Central Pasto Viejo, Inc. v. Aponte

34 P.R. 849
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJanuary 29, 1926
DocketNo. 3367
StatusPublished

This text of 34 P.R. 849 (Central Pasto Viejo, Inc. v. Aponte) 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
Central Pasto Viejo, Inc. v. Aponte, 34 P.R. 849 (prsupreme 1926).

Opinion

Mr. Justice FbaNco Soto

delivered the opinion of the court.

Central Pasto Viejo, Inc., a corporation engaged in the manufacture of sugar, brought this action to recover from defendant Arturo Aponte (1) the sum of $8,945.54 with interest at 9 per cent as the balance of an agricultural contract for planting and cultivating sugar cane and (2) the sum of $4,400 with interest at 8 per cent alleged to proceed from the price of the Puentes property which the plaintiff sold to the defendant.

The lower court rendered judgment against the defendant for $6,956 of the current account, refusing to allow the charges of $40 and $430.14 because they had not been proved, and the charge for interest because it was not shown that its payment was expressly agreed upon. It rejected the item of $4,400 called “special account,” accepting the theory of the defendant on this point, and dismissed the counter-claim filed by the defendant against the plaintiff.

The questions raised in this case by the plaintiff-appel-ant in two long briefs refer to each one of the items rejected by the lower court and are stated as follows:

“1. Tbe court erred in bolding that tbe evidence was insufficient to prove tbe charge of $40.00 made by tbe plaintiff in tbe agricultural account of tbe defendant on August 6, 1920.
“2. Tbe court erred in bolding that tbe evidence was insufficient to prove tbe charge of $430.40 ($430.14) made by tbe plaintiff in tbe agricultural account of the defendant on June 23, 1920.
“3. Tbe court erred in bolding that the defendant did not owe to tbe plaintiff tbe sum of $4,400 and interest, or any other amount as tbe purchase price of a part of tbe Fuentes property.
“4. Tbe court erred in bolding that tbe defendant was not bound to pay any interest to tbe plaintiff on tbe agricultural advances.
“5. Tbe court erred in not imposing tbe costs on tbe defendant including tbe fees of tbe plaintiff's attorneys.”

[851]*851We shall consider first assignments 1, 2 and 4, for the lower court summarizes the evidence and its reasoning in relation thereto as follows:

“This cause of action is based on a current account which the plaintiff opened to the defendant by mutual' agreement on or about the 25th of January, 1919, for sums of money and goods furnished under an implied contract of returning and paying for them, for the planting and cultivation of sugar cane, which fact has been admitted by the defendant, though he alleges that said account has never been liquidated, balanced or agreed to. Accounts current are always understood to be liquidated, for their liquidation depends upon a single arithmetical operation. Blanco López & Co. v. Torres, 25 P.R.R. 651; Jiménez v. Alfonso, 29 P.R.R. 300; Armstrong & Co. v. Irizarry, 29 P.R.R. 563. The plaintiff passed to the defendant statements of this account. The complaint is accompanied by Exhibit A, a statement of account up to July 13, 1921; and after the complaint was filed and at the request of'the defendant, the plaintiff delivered to him general statements of the account dated April 7, 1919; June 14, 1919; April 28, 1920; June 30, 1920, and December 31, 1920. Rafael Baragañó also personally delivered to the defendant in July, 1921, a statement of account and on 'September 7, 1921, there was sent to him by registered mail another statement which he received. It can not be said from the result of the evidence that the defendant expressed his conformity to and approved the statements of account passed to him, except the one sent at his request with letter of April 22, 1920, which showed a balance of $5,083.13 in favor of the plaintiff. And we say that this statement of account was accepted because finally on May 26, 1920, the defendant made a payment thereon of $5,000. However the defendant has never agreed to the charges for interest. The account shows a balance in the plaintiff’s favor of $8,945.54, including interest.
“At the trial the plaintiff moved to strike from the account the charge for compound interest amounting to $6.28 and left to the consideration of the court the question of simple interest for the reason that the Central has a right to charge it, that being customary in agricultural financing. In the complaint there is no allegation. with respect to interest and the evidence did not show that any contract existed between the parties for its payment. An account current does not bear interest in the absence of an agreement between the parties, except from the date when suit is brought for [852]*852the balance. Furthermore, 'interest shall only be owed when it has been expressly stipulated.’ Section 1657 of the Civil Code. Therefore, this court holds that it should strike out what relates to interest, or a total of $1,178.26, the account being thus reduced to $7,767.28.
“Under this same cause of action the plaintiff moved in open court during the trial for the deduction of all items relative to storage and fire insurance, which items amount to $107.16, the account being thus reduced to $7,660.12.
“At the trial the plaintiff also waived the charge 'Central Invoice’ of June 3, 1920, for the sum of $20.00 which appears in the statement of June 30, 1920, and the items charged on August 31, 1920, for $112.35, and January 15, 1921, for $100.21, because they belong to another account. The defendant should also be credited with the sum of $1.00 which appears overcharged in the item of June 5, 1920, as per weekly statement 47 for $1,133.34, for the drafts issued for $888.18 and $244.16 in payment thereof amount only to $1,132.34. So that after deducting these amounts, which total $233.46, the account is reduced to $7,246.66.
“The evidence was not sufficient, in our judgment, to justify the charge of $40.00 of the item for $161.00, August 6, 1920, as per weekly statement No. 6, since the letter-order or draft of August 7, 1920, is only for the sum of $121.00, and that of $430.40 of the item for $844.92, June 23, 1920, as per weekly statement No. 50, since the letter order or draft of June 12, 1920, is only for the sum of $414.78. These amounts make a total of $470.40 which also should be deducted from the sum of $7,426.66, leaving a balance in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant of $6,956.26 which has not been paid and which has been proved by the result of all of the evidence introduced. ’ ’

An analysis of the evidence leads ns to the same conclusion reached by the lower court, excepting, however, the charges of $40 and $430.14. We shall begin by considering the interest charge.

The relations of intimate friendship existing between the defendant and José D. Riera, director and manager of the Central, perhaps due principally to his position of attorney for the corporation, seems to be an important fact for showing the motive for entering into an agricultural contract without, as the appellant says, “a letter or some [853]*853record referring to the agreement with the defendant when the financing account was opened.” They are generally set ont on printed forms with blank spaces which the Central had for all of its contracting cane growers. There is, then, no express stipulation for interest.

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34 P.R. 849, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/central-pasto-viejo-inc-v-aponte-prsupreme-1926.