Alum Torres v. Campos del Toro

89 P.R. 299
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedOctober 23, 1963
DocketNo. 12917
StatusPublished

This text of 89 P.R. 299 (Alum Torres v. Campos del Toro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alum Torres v. Campos del Toro, 89 P.R. 299 (prsupreme 1963).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Hernández Matos

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal taken on May 14, 1958, from a judgment sustaining a complaint claiming the value of. personal property and damages. Appellees filed their brief on April 15, 1963.

The trial on the merits was held on March 26, 27 and 28, 1956 and September 3, 4 and 5, 1957. Extensive oral and documentary evidence was heard. The transcript of the oral evidence exceeds 600 pages.

As far as the time available has permitted us, we have made a detailed review, analysis and study of the different pieces which form the record on review. It disclosed the con-[301]*301eurrence of circumstances, facts and events in the case which, fortunately, very rarely occur within ordinary judicial proceedings prosecuted before our courts.

In his accurate, clear and appropriate findings and conclusions, the trial judge made a statement of the case which in its pertinent part reads as follows:

“After the case was submitted plaintiffs filed a motion for leave to amend the title of the action and the prayer of the complaint. Defendants have not objected, and in our opinion the pleadings and the. evidence so warrant. Muñoz v. Pardo, 68 P.R.R. 569 (1948), and Fernández v. Heirs of Fernández, 66 P.R.R. 831 (1947). We therefore admitted them, and hereafter this action will be entitled ‘Collection of the Value of Property Illegally Appropriated’; and instead of requesting the revendication of the properties, the action is considered as aimed at recovering the value of the latter with legal interest thereon as of the date of the appropriation. 31 L.P.R.A. § 3518, and 32 L.P.R.A. § 1064; Moskovitz v. Le Francois, 8 P.2d 1050 (Cal. 1932); and Nelson v. Kunz, 115 A.L.R. 1322 (Utah 1938).

“The complaint, as amended, states only two claims: the first for $23,645.67, alleged value of the properties illegally appropriated, plus legal interest on this sum as of the day defendants appropriated them to themselves, and the second for $15,000 for damages caused by an unlawful eviction. The facts alleged in support of these remedies may be summed up as follows:
“The first cause of action states that: (1) Rafael Campos del Toro and his wife Rosaura Márquez are owners of a five-story building in Arecibo, of which they rented three and one half floors for $750 a month to Delio Alum and his wife Antonia Serrano, who installed therein their dwelling, a beauty parlor and a hotel; (2) all the furniture, equipment and fixtures thereof were the exclusive property of plaintiffs; they were worth $23,645.67 on September 17, 1952, and some of them were encumbered in favor of the Banco de Ponce for $2,788.92, others to Ismael Hernández for $537.19, and others to North Electric Co. for $368, which credits were assigned to defendants; (3) at this time plaintiffs owed $2,837 in back rent; the Campos Már-quez spouses sued them for collection thereof, and also claimed [302]*302$5,000 for damages to the building; (4) after furnishing bond, the Arecibo Part of the Superior Court ordered the attachment of the furniture, equipment and fixtures; the marshal attached them closing the premises where they were kept and evicted plaintiff and his guests; (5) Alum and his wife did not answer the complaint, their default was entered, and judgment was rendered against them for the amount of the unpaid rent and $3,000 for damages; before the judgment became final and unappealable, execution thereof was requested and ordered; the auction was held after defendants had already rented the furniture and the premises to a third person, and they adjudicated the property to themselves; (6) the Alum Serrano spouses sought the nullity of the attachment and of the judicial sale; the court set them aside; no appeal was taken from said order and, this notwithstanding, (7) defendants have not returned the attached property, have sold some of them, and others have disappeared.
“The second cause of action considers reproduced the facts summed up above, and alleges that: (1) at the request of deféndants, plaintiffs were ejected from the premises occupied by them in the building of the former without judgment of eviction having been rendered against them; and (2) they have suffered physical and moral damages for $15,000.
“It is prayed that defendants be ordered to pay $23,645.67 for the personal property which they appropriated to themselves plus legal interest on the sum claimed as of September 17, 1952, and $15,000 for the damages caused by the wrongful eviction. Plaintiffs agree therein that certain credits to which defendants are entitled be deducted, and request $5,000 for costs, expenses and attorney’s fees.
“The answer to the amended complaint, and by the admissions of defendants, accepts many of the facts comprised in the preceding summary. They allege, however, (1) that at the time of the attachment plaintiffs were not occupying the leased premises and were not the owners of the properties purchased from North Electric Co.;' (2) that they agreed in writing that any judgment which might be entered against them for rent due, would be sufficient authority to evict them within 30 days; and (3) that defendants do not own the properties which they adjudicated to themselves; that they were not worth $23,645.67, and that plaintiffs have not suffered damages.”

[303]*303The court specified as follows the facts which it found proved in each cause of action:

“Findings of Fact. — First Cause of Action:
“1. Rafael Campos and his wife Rosaura Márquez are the owners of a five-story building in Arecibo of which they leased to plaintiffs in December 1948 three and one half floors for a monthly rent of $750, where the Alum Serrano spouses established their dwelling, a beauty parlor and a hotel. Hereafter we shall refer to the latter as ‘the premises.’
“2. The furniture, the equipment and the fixtures of the latter, including the electric installations, medicine cabinets and all dependencies, and a bar, a platform and a balustrade in the dancing and dining room — which we shall continue to call ‘the furniture’ — were purchased and installed by plaintiffs. The electrical fixtures were fixed to ceilings and walls, but were removable ; the medicine cabinets were so installed in holes in the walls that they could be removed without damage to the building, and the latter three were fixed to the floor of the room.
“3. Plaintiffs owed part of the purchase price of practically all the furniture and, among others, those purchased from Ismael Hernández and North Electric Co. were mortgaged in favor of the vendors. Furthermore, a great number of them were mortgaged in favor of the Banco de Ponce, Arecibo Branch, and to secure loan to the Alum Serrano spouses.
“4. On September 17, 1952 plaintiffs owed to the Campos Márquez spouses $2,837 in back rent. In order to collect it, plus $5,000 for damages allegedly caused to the premises, defendants herein brought action CD-52-901, Campos del Toro et al. v. Delio Alum et al.,

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Related

Kunz v. Nelson
76 P.2d 577 (Utah Supreme Court, 1938)

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Bluebook (online)
89 P.R. 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alum-torres-v-campos-del-toro-prsupreme-1963.