Territory of New Mexico of 1897, be and the same is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 9. The officers of said community ditches or acequias shall consist of three commissioners and one mayordomo or superintendent, each of whom shall be the owner of an interest in said ditch or the water therein. Said officers shall be elected annually on the first Monday of October and shall assume the duties of their offices not later than the first Monday of the following November. On or before the first Monday of November aforesaid said commissioners shall organize by the election of one of their number as chairman, another as secretary, and the other as treasurer. The mayordomo and the treasurer, separately, shall each give a bond to the territory in a sum to be fixed by said commissioners. The condition of said bonds to be for the accounting of all moneys coming into their hands by virtue of their respective offices and for the faithful performance of their respective duties. Two commissioners shall constitute a quorum and be a full board for the transaction of business at all times. In the event of a vacancy in the office of a mayordomo the commissioners shall immediately appoint a mayordomo or superintendent to hold office until his successor is elected and qualified. In case of a vacancy in the office of a commissioner, the other two commissioners and the mayordomo, or any two of them, shall immediately appoint his successor who shall immediately thereafter qualify and hold his office until his successor is qualified. In case of the joint vacancy of two or more commissioners, a majority of the owners of the water rights in said ditch shall immediately appoint their successor who shall qualify and hold office as herein provided."

Sec. 2. That section 10 of the Compiled Laws of New Mexico of 1897, be and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows: "Section 10. The election for acequia or community ditch officers, under this act, shall be held by the outgoing commissioners, under writen rules and regulations to be prescribed by them. Only those having water rights in the acequia or ditch shall be allowed to vote, but votes may be cast by writen proxy. All votes shall be in proportion to the interest of the voter in the ditch or water, or in proportion to the number or amount of his water rights, which for election purposes, shall never exceed the lands under irrigation the outgoing year. They shall canvass the votes cast and shall record and publicly announce the result of the election within twenty-four hours after the close of the same. Contests, if any, shall be commenced and conducted as now provided by law in the case of general elections for county

officers, but the notice of contest shall be filed within fifteen days after the result of the election is announced as herein required."

Sec. 3. That section 11 of the Compiled Laws of New Mexico of 1897, be and the same is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 11. The commissioners shall assess fatigue work or tasks of all parties owning water rights in said community ditches or acequias and shall regulate the price to be paid in lieu of said fatigue work, all of which shall be uniform. They shall also be the representatives of said acequias in all civil cases for or against the same. The mayordomo or superintendent shall be the executive officer of said ditch and have the superintendence of all work thereon and of the distribution of the waters thereof, with the collection of fines, if any, and of the amounts to be paid in lieu of fatigue or task work: Provided, that he shall turn over to the treasurer of said ditch all moneys thus received, taking his receipt therefor: Provided however, that with the consent and approval of the chairman of the commissioners of said ditch, he may retain of the moneys by him thus collected such sums as are necessary to pay for fatigue work as well as repairs necessary to be made upon said ditch or any bridges, flood gates, boxes or dams necessary to be constructed or repaired. He may also, with the consent and approval of a majority of the commissioners, use of the moneys in the treasury such sums as are necessary for such purposes, drawing his approval warrant against the treasurer of said ditch commissioners whose duty shall be to cash the same and mark such warrants "paid" and report them to the commissioners for cancellation and destruction. Said mayordomo shall make full written reports of all moneys received, expended and how expended and of all his doings as such officer, to the commissioners of said ditch, semi-annually, on the first Monday in June and the last Monday of September: Provided further, that the mayordomo shall make such further reports as may be required by said ditch commissioners. The treasurer of said ditch commissioners shall make such reports to the ditch commissioners of the moneys received, expended and how expended, and kept in his custody as such treasurer and of all his doings as such officer as are herein required of the mayordomo. The commissioners shall receive and pass upon the reports of the mayordomo and the treasurer herein provided for before their term of office expires and if the same are found to be true and correct they shall approve them, otherwise they shall reject them, respectively. All proceedings of the commissioners relating to all subjects whatever shall be reduced

to writing in a book or books kept for that purpose and all books and papers so kept by said commissioners and all reports made, filed or kept as herein required shall always be and remain public property, and shall be subject to the inspection of all persons therein concerned."

Sec. 4. The owners of said community ditches or their lessees or representatives shall labor therein in proportion to their lands under cultivation. It shall be their duty to furnish the number of laborers, proportionate to their lands, required by the mayordomo, at the time and place he may designate for the purposes mentioned in the foregoing section, and for the time he may deem necessary. If any person thus required shall wilfully neglect or refuse to comply with such requirements of the mayordomo, after having been duly notified by the mayordomo or his agent, he shall be fined, for each offense, in a sum not exceeding five dollars ($5.00), for the benefit of said ditch or acequia, which shall be recovered by the mayordomo in a summary way, and in case of default in the payment of said fine, it may be recovered by the mayordomo before any justice of the peace in the county, within fifteen days after such default, and in such cases, the mayordomo may be a competent witness to testify therein.

Sec. 5. In cases of inevitable accidents, such as continual and prolonged droughts, tempests or floods, producing the total or very material failure of crops or expectant crops, the commissioners may, in their discretion, totally or partially exempt the person or persons thus situated from the requirements of the foregoing section relative to continuous labor for lands under cultivation as the circumstances of the case may require. Such exemption or exemptions shall be consistent with the facts and circumstances of the premises and shall not extend to lands thereafter irrigated. Such action by said commissioners shall be reduced to writing and shall become a part of their records.

Sec. 6. If any person shall, during the time of cultivation, contrary to the order of the mayordomo, cut, break, stop up, interfere with or in any manner disturb said acequia or acequias, or contra or lateral acequia thereof or take or use water from the same, contrary to such orders, he may if he is an owner or lessee be fined by the mayordomo, for each offense, in a sum not exceeding twenty-five dollars ($25.00) recoverable as prescribed in section 4 of this act. And in case such transgressor or transgressors are not owners or lessees in said ditch or its waters, then each such offender shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon conviction thereof before any justice of the peace in the county where such offense is committed, be punished by a fine in a sum not

exceeding fifty dollars ($50.00) or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court trying the

case.

Sec. 7. The mayordomo shall receive such compensation for his services as may be mutually fixed between him and a majority of the owners of said ditch. The commissioners shall receive such compensation as may be mutually fixed between them and a majority of the owners of said ditch and upon failure to so fix such compensation, then they shall receive such compensation as is now provided by law.

Sec. 8. If any mayordomo of any community ditch or acequia, after having undertaken to serve as such, shall wilfully neglect or refuse to perform any of the duties of his office, or conduct himself with impropriety or injustice in his office as mayordomo, or take any bribe in money, property or otherwise as inducement to act improperly, he shall, upon conviction before any justice of the peace within the county where such offense is committed, be punished by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars ($50.00) or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding thirty days or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court or jury trying the case.

In case of a fine being recovered as herein provided, half of the same shall go to the school fund and the other half to the general fund of the county where the offense is committed.

Sec. 9. Any wilful neglect of his duties or abuse of his powers by any ditch commissioner shall be deemed a misdemeanor and any such commissioner, upon conviction thereof before any justice of the peace within the county where such offense is committed, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding twenty-five dollars ($25.00) recoverable in the manner now provided by law.

Sec. 10. In all cases of conviction under this act, when the fine assessed by the justice of the peace is the sum of three dollars ($3.00) or less, an appeal shall be granted to the district court only when all the accrued costs shall have been paid; which appeal shall be taken and conducted as all other appeals from the decision of justices of the peace.

Sec. 11. That in counties of the first class in the territory, the judges of election for community ditch officers shall be appointed by the board of county commissioners of the county, and shall serve gratis and in such elections only the owners or lessees of lands irrigated under said ditches shall be allowed to vote and only one vote shall be allowed to each voter notwithstanding the quantity of land owned and irri

gated and notwithstanding that such community ditches are considered as bodies corporate.

Sec. 12. That sections 12, 13, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36, Compiled Laws of 1897, and all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this act be and the same are hereby repealed and this act shall be in force and effect from and after its passage: Provided, none of the parts or provisions of this act or any section thereof shall apply or be construed to be in force or effect in any of the following counties, viz: Doña Ana, Grant, Otero, Luna, Lincoln, Chaves, Eddy, Santa Fe, San Miguel, Mora, Guadalupe, Colfax, Union, Taos, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Quay, McKinley, Roosevelt or Valencia.

CHAPTER 33.

AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE LAW AND PROCEDURE IN CERTAIN CASES. H. B. No. 155; Passed over veto, March 11, 1903.

CONTENTS.

Sec. 1.

Sec. 2.

Sec. 3.

Sec. 4.

Sec. 5.

Civil procedure in personal injury cases. Person injured to file affidavit when. Case to be dismissed when. Proviso.

On petition district court may issue summons for person injured to appear in court and file complaint. Procedure when person summoned fails to

answer.

Unlawful to begin action in any other state or territory. Procedure in case such action has been begun.

When action begun in any other state or territory district court may issue injunction.

Provisions of this chapter not to apply in case process cannot be served in this territory.

Sec. 6. Claim for damages may be compromised.

Whereas, It has become customary for persons claiming damages for personal injuries received in this territory to institute and maintain suits for the recovery thereof in other states and territories, to the increased cost and annoyance and manifest injury and oppression of the business interests of this territory and the derogation of the dignity of the courts thereof;

Therefore, Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of New Mexico:

Section 1. Hereafter there shall be no civil liability under either the common law or any statute of this territory on the part of any person or corporation for any personal injuries inflicted or death caused by such person or corporation in this territory, unless the person claiming damages therefor shall within ninety days after such injuries shall have been inflicted make and serve upon the person or corporation