Valencia Water Co. v. Neilson

Citations

• 27 N.M. 29
• 192 P. 510

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. An appellate court will not decide abstract, hypothetical, or moot questions, disconnected from the granting of actual relief, or from the determination of which no practical relief can follow. P. 31</p> <p>2. Section 5723, Code 1915, construed. Held, that an interested party, dissatisfied with the decision of the board of water commissioners upon any matter appealed to it apd from the state engineer, may appeal from such decision of the board by filing a notice of appeal with the board and serving same upon all parties interested within 30 days after such decision by the said board; that the board of water commissioners fixes the amount of the bond to be given by the appellant, and is required to enter an order allowing the appeal. If such order is entered in time, it is the duty of the appellant to procure and file a transcript, or the record of all proceedings with reference to the controversy, in the office of the clerk of the district court to which the appeal is taken within 60 days. If by reason of the nonaction of the board this cannot be done within such time, the appeal might be perfected at any time within three months. If the board fails to meet and act within three months, then the notice of the appeal and bond become functus officio, and the decision of such board -can be reviewed only upon petition and by writ of certiorari, directed to said board and served upon the clerk thereof. A district court has no jurisdiction to entertain an appeal, where the same has not been allowed by said board within three months from the date of the decision appealed from, and purported action by the district court in docketing and dismissing an appeal not so allowed was without jurisdiction. P. 31</p> <p>3. An appellate court has no jurisdiction of an appeal in a matter as to which the lower court was without jurisdiction. P. 33</p>