Arce v. Bianchi Green & Co.

24 P.R. 318
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJuly 17, 1916
DocketNo. 1381
StatusPublished

This text of 24 P.R. 318 (Arce v. Bianchi Green & Co.) 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
Arce v. Bianchi Green & Co., 24 P.R. 318 (prsupreme 1916).

Opinion

Mb. Justice HutchisoN

delivered the opinion of the court.

On January 19, 1912, the industrial mercantile firm of J. Bianchi Green & Company was duly constituted by notarial instrument containing the following clauses:

“Fourth. Juan Bianchi y Green and Alejandro Pruna y López shall be the managing partners of the said firm and shall jointly or severally represent, direct and manage the same with full powers to execute any kind of act or contract concerning real estate and personal property as to purchase, sale, exchange, lease, loan, deposit, mortgage, annuities, servitudes, antichresis, pledge, compromise and arbitration and any other contract, nominate or innominate in law, and to execute, extinguish and cancel them by means of public or private documents of any kind, and they may appear in suit or otherwise before the courts, government departments and officials, consuls, diplomatic agents, notaries and commercial brokers, having, in short, the legal and absolute representation of the firm for all juridical purposes.
“As a special attribute and without diminution of the said general powers, the managing partners, jointly or severally, may make the firm a member of other firms of like or different character or partners with them according to the laws governing the matter.
“Finally, the managing partners of the firm of J. Bianchi Green & Co., jointly or severally, shall use the firm name and represent the personality of the firm.
“Twelfth. Both partners are forbidden to give securities or guar[320]*320antees in favor of third persons or to transact any business on their own account with money of the firm.”

By virtue of another notarial instrument dated December 28, 1912, the firm'was dissolved and one of the managing' partners, Pruna y López, was named sole liquidator with full power and authority for all kinds of acts and contracts.

Neither instrument was recorded until May 27, 1913, at which time both were placed on record.

Judgment was obtained against the said firm in liquidation in a suit brought on a promissory note in terms as follows:

“For $1,600, American gold. Due February 15, 1914. I promise to pay to Martín Arce or order on February 15, 1914, the sum of sixteen hundred dollars, current money, for value received from him with interest at_monthly_until the full amount of the obligation is paid. In ease of suit I bind, myself to pay the sum of two hundred dollars as costs, -together with the attorney’s fees, and I submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the court of Mayagliez. May 17, 1918. (Signed) J. Bianchi, Jr. We make ourselves sureties and principal payers jointly and severally, until the same obligation as the partner debtor, and the creditor may grant to the debtor such extensions as he may see fit without affecting this guaranty, which shall continue in force until the complete extinction of the debt. Mayagüez, May 17, 1913. (Signed) J. Bianchi Green & Co.”

The first assignment of error is that the court below did not consider that the partnership is dead, and that a suit against the same is a suit against a deceased. It is conceded that a sort of posthumous entity exists in the person of the liquidator, but appellant insists that only the liquidator can be sued. No authorities are cited and it does not appear that any such question was squarely raised and decided in the court below. It is true that the suit was brought against “the mercantile partnership J. Bianchi Green & Co.” and that in the answer by “the partnership J. Bianchi Green & Co., through its liquidator and counsel,” the facts above outlined [321]*321as to dissolution and pending liquidation are set forth, but the action seems to have proceeded by the tacit consent and understanding of all concerned as an action against the firm in liquidation. Plaintiff, appellee, insists in his brief that the question submitted to the district judge was whether or not the defendant firm was bound by the signature of the firm name affixed by J. Bianchi, Jr. The judgment is not against the original partnership but against the firm in liquidation and the findings of fact and conclusions of law, if any were filed by the trial judge, are not included by appellant in the record. Thus it does not appear either that appellant insisted upon any such theory in the court below or that the attention of the trial court was ever drawn directly to the question thus sought to be raised on appeal. On the contrary, as already suggested, all the circumstances point to a trial upon the theory acquiesced in by all parties, concerned, of a suit against the partnership in liquidation. We do not feel disposed, therefore, to disturb the judgment on this ground.

The second assignment is that the district court erred in its failure properly to interpret and apply various sections of the Law of Commerce and of the Civil Code. In the interest of brevity we may set forth at once the provisions of these codes discussed by the parties in their briefs. Plaintiff, appellee, cites:

CODE OP COMMERCE.
"Art. 24. — Articles constituting associations not recorded shall be binding between the members who execute the same; but they shall not prejudice third persons, who, however, may make use thereof in so far as advantageous.
"Art. 25. — There shall also be entered in the registry all -resolutions or acts which produce an increase or decrease in the capital of commercial associations, no matter what may be .their denomination, and those which modify or alter the conditions of the recorded instruments.
[322]*322“The omission of this requisite shall produce the effects mentioned in the foregoing article.
“Art. 26. — The instruments recorded can only produce a legal -effect to the detriment of a third person from the date of their record, not being invalidated by any previous or subsequent ones 'which are not recorded.
“Art. 219. — The partial rescission of the copartnership will produce the annulment of the articles in so far as the responsible partner is concerned, who shall be considered as excluded therefrom, requiring him to pay the amount of the loss which may correspond to him, should there be any, and the copartnership shall be authorized to retain, without allowing him to participate in the profits nor giving him any indemnification, the funds he may have contributed to the common capital, until all the transactions pending at the time of the rescission have been concluded and liquidated.
“Art. 220. — The liability of the partner excluded as well as that of the copartnership for all acts and obligations contracted in the name and for the account of the latter, with regard to third persons, shall continue until the record of the partial rescission of the articles of copartnership has been made in the commercial registry.
REGULATIONS.
“Art. 38. — Besides the record of the instruments referred to in article 36 of these regulations, associations must place on record—
“6.

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24 P.R. 318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arce-v-bianchi-green-co-prsupreme-1916.