion to Intervene and Assert Claim in a Memorandum Opinion and Order entered January 25, 2010 (Doc. 476). Holley, therefore, is not a party to this proceeding, and her assent to settlement is not required. She thus has no standing to challenge any settlement or dismissal into which the parties may agree. See Marino v. Ortiz, 484 U.S. 301, 304 (1988) (affirming the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's holding that "a district court may dismiss as an impermissible collateral attack a lawsuit challenging a consent decree by nonparties to the underlying litigation"); S. Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Kempthorne, 525 F.3d 966, 968 (10th Cir. 2008) ("[N]on-parties in the district court[] suggest their first appeal from the district court's judgment is viable even though the district court had yet to rule on their motion to intervene at the time they filed their notice of appeal. We think not."). The Court will thus overrule the objections in her March 24, 2010 letter and any further objections that she may attempt to make regarding the settlement of this proceeding. If Holley wants relief from these parties for wrongs to her, she will need to seek relief personal to her in a separate action and not in this one.
IT IS ORDERED that the objections contained in Linda Holley's March 24, 2010 letter to the Court are overruled based on Holley's lack of standing to challenge any settlement or consent judgment in this case.