Cividanes-Alonso v. Oben

34 P.R. 767
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedDecember 23, 1925
DocketNo. 3450
StatusPublished

This text of 34 P.R. 767 (Cividanes-Alonso v. Oben) 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
Cividanes-Alonso v. Oben, 34 P.R. 767 (prsupreme 1925).

Opinion

Mu. Justice HutchisoN

delivered tlie opinion of the court.

Defendants and intervenors appeal from an adverse judg-= ment rendered for reasons stated thus:

“The petitioner in this case, Manuel Cividanes, as administrator of the estate of Rufina Molinari, has brought this special injunction proceeding to recover the possession of certain property, in which he has been disturbed by the acts of defendants Marcelino Oben and Jesús Vázquez, field manager and overseer, respectively, of Central Machete.
“Said defendants alleged that they acted by order of their principal, Luce & Company, Ltd., and this firm also brought an action of intervention opposing the claims of the petitioner.
“Substantially, the petition is based on the following facts:
“That petitioner is administrator of the property belonging to the estate of Rufina Molinari, among which is found, under his charge and custody, a sugar factory built on a tract of land in the ward of Jobos, within the district of Guayama.
“That since the year 1916, in which he took possession of said-administration, he has been in the uninterrupted possession of said factory of the Merced plantation, composed of machinery, buildings and all other accessories within the bounds of said factory.
“That on the last days of the month of September, 1923, defendants Oben and Vázquez ordered and constructed, respectively, within the limits of the above mentioned factory, six frame dwelling-houses, roofed with zinc, t’o be occupied by laborers, and defendants are planning to continue making new constructions in the same place.
“That, proceeding in this manner, defendants have deprived [769]*769plaintiff of the possession find tenancy of the factory, and that petitioner, as administrator, has requested defendants to cease sueh disturbance, and the latter have refused to do so.
“The complaint of intervention, in the name of Lucie & Co., Ltd., alleges in essence the following facts:
“That Luce & Co., Ltd., are owners of the Merced plantation and are in the material and civil possession of it at present and have been since they acquired it from A. Hartmann & Co. on the 25th of June, 1920.
“That on said plantation are several buildings, warehouses and accessories, located on a lot of approximately eight cnerdas, said buildings belonging to Rufina Molinari, but the land on which they are built, as part of the Merced plantation, belongs to the firm of Luce & Company, and the latter is in the actual possession of all the land that surrounds said buildings, warehouses and accessories.
“That the corporation Central Machete is neither the owner nor the actual possessor of the Merced plantation, the construction of said houses having been ordered by the intervenor through its employees Oben and Vázquez.
“That the heirs of Molinari have at no time been in the posses^ sion of the'Merced plantation, or of part of it, not even within the year previous to the bringing of this action, and they have been in the possession of the above mentioned buildings only, and pot of the surrounding or adjacent land, which has been in the possession o.f the intervenor ever since it was acquired.
“The parties to this suit have introduced written evidence with respect to the title, which we admit and consider now to the only effect of ascertaining the fact of the possession, as in these cases it is contrary to law to consider questions of title and property, although the latter can serve to make the former clearer. Ortiz v. Silva et al., 28 P.R.R. 357. Alfaro v. Alonso, 27 P.R.R. 50.
“There is also oral evidence, ivhich we will consider opportunely.
“The intervenor has raised in its brief the following, legal questions :
.‘ ‘ That the petition is insufficient, because it does not describe- the portion of land whose possession is claimed,, and, further,, that the complaint in intervention has not been answered-
“As regards the first question, we shall say that, although the complaint refers to a piece of land, it has. been sufficiently identified by the evidence, which corrected any mistake that might have been made. Serrano v. Sucesión Santos, 24 P.R.R. 163.
[770]*770“"With respect to the absence of an answer, it seems to us that, considering the way in which the questions have been raised in this case, the complaint of intervention constitutes a true substitution of defendants, for defendants answered that they acted in the name of the intervenor, who only objects to what has been claimed by plaintiff, being clearly a true complaint of opposition to the claims of plaintiff.
“Therefore, the question is reduced to determine to whom belongs the material possession of certain land adjacent to the factory above described.
“The oral evidence has shown that the Merced plantation was a property on which was a factory dedicated to the manufacture of sugar.
“That later, by virtue of some compromises, the land passed to the ownership of certain persons, and the factory to different ones.
“That around the factory there is a fenced portion of land, and, inside of it, there are a concrete tank used as sugar-drier, a derrick for lifting cane, a wind-mill for pumping water, and three houses, all belonging, together with two of the houses, to the factory, that is, to the heirs of Molinari, and the other house to intervenor Luce & Company. This land forms the site of operations of the said factory.
“That over this place, that is, on the same site of the factory, the six houses that gave rise to this suit were constructed.
“That Cividanes has two men there in charge of the factory, and Luce & Company has another person in their house above referred to.
“Luóe & Company, by means of their evidence and with a view to support'the material possession on which they rely, sustain that they have repaired the fences that surround said lot of land, and their cattle has grazed there since they acquired the property in the year 1920.
‘ ‘ Cividanes shows with his evidence that said parcel of land belongs to and forms part of the factory which he has held since he took possession as administrator and that said lot is necessary in order to carry on the operations of the sugar industry, although it is true that no grinding has been done there for some years past.-
“The ocular inspection made with the consent of both parties shows that in front of the factory there is a lot of land, and on the boundary of it are the two houses occupied by the representatives of Cividanes; to the right is the house of. Luce & Company, and inside of the lot embraced between the factory and the. two houses [771]*771of Molinari there are the houses of the intervenors, it being true that the side of the factory is occupied in part by said constructions.

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34 P.R. 767, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cividanes-alonso-v-oben-prsupreme-1925.