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Armstrong v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

97 P.R. 573
Supreme Court of Puerto Rico·Decided June 27, 1969·No. No. R-65-110·Published

Opinion

Mr. Justice Santana Becerra

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Plaintiffs-appellees filed a complaint against the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to revendicate two land properties which were described thus in the complaint:

“Parcel No.- 10 — Principal (1) Rural: Estate situate in Monacillos ward, of Río Piedras, municipal jurisdiction of San Juan, comprising six cuerdas and eight hundred and ninety-six thousandths of a cuerda (6.896 cds.), equivalent to two hectares, seventy-one (71) ares, and five hundred and ninety-five (595) centiares, bounded on the NORTH by the ‘old Puerto Nuevo River; on the South, by the new Puerto Nuevo River; and on the East and West, by the old Puerto Nuevo River.’ ” '

[577] “Parcel No. 10 — Principal (2) Rural. Estate situate in Monacillos ward, Río Piedras, municipal jurisdiction of San Juan, comprising one hundred and twenty cuerdas and forty-eight hundredths of a cuerda (120.48 cds.) equivalent to forty-seven (47) hectares, thirty-five (85) ares, thirty-two (32) centiares, and fifty-four (54) milliares, bounded on the North by the new Puerto Nuevo River; on the SOUTH, by lands of the principal estate, San Patricio; on the East, by the new Puerto Nuevo River and lands of the principal estate, San Patricio; and on the West, by the Barraco Brook.”

By Joint Resolution No. 13 of March’ 13, 1956, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico consented to be sued in this case with respect J;o the revendication of the parcels previously described, which were described in an identical manner in shid J oint Resolution.

For all the purposes of this litigation Parcel No. 10 has been a sole body of 129.74 cuerdas demarcated in the Plan of the Mangrove Lands of the People of Puerto Rico at the Bay of San Juan, officially drawn by the Government of Puerto Rico on December 4, 1919. See said Parcel in Annex-A, which is a photographic copy of a part of said official Plan. The Government of the United States segregated from this body 2.29 acres which constitute a passage within the Parcel, joining points 636 and 695 in said Annex, dividing it into Parcel No. 10 Principal (1) and Parcel No. 10 Principal (2), with the descriptions given in the complaint, and the total area reduced from 129.74 to 127.376 cuerdas. This segregation is not in litigation.

After a trial on the merits, in which numerous documentary evidence was presented, complemented by testimony of witnesses of both parties, and after an ocular inspection was performed, the San Juan Part of the Superior Court rendered judgment on May 11, 1965, decreeing that the plaintiffs are the legitimate owners of Parcel No. 10 in litigation, Principal (1) and Principal (2); ordering the cancellation of the title over said parcel, recorded in favor of the Commonwealth in [578] the Registry of Property and ordering the cessation of any intervention of the State with respect to the property against plaintiffs.

History of plaintiffs’ title in controversy

(1) On December 17, 1881 Antonio Ramos Meneos filed a possessory title proceeding before the judge of the Municipal Court of Río Piedras, where he stated being owner of the property known as Hacienda San Patricio at the Ward Mona-cillos of Río Piedras, composed of approximately 760 cuerdas of land in one body, bounded on the north by the Río Piedras River which goes across the property known as “Puerto Nuevo”; on the west by the Margarita brook, the Estate (.Sucesión) of Ramón Arroyo and the Presbyter Manuel Diaz Caneja; on the south by Gerónimo Landrau; on the east by Landrau and the aforementioned river; and it is composed of flat and semiflat lands and forests, having the buildings which are described. He said he had acquired said property by inheritance from his father Antonio Ramos Sandoval, at the death of the latter on February 6, 1854, since which date he has possessed it as owner, without interruption from anybody.1

A certification from the Mayor, the Trustee, and the Secretary of the Municipality of Río Piedras was attached to the document for the purpose of establishing that pursuant to the municipal archives, Antonio Ramos Meneos was the owner of the property San Patricio, of 760 cuerdas as described, and that he paid the taxes corresponding to the same in his own name.

The information having been admitted, the owners of the adjacent properties were summoned and heard and they did not object to the possessory title proceeding, although the [579] neighboring owner, Rev. Manuel Diaz Caneja, stated that even though he was not opposed, it should be understood that his boundary with Ramos was “the channel {caño) of the Margarita brook following the course up to two masonry pillars in a straight line to the ditch of said brook and not where the waters run today.”2

The witnesses having been heard, who declared that the petitioner had been in possession of said property as owner since he inherited it in 1854, the Municipal Judge found proven the possession of the property in favor of Ramos since he inherited it in the year 1854, without prejudice to third party, and ordered the recording in his favor in the Registry of Property pursuant to the provisions of the Mortgage Law, recording verified on January 4, 1882 at folio 176, volume 26 of Río Piedras, property No. 89, first entry. (Plaintiffs’ Exh. 1.)

(2) By deed No. 534 of July 12, 1893, executed before Notary Mauricio Guerra-Mondragón, Antonio Ramos Meneos sold the property San Patricio to Leopoldo Cerecedo. The same was described insofar as the area of 760 cuerdas and the boundaries are concerned in the same manner as it was described in the possessory title proceeding although now the following, more detailed description was added:

“The points and boundary lines of the described property are the following. ‘Beginning at the mouth of the Río Piedras River there is located the channel of the Margarita Brook, and from this point upstream until it meets the old Guainabo Road, where the ■ properties “Puerto Nuevo” and “Pueblo Viejo arriba” are adjacent: from this point in a straight line to the Head of the basin called “Barraco” and from here on downstream until it meets the point or corner of a palisade of emajagua which runs across until it meets the aforementioned “Margarita” Brook and [580] from there downstream to the mouth of the river from where it started.’ ”

An identical detailed description of the San 'Patricio property was made in the public deed executed before Notary Francisco Acosta on November 28, 1815, by virtue of which Antonio Ramos Sandoval, father and predecessor in title of the vendor Antonio Ramos Meneos; acquired the Hacienda San Patricio from the widow of Colonel Jaime O’Daly, and where it was stated that the property was bounded on the north and east by the Puerto Nuevo River and on the west by Margarita Brook up to its mouth.

Annex-B is a drawing of the San Patricio property according to these boundary lines, and along which the waters of Margarita Brook flowed in 1885 when the litigation about its unstable course arose, finally decided in 11 P.R.R. 202 (1906).

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Armstrong v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 97 P.R. 573 (prsupreme 1969).

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