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Attorney explains VCSO wrongful death settlement
Published
Modified
The attorney for a Peralta family that received a $1.5 settlement in a wrongful death settlement has clarified how the money was disbursed and filled in procedural knowledge gaps in the Valencia County News-Bulletin’s original reporting.
In the Nov. 27 edition of the News-Bulletin, it was reported the Albuquerque law firm that represented the Gabaldon family in a wrongful death lawsuit against Valencia County after a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Michael Gabaldon last year received more than $1.2 million of the settlement.
The News-Bulletin has learned that the law firm did not retain the full $1.2 million and that it distributed most of it to statutory beneficiaries.
While Ives & Flores P.A. did receive the funds, the law firm distributed the bulk of the money to its client and the statutory beneficiaries and only kept what it was statutorily allowed to, attorney Laura Ives said in a Nov. 29 phone interview.
Ives said there were four beneficiaries to the settlement as per an October 2024 petition filed by Gabaldon’s widow, Patricia Gabaldon, in district court for appointment of personal representative to pursue a wrongful death claim against the county.
The News-Bulletin only became aware of legal action by Patricia Gabaldon, on behalf of the estate of her late husband, when a complaint for violations of the New Mexico Tort Claims Act and the New Mexico Civil Rights Act was filed in May 2025.
The petition for appointment of personal representative filed in 2024 is not connected to the 2025 filing in the online court records system the News-Bulletin used when originally reporting the wrongful death suit earlier this year.
Ives pointed out the petition lists four “potential statutory beneficiaries” — Patricia Gabaldon, the couple’s minor son, D.G., and two other adult children, Joshua Gabaldon and Megan Carrasco.
When asked why all four potential beneficiaries weren’t named in the May 2025 complaint, Ives said, “that’s how wrongful death suits work ... you don’t name everybody.”
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The complaint lists Patricia Gabaldon as the plaintiff in the case, as the personal representative of the wrongful death estate of Michael Gabaldon and as parent, guardian and next best friend of D.G., a minor child. The other two Gabaldon children aren’t mentioned.
The attorney said typically money awarded in a wrongful death settlement is sent to the law firm that brought the claim and is then distributed to the statutory beneficiaries of the estate. Settlements with minors have to be court approved, generally, she said.
Ives said the settlement payments to the three adult beneficiaries have been distributed but she could not provide documentation of the distributions because it was private information of the clients.
“That’s just how it works. If you look at any wrongful death suit, when a minor is not involved, the whole amount goes to the law firm,” she said.
Law firms typically retain 35 percent of the settlement payment, and that was the case for the Gabaldon settlement, Ives said. 35 percent of a $1.5 million settlement is $525,000.
Because certain court records were sealed at Ives request, including the order approving the settlement, the News-Bulletin filed an Inspection of Public Records Act request with the New Mexico County Insurance Authority for the settlement agreement. NMCIA insures Valencia County and paid the $1.5 million settlement; it’s settlements are public record.
The document from the insurance authority indicated $1,266,810.49 was paid to the Ives & Flores law firm and $233,189.61 to New York Life Insurance Company to fund four payments to D.G., starting when he turns 18 until age 30. The money will be in an interest bearing annuity and the final total payout to D.G. will be $342,462.87, according to the NMCIA agreement.
Ives said the NMCIA’s release of the agreement violates the court order that sealed part of the case.
She cited paragraph 3 of the order to seal, which reads, “But for the court’s duty to review and consider the terms of the proposed settlement, all matters related to these transactions and agreements would be confidential and outside the public view.”
Ives said she would take up the matter with the insurance authority.
