Asociación de Señoras Damas del Santo Asilo de Ponce v. Diana y Martinez

2 P.R. Fed. 369
District Court, D. Puerto Rico·Decided February 8, 1907·No. No. 198·Published

Opinion

Podey, Judge,

delivered the following opinion:

. This cause was tried before the court by consent of counsel in open session, without the intervention of an examiner or master. The complainant is apparently a secular, charitable corporation or association, organized by a royal decree of the Spanish Crown on November 11, 1863 (2 Leg.' Ult. Marina, Podriguez San Pedro, p. 201), having its headquarters at Ponce, in the island of Porto Pico, and, as appears by letters and certificates from the insular authorities, duly authorized to continue business in the island at and since the time of the filing of the suit. No point is made in the pleadings as to the capacity of the complainant to sue or be sued. The respondents are all citizens of Porto Pico.

It is a suit in equity, praying that the court declare that, under the terms of a certain will, to be hereinafter referred to, the complainant is the owner of a considerable amount of real estate, some five or six hundred cuerdas, in and near said Ponce, and that the possession thereof by the respondents under claim of ownership, under lease or otherwise, be declared wrongful, and complainant given the absolute possession of the whole of the same, and that an accounting be had between the parties and [371] a decree rendered in favor of complainant for such sum as shall be justly found to be due it from the respondents or either of them. :

It seems that some thirty odd years ago, there lived on the south side of the island of Porto Pico, at or near the said city of Ponce, an old bachelor without family or heirs, by the name of Juan Bautista Silva, who owned a considerable amount of real estate and was possessed of cash and other property, though the former does not seem to cut much figure in this case, and by his will, made on the 17th day of September, 1873, left it (save a couple of minor bequests) to a friend of his, to be managed during the friend’s lifetime, and a half of the net product turned over to the complainant for use in its charitable work!, the remaining half to be kept by the friend for his trouble. This friend, on taking possession of the property, was to make á will designating who should be his successor in the management and possession of the estate, and that successor, on taking possession, was to do likewise, and name another successor, and so on, — the estate to be kept together indefinitely. But it was provided that, if a successor was not so named, then the property •should go entire to the complainant if it still existed; but if not, then to certain other institutions or parties as will be gathered from the terms of the will itself, a translation of the material parts of which is as follows:

“Item: Inasmuch as I have no forced heirs, and what I possess I do not desire that it be dismembered, as it has cost me many years of work and economy, it is my deliberate will that, after the extraction therefrom of the legacy hereinbefore mentioned for Maria Juliana and Eamona Isabel, daughters of the emancipated Carmen, and two cows with calves, one for each of them, as also what is necessary to cover the expense of my ill[372] ness and burial, then all my other.remaining property, composed of lands,, animals, and debts due me as mentioned, shall be delivered to, and my good friend Don Juan Apolinario Laboy, of Ponce, shall take possession and charge of the same, as he has merited my confidence for years and serves me and attends to me in my illness so disinterestedly, so I name and constitute him as my sole and only voluntary heir to said estate during his life (á quien nombro é instituyo por mi único heredero voluntario de dichos bienes durante su vida) with the following precise conditions imposed on him:
“First: That the net usufruct from said estate, after paying the municipal taxes and others imposed for the same purpose, be divided in two equal parts, one portion for said heir, Laboy, as a just recompense for his good administration and zeal for said interest, and the other portion to attend to the poor sick of the Santo Asilo de Caridad de las Damas de Ponce, which liquidation of products and delivery of this part shall be executed at the end of each year by said administrator heir without any other outside intervention of any kind, as a duty to be performed by the dictates of conscience, and because the product of such properties as I leave depends more or - less on the different seasons of the year being favorable or not and that the rain fail not in the district.
“Second: As it is my special object that my properties (bienes), which have cost me so much privation and work, be not divided, I therefore desire that at the death of Laboy they sball pass, with proper inventory and statement, to the power and possession of the person who shall deserve the confidence of the said Don Juan Apolinario Laboy, who shall have the same power and privileges and hold it for the same object hereinbefore mentioned. To which end, at the moment of my death, when he [373] -enters into possession of my estate, be shall precisely execute in due form his final testamentary disposition, wherein he shall determine the person who shall succeed him in said charge or trust, and whose power of substitution, which I grant for such object unto Laboy, shall be transmitted by the latter, as I have stated before, to a person having his confidence, and so on successively, always by a formal will or other formal act, which shall be executed by them successively at the moment they shall he put in charge as substitute heir; and—
“Third: That if, for any reason, this condition of substitution is not complied with opportunely, as I have recommended, or if, by reason of any claim of my relatives or strangers to me, or for any other reason or claim that it is or is supposed to be vacant, or the property unbequeathed by will, then the sáid inheritance or property that constitutes it, I want, and it is my will, that in this latter case and at the death of the said Laboy, my first heir, the said estate shall pass to the said Santo Asilo de Damas in Ponce, which I name as my substitute heir, and in this case I especially recommend to this association that said estate be preserved as far as possible under good administration, and that only the net product obtained from same be employed in helping the poor sick of said establishment.
“Item: I appoint as my faithful testamentary executor of this, my final disposition, my said friend, Don Juan Apolinario Laboy, with fullest powers that right requires for free, frank, and general administration, and relieving him of giving bond or other guaranty.

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Asociación de Señoras Damas del Santo Asilo de Ponce v. Diana y Martinez, 2 P.R. Fed. 369 (prd 1907).

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