Banco Territorial y Agrícola v. Alvarez

10 P.R. 116
Supreme Court of Puerto Rico·Decided February 7, 1906·No. No. 44·Published

Opinions

Me. Justice Figuekas

delivered tlie opinion of the court.

This suit was commenced in April, 1904, in the District Court of Arecibo, under the summary procedure of the Mortgage Law and its Regulations, and during the progress thereof these provisions, as well as those of the former Law of Civil Procedure, were applied to the ease, notwithstanding the fact that the first and second public sales were successively advertised to be held on November 28, 1904, and January 26, 1905, respectively; that is to say, at a time when the Code of, Civil Procedure, which went.into effect on July 1, 1904, was already in force.

No bidders appeared at these two public sales, and a third sale was asked for and granted, without fixing the minimum bid to be accepted, under the provisions of the old Law of Civil Procedure It was so ordered by the judge of the Are-cibo court, and on March 13, 1905, the public sale was held, the 'only bidder to appear being José Rivera, Sr., who offered $400 for the property, binding himself in addition, to recognize the validity of, and pay, the censo of 1,000 pesos, provincial money, which is a charge against the said property, together with the income due thereon, amounting to $360, and the taxes due to date.

The property was knocked down to José Rivera, Sr., by the marshal of'the said Arecibo court.

It should be stated here that in the notices of the sales published, no mention is made of the censo which the bidder says encumbers the property, and much less of the income due thereon or the back taxes, and even supposing that all this were true, as the execution creditor says, the bid would not cover the two-thirds of the amount of the minirmTm bid fixed for the second public sale.

On March 15, 1905, the Banco Territorial y Agrícola moved that approval of the sale be withheld, inasmuch as the bid of the only bidder, Rivera, Sr., did not cover two-thirds of the price which served as the minimum fixed for the second [118]*118public sale, and asked that article 1504 of the old Law of Civil Procedure be complied with, which article reads as follows:

‘ ‘ If the plaintiff does not agree to either of the two measures mentioned in the foregoing article he may request that a third auction be held without fixing the minimum bid to be accepted.
“In such ease, if there should be a bidder offering two-thirds of the price which served as a basis for the second auction, and who accepts the conditions of the sale, the said sale shall be approved.
“If a bid of less than said two-thirds should be offered, the approval of the sale shall be held in abeyance, and the debtor shall be informed of the price offered, who, within the next nine days, may pay the creditor and have his property released, or may procure some person to increase the bid, making the deposit prescribed in article 1498.
“After the nine days have elapsed without the debtor either having paid or increased the bid, the sale shall be approved and ordered consummated. ’ ’

Tbe bank maintains that these provisions are applicable in virtue of the provisions of the second paragraph of article 176 of the Eegnlations for the execution of the Mortgage Law? which reads as follows:

“The provisions of the Law of Civil Procedure in force in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines shall be applicable to these proceedings as supplementary, when not in conflict with the provisions contained in the Mortgage Law and these Regulations. ’ ’

In its decision of March 20, 1905, the Arecibo court held “that the paragraph of the Eegnlations above quoted should be understood to refer to the law [Code] of Civil Procedure in force which was approved in the year 1904; and in virtue thereof the said court is of opinion that a public sale by a marshal, without fixing the minimum bid to be accepted, is perfected without the approval of the court provided a bidder appears and makes an offer in accordance with the conditions stipulated in the notice of the public sale. For these reasons that court is of opinion that the motion should be [119]*119overruled and that the inhibitory writ to the marshal should be vacated and that a new order should be made in that respect.” That decision was signed by the Hon. José E. P. Savage. ' 1

The Banco Territorial y Agrícola asked for a reconsideration of that decision.

The Arecibo judge denied the petition and then the Banco Territorial, through its attorney, Juan de Guzman Benitez, took an appeal to this Supreme Court, where the proper copies have been presented, and a brief has been filed in which the point above mentioned was raised, and counsel made an oral argument at the hearing, which took place on the first of the present month of November.

Now then, the Mortgage Law of the Spanish Peninsula, modified for application in Cuba, Porto Eico and the Philippines, was approved on July 14, 1893.

The Eegulations for the application of this law were approved on July 18, 1893.

Those provisions went into effect immediately. The old Law of Civil Procedure went into effect on January 1, 1886.

So that when the Eegulations of the Mortgage L^iw referred to the Law of Civil Procedure now in force as supplementary thereto, it is evident that it referred to the Law of Civil Procedure which was then in force here.

Up to this point there is no difficulty. Neither is it necessary to consider at this time the question whether or not the Mortgage Law and its regulations are in force. The judge of the Arecibo court maintains that they are, and shows that the provisions thereof have been applied in the conduct of the second public sale, which was ordered to be held subject to the limitation upon the acceptable bids to two-thirds of the reduced price, and ordering the third public sale to be held without fixing any minimum bid therefor.

What we must decide is whether the Law of Civil Procedure supplementary to the Mortgage Law and the Eegula-tions therefor is in this case the old Law of Civil Procedure [120]*120or the Code of Civil Procedure which, went into effect in this Island on July 1, 1904. It appears to me that in-this case to sustain either of the two propositions to the absolute exclusion of the other would be dangerous and contrary to the spirit of section 361 of the Code of Civil Procedure now in force, which reads as follows:

“All laws, royal decrees, orders, military orders, acts, or parts of acts, inconsistent or in conflict with this Code, are hereby repealed.”

When the Law of Civil Procedure was published in Spain on October 5, 1885, one of the distinguished authors thereof, Mr. Gómez de la Serna, said in the explanatory introductory and in regard to article 1415 thereof, which also contained a similar repealing clause, the following:

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Banco Territorial y Agrícola v. Alvarez, 10 P.R. 116 (prsupreme 1906).

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