Eric Sedillo Jeffries, LLC

Selected Cases

My qualifications and experience are represented in the positions I have held and the many successful cases I concluded.

I held positions as the Senior Trial Attorney in the office of the New Mexico Attorney General, Civil and Criminal divisions, including counsel to various state agencies, Acting Deputy District Attorney in office of Taos District Attorney, Assistant District Attorney in Albuquerque, and Adjunct Professor of Business Law at College of Santa Fe. I founded and managed, for a decade, a very successful insurance defense firm of six to seven lawyers, while successfully trying several large Plaintiff cases.

For over twenty five years I was a defense attorney for insurance companies and their customers. Since 1995 I also successfully litigated a number of prominent Plaintiff’s cases. Selected cases are listed below.

State of New Mexico vs. Dr. Gerson Carr, 95 N.M. 755, 625 P.2d 292 (Ct.App.1981)		Prosecutor - trial, appeal and affirmation of 42 counts of New Mexico’s first felony convictions of a medical doctor who prescribed narcotics outside the scope of his medical license.

State, ex rel. Alcohol Beverage Control vs. Garcia and El Sabino (1980)		Prosecutor - successful administrative hearings established hidden interests in liquor licenses, publicity helped reform New Mexico’s liquor laws.

Suggs vs. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 833 F.2d 883 (10^th Cir. 1987)		Defendant’s counsel - trial and appellate, reversal of bad faith jury verdict which established good faith denial is a debatable defense in law and fact.

Zein-Elden vs. Farmers Alliance Mut. Ins. Co., 119 N.M. 370, 890 P.2d 823 (N.M.App. 1994)		Defendant’s counsel - summary judgment case established New Mexico standards for defenses of lack of cooperation and intentional false material statement subsequently successfully dismissed.

Kehoe vs. Big J Enterprises, Inc., 124 N.M. 591, 953 P.2d 1089 (Ct.App.1997)		Plaintiff’s counsel - trial, appeal, and affirmation of $560,000.00 jury verdict in a whistleblower case. Successfully cross-examined Defendant owner – then sitting Governor Gary Johnson.

City of Hobbs vs. Nutmeg Ins. Co., 162 F.3d 576, (10^th Cir. 1998)		Plaintiff’s counsel - reversal of dismissal in a bad faith failure to settle case, subsequently successfully tried to a jury verdict of $2.6 million.

Skofield vs. Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society		Plaintiff’s counsel - won 2002 class action bench award of $1,200,000.00 for overcharges of elderly residents under the New Mexico Continuing Care Act. The award was reduced and appealed by both parties. We recently won a major victory before the N.M. Supreme Court, but the case remains on appeal. One of the very few class action cases ever tried in New Mexico and nationally.

Cerro Grande Fire, Los Alamos, NM		Plaintiff’s counsel - Represented approximately a third of the carriers on Cerro Grande Fire claims recovering several million dollars in statutory claims.

Tierra Concepts v. LandAmerica Title, et.al		Plaintiffs’ counsel in bad faith denial of coverage action. Satisfactorily settled in 2004.