Section 73-2-39 - Duty to furnish laborers; duty of absent landowner. - New Mexico Statutes

73-2-39. [Duty to furnish laborers; duty of absent landowner.]

Every owner or tenant of irrigable lands, irrigated by any of such acequias in this state, shall be compelled to hold at all times during the operations of the acequias to which they belong, the number of laborers to them assigned according to the provisions of the preceding section [73-2-38 NMSA 1978], at the disposal and order of the respective mayordomo or his assistant. And it shall not be legal for any owner or tenant of irrigable lands, irrigated by any of such acequias, to absent himself for a time exceeding three days without informing the chief mayordomo of the respective acequia about the persons remaining in his stead to comply with his or their duty regarding said acequia, and he shall even present them, so that in his presence they may assume the responsibilities during the time of absence of such person or persons that are to be absent. And all the responsibilities of such absentees regarding said acequias shall fall upon the substitutes left, and no other persons but those assuming the responsibility of the person by whom they are presented shall be admitted as substitutes. And if any of such owners or tenants of irrigable lands, irrigated under any of such acequias in this state, should absent himself from the precinct during the time the acequias are in operation, without complying with the duty upon him imposed by this and the succeeding section [73-2-40 NMSA 1978], besides suffering the penalty fixed by the mayordomo, he shall be responsible to the public where he belongs for a just and common estimate, per diem, of the time he was absent, and the number of laborers that may have been assigned to him. Nor shall any proprietor, on account of having rented his lands, reserving a part for himself, be exempt from working on the acequia at any time of said work.