State Ex Rel. Maloney v. Sierra

I respectfully dissent.

Before we can proceed to review the action of the lower court we must assure ourselves that it had jurisdiction to act. The jurisdictional questions are: Can the Attorney General and the Director obtain a declaratory judgment on the question and related subjects from the District Court of Santa Fe County in this action? Can the intervenors? Since the question is jurisdictional it must be raised sua sponte and resolved before we can proceed. Taos County Board of Education v. Sedillo, 44 N.M. 300, 101 P.2d 1027 (1940).

Our declaratory judgment statute, § 22-6-1, N.M.S.A.,…