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Damage Suit DismissedWylie Brothers conSANTA FE,N.M. (AP) —The New Mexico Appeals Court has upheld district court dismissal of a damage suit against Albuquerque police by the mother of a Chicano activist who was killed at a police stakeout in 1972,Antonio Cordova and Rito Canales were shot to death by police at a dynamite storage shed at a highway construction site southwest of Albuquerque. Police said the stakeout was the result of an anonymous tip that the shed would be burglarised.Mary Cordova of Salt Lake City, Utah, sued the six slate and local officers involved, the city of Albuquerque and Wylie Brothers Contracting Co., each for $300,000 on allegations of wrongful death.Bernalillo County District Court dismissed the suit in a summary judgment for the defendants. The lower court said there was a showing that Canales was attempting burglary and that Cordova was at least an accessory.Police asserted that Cordova fired first.The appeals court said, The officers’ duty, when fired upon, was not to retreat, but to press forward and place Cordova under physical restraint. In doing so, the officers could?i person named Tim Chapa was a police informant who cither took Cordova and Canales to the site or arranged for them lo go to the site.Thu court said the innuendo was that Chupa conspired with police localise the deaths of Cordova and Canales. Mrs. Cordova contended her son’s death was a political event.But the appeals court said Mrs. Cordova admitted in the oral arguments that nothing on the trial court record supports the conspiracy innuendo or theUlJUlfc OU, lilt UUIVVIP v--.- —, -defend themselves and use characterization of the event asdeadly force if such was justified being political.by the circumstances The appeals court said innuendo was made in Mrs. Cordova's brief and during oral arguments before the court thatIn a deposition, Chapa der.ied any conspiracy, denied being a police informer anil denied any knowledge of the affair.Mrs. Cordova’s suit againstWylie Brothers contended the construction company entered into an agreement with the officers and took affirmative actions to cooperate with willful and malicious actions by the officers.It was contended in the appeal that once the construction company was informed a trespass was imminent, it had a duty to protect the trespasser from danger” and a duty “not to wilfully and wantonly injure unknown trespassers.”The appeals court said, however, that these theories were not raised in the trial court and could not be raised for the first time on appeal.No factual issue was raised that Wylie Brothers knew of the potential injury to the trespassers, the court said.
Newspaper Details
Silver City Daily Press
Silver City, New Mexico, US
Mon, Sep 16, 1974
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Greg P.
AU 21 Jun 2023
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