Borges v. Registrar of Property of Guayama

91 P.R. 106
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedOctober 28, 1964
DocketNo. G-64-2
StatusPublished

This text of 91 P.R. 106 (Borges v. Registrar of Property of Guayama) 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
Borges v. Registrar of Property of Guayama, 91 P.R. 106 (prsupreme 1964).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Rigau

delivered the opinion of the Court.

f — 1

Appellant is in the following situation: the State, through a public office, requires him to do a certain thing, and through another forbids him to do it. He has resorted to us as arbitrators of the public administrative system in order that we may decide his dilemma. The aforesaid two public offices are the Planning Board and the Registry of Property. The problem comes to us as an apparent conflict between two legal provisions: a regulation adopted under authority of law and another law.

We advance what follows. If what appellant wishes to do is not prohibited by law, nor in contravention of morals or public order, he can do it. Section 1207 of the Civil Code, 31 L.P.R.A. § 3372; Castle Enterprises, Inc. v. Registrar, 87 P.R.R. 738 (1963). Naturally, if what appellant wishes to do is prohibited, and if the prohibition is constitutionally valid, he cannot do it. If it is true that a legal provision (a Planning regulation adopted under legal authority) orders it and another (a section of the Civil Code) prohibits it, the conflict would be between two internal legal provisions, and in that case we would decide the conflict in the most realistic manner giving effect to, or creating, the most socially useful norm.

[109]*109Petitioner and his wife executed a public deed whereby they segregated four lots from a property owned by them. The lots segregated were identified in the deed as follows: Lot No. 1 of 1067.50 square meters, Lot No. 2 of 1225 square meters, Lot No. 3 of 900 square meters, and Lot No. 4 of 719.25 square meters. After those segregations there remained 6.5532 cuerdas. In approving the segregation, the Planning Board of Puerto Rico in its “Dispensation of Conditional Rural Subdivision” made the following determination:

“In view of the fact that the remainder has no legal access to a public highway, it is a sine qua non condition for the registration of this subdivision that a right-of-way 10 meters wide be established by public deed.”

In compliance with the obligation imposed, petitioner, in putting in a public deed the said segregation — as he is bound to do — executed a deed of segregation and establishment of a right-of-way through lots Nos. 3 and 4 in favor of the remaining tenement, which is enclosed. The dominant tenement and the two servient tenements are described in detail in the deed. It is set forth therein that “the servitude is established because it has been required by the Planning Board of Puerto Rico as a condition sine qua non for the registration of the subdivision, and because it is convenient for the improvement of the tenements and the public order, in addition to other good and valuable causes.”

Upon presentation of the deed in the Registry of Property of Puerto Rico, Guayama Section,1 the registrar returned the same unrecorded with a note which reads as follows:

“The present document is returned, after examining the two complementary documents of the Planning Board which are enclosed, without performing the operations sought on the ground that the segregation of the four lots for the purpose [110]*110of recording them in the name of the owners, Carmen Regino Borges and Aida Bonilla, is subject to the condition imposed by the Planning Board that a right-of-way be established on those tenements in favor of the remainder of the main property in order that it may have access to a public highway, which condition cannot be met since no one may establish a right-of-way on his own tenement, pursuant to the provisions of § 465 of the Civil Code in force, whenever both tenements, dominant and servient, belong to the same owner.”

The registrar’s position, presented in a written memorandum with exemplary circumspection, discretion, and propriety, consists essentially, and as indicated by the note copied above, in that § 465 of the Civil Code, 31 L.P.R.A. § 1631, precludes the registration sought. That section reads as follows verbatim:

“A servitude is a charge imposed upon an immovable for the benefit of .another tenement belonging to a different owner.
“The immovable in favor of which the servitude is established is called the dominant tenement; the one subject thereto is called the servient tenement.”

The registrar is of the opinion that in order to do what appellant wishes to do, it would be necessary to amend § 465 supra of the Civil Code so as to permit the owner’s servi-tudes, that is, the servitudes on one’s own tenements for the benefit of another tenement also owned by him. Citing from Colón v. San Patricio Corporation, 81 P.R.R. 236 (1959), the registrar reminds us that § 733 of the Civil Code of Switzerland permits the owners to establish servi-tudes on their tenement in favor of another real property also owned by them. He recognizes, it seems, that the rules servitus in faciendo consistere nequit and nomini res sua servit are at present tottering. If those rules are substituted or modified, he admits, “it would not be the first time that the individualistic principles of Roman legislation would have to yield to the law of the future.” The registrar is further of the opinion that “in view of the development of our urbani-[111]*111zations ... it is likely that it may so occur, and it is even desirable and acceptable that it be so done, incorporating into our positive law the necessary amendments which may be more practical to the so far increasing development of our urbanizations.” (Italics ours.)

The registrar believes, however, that it is better that those changes be made through legislation and not through judicial construction. To that end he says:

“We say the foregoing without losing sight of the fact that it is true that the courts are the ones called upon to apply the baptismal water to the newly created juridical concepts subject to the doctrine condensed in the rule of ‘nemerus apertus,’ but in order to prevent present hesitations of the registrars of property who pass upon the documents with unequal criterion, and also of the case law in the light of the new concepts devised by the inventiveness in contracting, it is by far better that the legislative bodies intervene directly by fixing the patterns in the positive law.”

Appellant’s position: In a realistic and sociologically minded brief, appellant argues that the Planning Board, an agency created by law for the purpose of establishing the public policy in matter of planning, requires in this case the establishment of the aforementioned right-of-way as a condition for permitting the segregation of the four lots in question. This condition, he says, has the force of law, was fulfilled by petitioner, and the same is of public interest.

It is about time, says appellant, that it be admitted in our law that a predial servitude can be created in favor of one’s own tenement, since the rule to the contrary is at present inconvenient. He argues that the old Roman legislation must yield to our present-day law. He maintains that § 465 supra of the Civil Code does not prohibit the creation of other juridical concepts different from the servitudes therein mentioned. He cites § 2 of the Mortgage Law and § 27 of the Mortgage Law Regulations whereby all real [112]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
91 P.R. 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/borges-v-registrar-of-property-of-guayama-prsupreme-1964.