Las Vegas Weekly

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A big Silver State milestone came last week when the 60,000th case was filed with the Nevada Supreme Court.

Any confetti tossing, however, was dampened by the reality of the milestone: Nevada’s unfettered growth has fattened the court’s caseload considerably, increasing the work for the seven justices and delaying resolutions. In official words from the site: “It took 143 years for the first 50,000 cases to be filed. And just four and a half for the next 10,000 cases.”

Given all of that, the content of the 60,000th case couldn’t be more symbolic—a plaintiff representing HOAs is going after “delinquent” homeowners, including “flippers” of distressed foreclosed properties for not paying HOA fees, arguing the interpretation of a statute over lien rights.

And there it is: Growth was Nevada’s 21st century gold rush, and this case is just another sidebar to that, another note in our state’s Wild West story and one that could easily complement Nevada’s 10 most famous cases, including a murdered prostitute, a stagecoach robbery, whites killing “Indians” in a gun battle (and then trying to claim the $5,000 reward) and a woman wanting a gambling court to be held liable for her husband’s chronic gambling and subsequent losses.

Unfortunately the Top 10 list includes only the years from 1865-1937, so we’d have to wait for another list. Maybe the 60,000th case wouldn’t be so famous as, say, the 2003 Nevada Supreme Court decision to overturn the murder convictions of Rick Tabish and Sandra Murphy in the murder case of Ted Binion, but it’s undoubtedly indicative of a historical era in Nevada.