Colón Aponte v. Registrar of Property of Bayamón

67 P.R. 16
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedMarch 6, 1947
DocketNo. 1196
StatusPublished

This text of 67 P.R. 16 (Colón Aponte v. Registrar of Property of Bayamón) 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
Colón Aponte v. Registrar of Property of Bayamón, 67 P.R. 16 (prsupreme 1947).

Opinion

ON RECONSIDERATION

Mr. Justice De Jesús

delivered the opinion of the Court.

On July 1, 1946, deed No. 3 of January 30, 1946, executed before Notary Diego 0. Marrero was presented in the Registry of Property of Bayamón. This document contained the protoeolization of the joint will executed in Saint Thomas on April 30, 1942, by Frans Alfred Hammer and his wife Edith Pauline Hammer. It was accompanied by deed No. 11, executed in San Jnan on April 8, 1946, before said notary. In the latter deed, Mrs. Hammer, the co-testator, adjudicated to herself by virtue of said will a rural property situated within the Municipality of Bayamón, recorded in favor of the conjugal partnership constituted by her and her husband. Those instruments were accompanied by the corresponding complementary documents. On the samé day, record was sought of deed No. 16, executed on May 16, 1946, [17]*17before Notary Marrero, wherein. Holder Rhode Fog, as attorney in fact of Mrs. Hammer, sold the aforesaid property to Ernesto Colón Aponte.

The registrar refused to record the will on six grounds which he set forth in his decision of July 22, 1946, and as a consequence of his refusal, on September 12, 1946, the deed of sale in favor of appellant was withdrawn without any entry having been made.

No appeal was taken from the registrar’s refusal; but on September 16, 1946, the deed of protocolization of the will together with the complementary documents, as well as the aforesaid deed of sale, was presented for recordation. As to the will, the registrar returned it without making any entry, on the ground that record thereof had been denied in his decision of July 22,1946, which decision, he believed had been consented to.

As to the deed of sale in favor of the appellant, he recorded it as to the one-half undivided interest which the. vendor, Edith Pauline Hammer, had in the conjugal partnership but denied it as to the other one-half because it had not been recorded in favor of the conveyer, since record of the will had been denied as we already pointed out.

The present appeal has been taken from the refusal to record the will and from the registrar’s note of September 16, 1946, wherein he denied record of the deed of sale as to the undivided one-half interest in the property because it had not been recorded in favor of the vendor.

I

In his brief, the registrar urged in the first place, that this administrative appeal should be dismissed because, since his decision of July 22, 1946, refusing to record the will had been consented to, the will could not be presented again for recordation.

Since the registrar maintained that both times the deed of protocolization of the will was presented, as well as the [18]*18second time that the deed of sale was presented, the documents were presented by the same person and appellant’s attorney admitted that the first note denying the record of the will had been consented to because he was not in Puerto Rico and did not have an opportunity to appeal therefrom, we agree with the registrar that, since appellant had consented to the note, he could not again present the deed of the will for recordation. Consequently, we dismissed the appeal by an order of January 13, 1947. But appellant sought a reconsideration thereof and, upon examining the entries in the registry by virtue of certificates which we ordered the registrar to send up, we found that Attorney Diego 0. Ma-rrero on both occasions sought recordation of the deed of protoeolization of the will. However, there is no showing that in both cases he acted as agent with verbal authority for the same person. If, upon presenting the deed of proto-colization of the will for the first time, Attorney Marrero really did so as the agent of Edith Pauline Hammer and the second time as agent of petitioner herein, we do not agree that petitioner is bound by the decision consented to by Edith Pauline Hammer, as the former irrespective of the latter, was entitled to record the will in order to be able to record the conveyance to him. Colonial Co. v. Registrar, 1 S.P.R. 396, 401; Jiménez v. Registrar, 62 P.R.R. 335.

In view of our doubts as to whether appellant consented to the first decision denying record of the will, we must set aside our order of January 13, 1947, whereby we dismissed the appeal and consider it now on its merits.

II

We will discuss jointly the first two grounds of the registrar’s refusal:

1. The first ground alleged for denying registration of the deed of protocolization of the will, is that the will involved was jointly executed by husband and wife and that such a will is prohibited by :§ 618 of the Civil Code.

[19]*192. The second consists in that the forms and solemnities required by law for the wills executed in the Virgin Islands have not been proved; but assuming that it was shown that such forms and solemnities have been complied with, this could not make t.he will valid inasmuch as, pursuant to i§ 11 of the Civil Code, prohibitory laws relating to persons, their acts or their property, and those which relate to public order and to good morals shall not be affected by laws, decisions, regulations or agreements in force in any foreign country.

Appellant contends that the prohibition of ¡§ 618 of the Civil Code1 contemplates a joint will executed in Puerto Rico and the one prohibited by ¡§ 667 2 is a joint will executed by citizens of Puerto Rico outside of the Island even though it is valid under the laws of the State where it is executed. Based on this assumption, appellant concludes that, since the will in question was executed by persons who are not citizens of Puerto Rico, in a country where that kind of will is valid, the prohibitions contained in :§§ 618 and 667 are not applicable, and, consequently, the registrar erred in regarding it as void. He further argues that the last paragraph of § 11 of the Civil Code is not applicable, because the joint will is neither contrary to public order nor to good morals.

Section 618 does not contain the limitation that appellant seeks to insert, to the effect that a joint will is prohibited only when it is executed in Puerto Rico. What this Section provides is that a joint will is not valid in this Island. Commenting on § 669 of the Spanish Civil Code, from which our § 618 was literally copied, Manresa sets forth the main reasons of public policy which urged the Spanish lawmakers to pro-h[20]*20ibit3 the joint will except in those provinces where the local law prevails and authorizes them.4 Said author states:

"These wills, an irregular combination of testamentary and contractual dispositions, as once described by an eminent professor on a solemn occasion, are incompatible with the principle of revoeability essential to the law of testate succession, and they afford but scarce advantages in comparison to the many inconveniencies which they caused by the possible confusion of the patrimonies, by lack of spontaneity in one of the contracting parties, and by the risk-of easy suggestions and even of actual enticement, especially in those wills executed by husband and wife where there often' is a victim of seduction and deceit.

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

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
67 P.R. 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colon-aponte-v-registrar-of-property-of-bayamon-prsupreme-1947.