## Facts

- Navajo United Methodist Mission School, Inc. (Mission School) operated a school campus in Farmington, New Mexico, and experienced declining enrollment and use of its facilities in the late 1970s.
- Navajo Academy, Inc. (Academy), a tribally organized New Mexico corporation operating a preparatory school for Navajo students, was invited by the Mission School to relocate to the Farmington campus in 1978.
- At the outset, the parties had no written agreement. They operated under an understanding that the Academy could use the campus rent-free for an indefinite term so long as it provided a quality educational program for Navajo youth and sought Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funding for renovations.
- The Academy carried out those commitments, including obtaining BIA funding and making substantial improvements to the campus in reliance on the continuing arrangement.
- Over time, the relationship was documented through a series of short-term written leases (generally one-year, nominal-rent arrangements), but the trial court found these did not replace the parties’ earlier long-term understanding.
- The campus property was owned by the Women’s Division of the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church (Women’s Division). The Women’s Division had a policy against leases longer than four years, which impeded the Academy’s requests for a longer-term lease to support capital planning and funding.
- As the Academy’s use of the campus expanded and the Mission School’s own program diminished, relations between the parties deteriorated.
- In 1987, the Mission School demanded rent of about $220,000 per year for continued occupancy. The Academy refused to sign a lease on those terms.
- The Mission School initiated an eviction proceeding. The Academy filed an action in district court seeking equitable relief to prevent immediate eviction and to address the parties’ course of dealing.
- After a bench trial, the district court terminated the tenancy but enjoined eviction and allowed the Academy to remain in possession for three years to find a new location, with a firm requirement to vacate at the end of that period.
- The Mission School and related defendants appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court, challenging the evidentiary support for the findings and the legal basis for the equitable remedy.

## Issues

1. Whether substantial evidence supported the district court’s key findings about the parties’ long-term understanding and the Academy’s reliance and contributions.
2. Whether the district court, sitting in equity, could terminate the tenancy yet allow the Academy to remain in possession for a fixed three-year period, or whether that remedy exceeded the court’s lawful authority or amounted to an abuse of discretion.

## Decision

- The New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s judgment.
- The Court held that substantial evidence supported the trial court’s findings concerning the long-term understanding, the Academy’s performance and reliance, and the significance of the improvements made while the Mission School accepted the benefits.
- The Court held that, given the unusual circumstances, the district court did not abuse its equitable discretion by ending the tenancy while permitting continued possession for three years to avoid severe disruption to the Academy’s educational program.
- The Court treated the injunction as a time-limited, balanced remedy: it protected the Mission School’s eventual right to possession while preventing immediate hardship that would result from abrupt removal.

## Legal Principles

- Findings of fact in an equitable action will be upheld on appeal when supported by substantial evidence.
- A court sitting in equity has discretion to shape a remedy that addresses the parties’ conduct and reliance, especially where strict enforcement of immediate possession would work an unjust result.
- In unusual landlord-tenant disputes involving long-term assurances, substantial tenant reliance, and significant tenant-funded improvements accepted by the landlord, equity may allow the tenant to remain in possession for a defined period even after the tenancy is terminated.
- Appellate review of equitable remedies is deferential; the question is whether the trial court’s remedy falls within the bounds of reason and is supported by the record.

## Conclusion

The New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed an injunction that terminated the Academy’s tenancy but allowed three additional years of possession, holding that the trial court’s findings were supported by substantial evidence and that the time-limited continued-occupancy order was a permissible exercise of equitable discretion in light of the Academy’s reliance and improvements and the hardship of immediate eviction.


Navajo Academy v. Navajo United Methodist Mission School, 109 N.M. 324, 785 P.2d 235 (1990)