The immunity granted pursuant to Subsection A of Section 41-4-4 NMSA 1978 does not apply to liability for personal injury, bodily injury, wrongful death or property damage resulting from assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, libel, slander, defamation of character, violation of property rights, the independent tort of negligent spoliation of evidence or the independent tort of intentional spoliation of evidence, failure to comply with duties established pursuant to statute or law or any other deprivation of any rights, privileges or immunities secured by the constitution and laws of the United States or New Mexico when caused by law enforcement officers while acting within the scope of their duties. For purposes of this section, "law enforcement officer" means a public officer or employee vested by law with the power to maintain order, to make arrests for crime or to detain persons suspected of or convicted of committing a crime, whether that duty extends to all crimes or is limited to specific crimes.
§ 41-4-12 NMSA 1978
Liability; law enforcement officers
Known as the Tort Claims Act
The act spans §§ 41–41 (31 sections).
Applied in 23 court decisions — leading case Quezada Estate of v. County of Bernalillo (1991)
Most recently applied in Mohammad v. Albuquerque Police Department (November 2017)
1953 Comp., § 5-14-12, enacted by Laws 1976, ch. 58, § 12; 1977, ch. 386, § 9; 2020, ch. 5, § 14; 2020 (1st S.S.), ch. 7, § 3.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: NMOneSource (New Mexico Compilation Commission). Reproduced from public-domain New Mexico statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.