Belaval v. Córdova Dávila

21 P.R. 509
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedDecember 24, 1914
DocketNo. 137
StatusPublished

This text of 21 P.R. 509 (Belaval v. Córdova Dávila) 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
Belaval v. Córdova Dávila, 21 P.R. 509 (prsupreme 1914).

Opinion

Me. Justice Hutchison

delivered the opinion of the court.

In mandamus proceedings brought in' the District Court of San Juan, Section 1, judgment was rendered May 22, 1914, ordering the reinstatement of petitioner in the office of Superintendent of the Municipal Hospitals, from which it was held he had been illegally removed by the alcalde.

Upon May 29 defendant, having filed his notice of appeal after notification of the judgment, moved the court for an extension of 30 days, to run from the date upon which the stenographer should deliver the record, within which to present the statement of the case and bill of exceptions, and set forth the grounds for the motion that the court was about to enter upon its regular annual vacation; that request for the .record had been made, but that owing to pressure of ‘other [511]*511matters and the yolnminons character of the record the stenographer would he unable to deliver 'such record within the time fixed by law for the filing of said statement and bill of exceptions.

The minutes of the same day show the following order:

‘ ‘ Upon motion of counsel for defendant, the court grants an extension of 30 days, counted from the date of delivery of the stenographic record, within which (para) to present the statement of the case.”

Under date of September 8, the court stenographer notified the clerk and the attorney for appellant that the stenographic record had been completed-. ' The latter was also delivered upon the same day.

On October 3 counsel for appellant, again alleging pressure of other more urgent matters and again calling attention to the voluminous record of 199 pages, applied for another extension of 30 days, to run from the date of expiration of the one already granted. On October 5 the court, acting on this motion, gave an extension of 15 days more within which to present the statement of the case, to be counted from the date of expiration of the former extension.

On October 22 appellant,'upon the same grounds, asked for a further extension of 10 days from the date of expiration of the 'additional time already given, and on the same day the court granted an extension of five days within which to present the statement. '

. On October 27 petitioner, upon substantially the same grounds urged herein, moved the district court to reconsider and set aside the various orders above mentioned, and the court upon the day following, after hearing both parties, denied the motion and gave the plaintiff 10 days within which to file amendments to the statement of the case.

Notice of appeal from said order was filed by plaintiff on November 7.

At the hearing as to proposed amendments to the statement of the case on the date last mentioned, plaintiff renewed [512]*512the motion argued and denied on October 28, which, was again overruled, and objections to the statement being sustained, defendant was given five days in which to amend.

On November 20 petitioner filed in this court his application for a writ of certiorari, setting up in addition to the facts above mentioned that the appeal perfected from the order of October 28, in order to avoid the appearance of acquiescence therein, is wholly inadequate and insufficient by reason of the time required in ordinary course of procedure for the final disposition thereof; that the same may result in a partial, if not a complete, failure of justice in view of the fact that the term of office of the incumbent alcalde, respondent in the manda,mus proceedings, is about to expire and, will expire’before such appeal can be finally heard and decided; that the amended statement of the case having been approved by the district judge over the protest of the petitioner, the appeal from the judgment first above mentioned is being prosecuted by the alcalde; defendant and appellant therein; that the order of May 29, as well as all subsequent orders and proceedings in the court below, is void for want of power to grant an extension for an indefinite period, and to leave, as was done by the order first mentioned, to the will of the stenographer and appellant the fixing of the date for the 'filing of the statement of the case, thus delegating an authority vested exclusively in the judge in abuse of the judicial discretion and in excess of jurisdiction, and upon this showing the writ issued, the record was brought up, and we are now called upon to decide the question so raised.

Our attention has been directed to no recent, well reasoned, carefully considered case conclusively and satisfactorily disposing of 'the exact question primarily involved herein, and, in such investigation as the time at our disposal has permitted, we have found none. The very few cases that have discussed or touched upon the matter, however, either as necessarily involved or by way of obiter dicta, indicate a strong inclination on the part of the courts generally to sus[513]*513tain the doctrine as announced in 3 Cyc., 42, that “The time fixed by the court for the settling and filing of a bill of exceptions must be a definite time.” Lansing v. Coates, 18 Ind., 166; Simonton v. H. and L. M. P. Co., 12 Ind., 380; Smith, etc.. v. Blakeman, VIII Bush., 71 Ky., 476; Freeman v. Brenham., etc., XVII B. Monroe, 56 Ky., 603; Reisler v. Interborough Rapid Transit Co., 135 N. Y. S., 603; Cross v. Wood, 83 Atl., 337; Parker v. Snow, 9 N. E., 808; Welch v. Kansas City, etc., Co., 132 S. W., 49; Mowery v. Bank, 72 Pac., 539, and cases, cited; Butler v. Scott, 75 Pac., 496; Granite State Fire Ins. Co. v. Harn, 76 Pac., 822; and cases cited by Kerr imder the various sections of the California code involving- or relating to extensions of time.

With the rather doubtful exception of one or two cases in California, where the matter is of negligible importance, and the theory of “a reasonable time” is entirely harmless, the order being to all intents and purposes converted into a definite extension of not to exceed a specified time, by reason of the stringent statutory limitation upon the discretion of the judge as to the maximum period of any extension that may be. granted, there is at least no respectable authority in contra; and following the dictates of ordinary common sense in the light of fundamental principles of statutory construction and substantial justice, we have no doubt whatever, under our own statute, as to the soundness of petitioner’s theory of the case, in so far as the contention as to want of power and action in excess of jurisdiction is concerned.

The alcalde argues, first, that the statute having placed no limit upon the discretion of the court, the latter is unbounded, subject to revision and control only in the event of gross abuse, and that in the present case just cause for the original extension was shown and there was no abuse of discretion; second, that 'we must presume that the stenographer, as a public official, would in the regular and conscientious discharge of his official duties deliver the record within a reasonable time, and that the facts in this case as to actual delivery [514]

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Related

Gross v. Wood Ex Rel. Wood
83 A. 337 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1912)
Parker v. Snow
9 N.E. 808 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1887)
Welch v. Kansas City Midland Coal & Mining Co.
132 S.W. 49 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1910)
Simonton v. Huntington & Liberty Mills Plankroad Co.
12 Ind. 380 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1859)
Lansing v. Coats
18 Ind. 166 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1862)
Freeman v. Brenham
56 Ky. 603 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1856)
Smith v. Blakeman
71 Ky. 476 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1871)
Mowery v. Wilson State Bank
72 P. 539 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1903)
Butler v. Scott
75 P. 496 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1904)
Granite State Fire Insurance v. Harn
76 P. 822 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1904)

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Bluebook (online)
21 P.R. 509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/belaval-v-cordova-davila-prsupreme-1914.