Buxó v. District Court of Humacao

51 P.R. 311
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 20, 1937
DocketNo. 68
StatusPublished

This text of 51 P.R. 311 (Buxó v. District Court of Humacao) 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
Buxó v. District Court of Humacao, 51 P.R. 311 (prsupreme 1937).

Opinion

Me. Justice Teavibso

delivered the opinion of the court.

Santos Buxó, Jr., claims that the respondent judge herein has nullified his right to execute a judgment rendered in his favor by the District Ooui't of Humacao on March 13, 1934, and he prays the issuance by this court of a writ of prohibition commanding the respondent to refrain from any proceeding to that effect. An alternative writ was issued, aud besides the petitioner, there appeared at the hearing of the proceeding, as interested parties therein, Emigdio Osvaldo Sellés Roldán and Pedro Villafañe Cuevas, who have filed a motion to discharge and set aside the writ issued.

The petitioner alleges that on March 13, 1934, he obtained a judgment rendered by the District Court of Humacao against Emigdio Osvaldo Sellés Roldán, Pedro Villafañe Cue-vas, and the latter’s wife, Maria Collazo, in an action of debt, No. 17415; that the defendants therein appealed from the judgment and moved for a new trial, which was granted by an order of June 29, 1934, which order was subsequently reversed by this Supreme Court (see Buxó v. Sellés, 48 P.R.R. 808, and 49 P.R.R. 211); that on June 26, 1936, this court [313]*313dismissed at Ms request the appeal taken from the judgment •of March 13, 1934 (see Buxó v. Sellés, 50 P.R.R. 220); that ■after the judgment rendered in suit No. 17415 had thus become final (firme), the District Court of Humacao, in suit No. 17056, brought by Emigdio Osvaldo Selles Roldán and Pedro Villafañe Cuevas against Santos Buxó, for the extinction of obligations and cancellation of mortgage, “varying the title of the case and designating the defendant Santos Buxó, Jr.,” issued an ex parte order at the request of the plaintiffs to secure the effectiveness of the judgment, which in its pertinent part reads as follows:

“In view of the motion of the plaintiffs, Emigdio Osvaldo Sellés Roldan and Pedro Villafañe Cuevas, to secure the effectiveness of the judgment which they have demanded to obtain against Santos Buxó, Jr., . . .; and the original and the supplemental complaints having been examined, ... it is ordered that the judgment the object of the petition of the plaintiffs be secured . . . and as a prerequisite for the enforcement of this order . . . there shall be furnished a cash bond in favor of the said defendant . . . for the sum of $900.
“As a measure to secure the effectiveness of the judgment, the •defendant is enjoined from taking any steps to execute the judgment rendered by this District Court of Humacao, on March 13, 1934, in civil suit No. 17415 brought for the collection of those rentals, and it is further ordered that all proceedings for the execution of the .same shall be stayed, and the defendant Santos Buxó, Jr., is warned that he will be subject to punishment as for contempt of court and .to other civil liabilities in ease of disobedience.” (Italics ours.)

The petitioner further alleges that the plaintiffs in suit No. 17056 attached to the motion praying for the security ■of any judgment that might be rendered, a supplemental -complaint against Santos Buxó, Jr., “which has not been .allowed by the lower court”; that the respondent judge lacked jurisdiction to decree the attachment requested from him, as Santos Buxó, Jr., is not a party to suit No. 17056, ■and this suit is pending decision before this Supreme Court, to-which the defendant Santos Buxó has taken an appeal .from an - adverse decision in an incident thereof; that the [314]*314order to secure the effectiveness of the judgment tends to defeat his legal right to execute the judgment of March 13, 3934, and that he can not appeal from said order beeausó he was not a party to the suit wherein it was made.

In their written opposition to the petition which, unlike-the latter, was not verified, Emigdio Osvaldo Selles and Pedro-Villafañe Cuevas state that the writ issued should be quashed and set aside:

“1. Because the writ of prohibition being an extraordinary remedy of a preventive and not of a remedial nature, it can not be used, as the petitioner seeks, by way of a proceeding for review, writ of error, certiorari, or appeal.
“2. Because the writ of prohibition can only be used to prevent or restrain a lower court from the commission of acts or facts in excess of its jurisdiction or to avoid and restrain such actions of an inferior court as would tend to defeat a legal right of a party, and its issuance never lies to undo or reverse actions already effected and completed.
“3. Because the writ of prohibition does not lie, as it comes too late, and the conduct of the petitioner amounts to laches.
“4. Because the petitioner has not shown in his petition that the action of the respondent court causes him extraordinary damages,, and, therefore, its issuance does not lie.
“5. Because the writ of prohibition being an extraordinary remedy, it does not lie where the petitioner does not show in his petition that he has no adequate and effective remedy in the ordinary course of law; and because the petitioner has available an adequate and effective remedy in the ordinary course of law.”

The question to be determined is whether Santos Bux6, Jr., has satisfactorily shown that he is not one of the defendants in suit No. 17056, brought by Osvaldo Selles Roldan- and Pedro Villafañe Cuevas in the District Court of Pluma-cao, for if he has failed to make that showing, then the petition herein should be denied and the alternative writ issued' should be discharged. ; - ,i

The petitioner in the sixth paragraph of the petition says that with the “motion to secure the effectiveness-of the judgment, there was filed á' supplemental- complaint [315]*315against Santos Buxó, Jr., winch has not been allowed by the court, and thereupon the District Court of Humacao,. acting ex parte, and without hearing Santos Buxó, the defendant in suit No. 17056, nor Santos Buxó, Jr., the plaintiff in suit No. 17415, who had obtained a judgment in his favor, issued an order which literally copied reads as follows.” Here followed the full text of the order issued by the court to secure the effectiveness of the judgment. We have already transcribed such provisions of that order as are material to the decision of this proceeding, and it appears from the terms thereof that the respondent judge considered and weighed the scope of the supplemental complaint, and even regarded the same as admitted, before issuing the order to-secure the effectiveness of the judgment, for as we have seen, he says therein “the original and the supplemental complaints having been examined .... it is ordered that the judgment be secured,” etc. Therefore, the application of the petitioner appears to be contradictory in itself as to a fact of vital importance for the success of his proceeding. We must presume, in accordance with subdivision 18, section 464 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Law of Evidence), that when Emigdio Osvaldo Selles Roldán and Pedro Villafañe Cuevas, asked leave to file a supplemental complaint in suit No. 17056. in compliance with the provisions of section 134 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the respondent judge passed upon that question. This seems to have been done by him, according" to the order issued by him to secure the effectiveness of the judgment.

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Bluebook (online)
51 P.R. 311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buxo-v-district-court-of-humacao-prsupreme-1937.