Whenever persons who own or hold under lease or contract of purchase a majority of the acres of contiguous tracts of land, aggregating not less than three thousand eight hundred and forty acres, shall file with the board of county commissioners of the county in which such lands or a major portion thereof, are situated, a petition in writing signed and acknowledged in the same manner as conveyances of deeds to real estate, and accurately defining such tracts of land and setting forth the correct acreage of each tract, requesting such board to declare such tracts of land a herd law district, said board of county commissioners shall, at the next regular or special meeting of said board, enter an order fixing the time and place, not less than twenty nor more than thirty days from the date of such regular or special meeting, for a hearing on said petition. The clerk of such board shall give notice of the time and place of such hearing by publishing a notice thereof in two successive issues of a legal newspaper of general circulation published nearest to the said proposed district. The last publication shall be not less than ten days prior to the date of said hearing. At the time and place fixed for said hearing said board of county commissioners shall hear said petition, and if it finds the same is duly signed and acknowledged as herein provided, by persons who are owners, lessees or contract purchase holders, of a majority of the acres of lands within said proposed districts and otherwise complies with the provisions of this act, it shall enter an order declaring that all of said tracts of land embraced in said proposed district, from and after thirty days from the date of said order, shall be a herd law district within the meaning of this act [77-12-1 to 77-12-12 NMSA 1978], and shall cause a notice thereof, accurately defining the boundaries of said district, and stating that said district from and after the expiration of thirty days from the date of said order shall be a herd law district within the meaning of this act, to be published in two consecutive issues of the same newspaper as the notice of said hearing. The last of such publications shall be not less than ten days prior to the date said order shall take effect. Provided, however, that no such herd law district shall be created unless at least one-fourth of the land embraced therein is being used for agricultural purposes.

History: Laws 1923, ch. 68, § 2; C.S. 1929, § 4-402; Laws 1933, ch. 92, § 1; 1941 Comp., § 49-1302; 1953 Comp., § 47-13-2.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

Cross references. — For "legal newspapers," see 14-11-2 NMSA 1978.

Certain duties on owner without districts. — Although the herd law district legislation places certain responsibilities upon owners of livestock in herd law districts, it does not follow that no duty exists concerning protection of livestock absent such a district. The law requires an owner of livestock to use due care to protect his property from injury. Grubb v. Wolfe, 1965-NMSC-153, 75 N.M. 601, 408 P.2d 756.

Word "contiguous" means to touch, and if there is any separation of the lands by intervening parts or parcels of land, then the property would not be contiguous, under the meaning of the law. 1932 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 32-502.

"Owners, lessees and contract holders". — The proper construction of the words "owners, lessees and contract holders," as used in this section, would be those owners, lessees and contract holders who have the present right to possession of the lands. In other words, a lessee with the present right to possession would have the control of the property and it would be his prerogative to sign a petition for the establishment of a district rather than the person who actually was the owner and had the title to such property, and the owners of leased property would not have the right to petition for inclusion in a herd law district without the will and consent of their lessees. 1932 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 32-502.

Lessee has right to sign petition for establishment of district, and a contrary petition by the owner is without weight. 1930 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 30-29.

Additional small contiguous tracts allowed within district. — The district in the first instance must be formed of contiguous tracts of land which aggregate not less than 3840 acres. If the district, as formed, contains this amount of acreage apparently, under this section, smaller contiguous tracts may be included therein upon proper petition to the board of county commissioners and signed by the proper parties. 1932 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 32-502.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 4 Am. Jur. 2d Animals § 71.

Constitutionality of statute for formation of cattle districts, 69 A.L.R. 289.

Boundaries of territory to be erected into stock law district or to be added to, or detached from, existing district, statute which leaves determination thereof to private individuals, 70 A.L.R. 1064.

3A C.J.S. Animals § 139.