Candelario Del Moral v. UBS Financial Services Inc.

81 F. Supp. 3d 143, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161787, 2014 WL 7714385
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 14, 2014
DocketCivil No. 08-1833 (PAD)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 81 F. Supp. 3d 143 (Candelario Del Moral v. UBS Financial Services Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Candelario Del Moral v. UBS Financial Services Inc., 81 F. Supp. 3d 143, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161787, 2014 WL 7714385 (prd 2014).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

PEDRO A. DELGADO-HERNÁNDEZ, District Judge.

Madeline Candelario del Moral claims to have suffered damages as a result of the negligence of UBS Financial Services Incorporated of Puerto Rico in releasing certain accounts and paying off a credit line in violation of a writ of execution of judgment issued by the Court of First Instance of Puerto Rico (“CFI”) in October 2006. Trial is scheduled to start on December 4, 2014. In preparation for trial, the Court asked the parties to submit briefs on four (4) damage-related issues (Docket No. 279). They have done so (Docket Nos. 281, 283, 291 and 292). Having carefully studied the arguments presented in support of the parties’ positions, the Court rules as follows:

1. The state court has not made a determination on Candelario’s share of the community property. That question will be answered as part of the ongoing liquidation process in that court. Considering the nature of such process, adjudication of that issue here would be inappropriate.
2. One of the accounts subject to the attachment order — JX-60059—was validly pledged as collateral to a [146]*146stateside entity, UBS Bank USA of Utah, for loan account 5V50208. It does not, however, seem that such entity requested UBS to specifically act on those accounts when they were attached in October 2006 or thereafter. Under those circumstances, UBS should not have debited or deducted funds from the account(s) prior to liquidating bal-ancers) to comply with the CFI’s order of August 2007.
3. The 10.50% rate is a component of the obligation that UBS allegedly infringed. After entry of judgment in the present litigation, the federal interest rate would apply to any unpaid amount (plus the 10.50 % interest), until judgment is satisfied.
4. UBS may deduct from any damage award $1,002,640.00 corresponding to (a) $215,000.00 that Candelario received from Mr. David Efrón between June 2001 and August 2002; (b) $200,000.00 that Candelario received from Mr. Efrón between November 2006 and January 2007; and (c) 587,640.00 ($608,827.00 less fees) that Candelario recovered from Mr. Efron’s accounts in Banco Santander in 2009 and 2010. The amounts Candelario received in 2001-2002 and 2006-2007 do not pay interest; the amounts from Banco Santander pay 10.50% interest up to the corresponding attachment date(s).

The grounds from these rulings follow.1

I. BACKGROUND2

In 1988,. Candelario and Efrón were married constituting a legal conjugal partnership. In May 2001, the marriage ended in divorce. The same month, the CFI ordered Efrón to pay Candelario a monthly payment of $50,000.00 as part of her participation in the assets of the previously constituted conjugal partnership.

In March 2005, the CFI decreased the monthly payment to $20,000.00, specifying that it would be retroactive to June 4, 2001, when the divorce decree became final and unchallengeable. In January 2006, the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals reviewed the CFI’s decision, increasing to $50,000.00 the monthly amount to be paid by Efrón. In February 2006, it issued an Amended Judgment to provide that legal interest on this obligation would be retroactive to June 4, 2001.

Pursuant to the Amended Judgment, in October 2006, the CFI issued an Order and Writ of Execution providing, among other things, for the attachment of Efron’s real and personal property. The third parties were to retain the property and to remit to the CFI funds sufficient to satisfy the principal sum of $4,160,522.61 with interest at the rate of 10.50% per annum from June 4, 2001. The same month, UBS was served with the Order and attached Efron’s three (3) accounts: JX-60059, WR-00855, and JU-50203.

In February 2007, UBS released the accounts, which at that time had assets worth over $11,000,000.00. Thereafter, Efrón made withdrawals such that by July 2007 the value of the accounts had decreased to $1,155,367.71. In August 2007, the CFI issued an Order for the Sale of [147]*147Assets, requiring UBS to sell and liquidate Efron’s assets in the accounts until the amount of $4,160,512.61 was reached; to issue a cheek payable to Candelario for that amount; and to maintain Efrón’s accounts frozen until the amount of interest accrued on the debt as of payment date was calculated and until the CFI otherwise ordered.

In September 2007, UBS liquidated the securities; wired $810,071.87 to UBS Bank USA to pay a loan that entity had made to Efrón; and paid Candelario the remaining $351,783.13. Candelario claims UBS was negligent in releasing the accounts in violation of the October 2006 Order, and seeks payment of $3,808,739.483, plus interest over that sum at the rate of 10.50% retroactive to June 2001.

II. DISCUSSION

1. Adjudication in this case of Can-delario’s alleged share of the community property being liquidated in state court would be inappropriate.

UBS asserts such evidence should be presented. It points to the Court’s observation at Docket No. 209, p. 2 that Cande-lario should not receive more than what she would be entitled to receive as part of her participation in the marital estate, and on that ground, characterizes the evidence as relevant to the issue of damages to be adjudicated in this case (Docket No. 283 at p. 21).

In Puerto Rico, damages consist of compensation in money for loss caused by the wrongful act or omission of another. García v. Shiley Caribbean, 122 D.P.R. 193, 205 (1988). They seek to make a party whole, placing her in the position she would have occupied had the wrong not occurred. Rivera Rodríguez v. Tiendas Pitusa, Inc., 148 D.P.R. 695, 700 (1999). Their nature reflects the obligation from which they derive.4 They serve to restore injured parties, not to reward them. Thus, they are compensatory rather than punitive, indemnifying the aggrieved party for a loss suffered rather than as punishment for a defendant’s blameworthy or reprehensible conduct. Noble v. Corporación Insular de Seguros, 738 F.2d 51, 54 (1st Cir.1984); Carlos J. Irizarry Yunqué, Responsabilidad Civil Extracontractual, 343 (7th Ed.2009).

By Candelario’s account, UBS’ obligation originates in the CFI’s October 2006 writ and order of execution to secure payment of interim relief to her, as advances against her share of the community property to be ultimately liquidated in state court. Given the interim nature of the relief to be secured by the Order, it is not to be confused with the ultimate adjudication of the former spouses’ share in community property. For that reason, the determination of whether Candelario has received her share of the estate must await conclusion of the ongoing liquidation process.

Such processes follow an orderly sequence linked to the nature of the issues they must address, prior to a ruling. Those issues derive from' the particular characteristics of the economic regimes to which the estate is subject during marriage, and following divorce. In the absence of a valid pre-nuptial agreement, the [148]*148legal conjugal partnership governs the spouses’ economic relationship during marriage.

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81 F. Supp. 3d 143, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161787, 2014 WL 7714385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/candelario-del-moral-v-ubs-financial-services-inc-prd-2014.