HOUSE CONSUMER AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE BILL 895
49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2009
AN ACT
RELATING TO THE PUBLIC PEACE, HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE; PROVIDING FOR ALTERNATIVE PUBLICATION ON THE AIR OF LEGAL NOTICES BY RADIO OR TELEVISION STATIONS AND ON THE STATION'S WEB SITE; DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
Section 1. Section 12-2A-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1997, Chapter 173, Section 3) is amended to read:
"12-2A-3. GENERAL DEFINITIONS.--In the statutes and rules of New Mexico:
A. "annually" means per year;
B. "age of majority" begins on the first instant of an individual's eighteenth birthday;
C. "child" includes a child by adoption;
D. "oath" includes an affirmation;
E. "person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture or any legal or commercial entity;
F. "personal property" means property other than real property;
G. "personal representative" of a decedent's estate includes an administrator and executor;
H. "population" means the number of individuals enumerated in the most recent federal decennial census;
I. "property" means real and personal property;
J. "real property" means an estate or interest in, over or under land and other things or interests, including minerals, water, structures and fixtures, that by custom, usage or law pass with a transfer of land even if the estate or interest is not described or mentioned in the contract of sale or instrument of conveyance and, if appropriate to the context, the land in which the estate or interest is claimed;
K. "rule" means a rule, regulation, order, standard or statement of policy, including amendments thereto or repeals thereof, adopted and promulgated by an administrative agency, that purports to affect one or more administrative agencies other than the promulgating agency or that purports to affect persons who are not members or employees of the promulgating agency;
L. "sign" or "subscribe" includes the execution or adoption of any symbol by a person with the present intention to authenticate a writing;
M. "state" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States;
N. "swear" includes affirm;
O. "will" includes a codicil; and
P. "written" and "in writing" includes printing, engraving or any other mode of representing words and letters; provided that for purposes of publication of legal notices, the requirement for written notice may be satisfied by publication on the air by a radio or television station, by reading and by posting on the station's web site."
Section 2. Section 14-11-1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1937, Chapter 167, Section 1) is amended to read:
"14-11-1. LEGAL NOTICES AND ADVERTISEMENTS DEFINED.--Any notice or other written matter [whatsoever] required to be published in a newspaper by any law of this state or by the order of any court of record of this state shall be deemed [and held to be] a legal notice or advertisement within the meaning of [this Act] Chapter 14, Article 11 NMSA 1978; provided that the requirement of publication may be satisfied by broadcasting the notice on a radio or television station heard in the location in which publication is required, by reading the notice and posting the notice on the station's web site."
Section 3. Section 14-11-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1937, Chapter 167, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:
"14-11-2. REQUIREMENT FOR PUBLICATION OF LEGAL NOTICE OR ADVERTISEMENT.--
A. Any and every legal notice or advertisement shall be published:
(1) in a daily, tri-weekly, [a] semi-weekly or [a] weekly newspaper of general circulation that can be obtained by single copy and that is entered under the second class postage privilege in the county in which the notice or advertisement is required to be published; [which] or
(2) on the air by a radio or television station, by reading and by posting on the station's web site. B. The newspaper:
(1) if published tri-weekly, semi-weekly or weekly, shall have been [so] published in the county continuously and uninterruptedly during the period of at least twenty-six consecutive weeks [next] immediately prior to the first issue [thereof] containing [any such] the notice or advertisement; and [which newspaper]
(2) if published daily, shall have been [so] published in the county uninterruptedly and continuously during the period of at least six months [next] immediately prior to the first issue [thereof] containing [any such] the notice or advertisement; provided that the mere change in the name of [any] the newspaper or the [removal] relocation of the principal business office or seat of publication of [any] the newspaper [from one place to another] in the same county shall not break or affect the continuity in the publication of [any such] the newspaper if the newspaper is in fact continuously and uninterruptedly printed and published within the county [as provided in this section; provided further that].
C. A newspaper shall not lose its rights as a legal publication if it fails to publish one or more of its issues by reason of fire, flood, accident, transportation embargo or tie-up or other casualty beyond the control of the publisher. [provided further that any]
D. A legal notice [which] that fails [of publication] to be published for the required number of insertions by reasons beyond the control of the publisher shall not be declared illegal if the publication has been made in one issue of the publication. [and provided further that]
E. If in any county in this state there has not been published any newspaper for the prescribed period at the time when [any such] the notice or advertisement is required to be published, the notice or advertisement may be published in [any] a newspaper:
(1) having a general circulation; or
(2) that is published and printed in whole or in part in that county and that can be obtained by single copy in that county."
Section 4. EMERGENCY.--It is necessary for the public peace, health and safety that this act take effect immediately.
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