Cortés v. Crehore

24 P.R. 403
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJuly 26, 1916
DocketNo. 1462
StatusPublished

This text of 24 P.R. 403 (Cortés v. Crehore) 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
Cortés v. Crehore, 24 P.R. 403 (prsupreme 1916).

Opinion

Mr. Justice del Toro

delivered the opinion of the court.

The fundamental question involved in this case is whether articles 2010 et seq. of the Law of' Civil Procedure which went into effect in this Island on January 3, 1886, were in force in the year 1903 in so far as they refer to the alienation of real property belonging to minors subject to tutorship.

It is alleged in the complaint that the plaintiffs are the owners of certain real property; that in the year 1903 and during their minority their tutor applied to the proper district court for leave to sell the said property on the ground of necessity and utility and, having obtained a favorable decision, sold the same privately and without an appraisement by experts to defendant Carlos Cabrera, and that after [404]*404the «ale was recorded in tire registry, in which, the said facts appeared — that is, that there was no expert appraisement or public sale — Cabrera sold the property to the present holder of the same, the other defendant, Charles L. Crehore.

The defendants demurred to the complaint on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The court sustained the demurrer and, considering that the complaint could not be substantially amended, rendered final judgment against the plaintiffs, who took the present appeal therefrom.

In synopsis, the district court held that in 1903, when the Revised Civil Code was in force, all that was required of a tutor to enable him to sell the property of his ward was to obtain the authorization of the proper court, and that an expert appraisement of the property and its sale at public auction were not indispensable requisites, as was required by the old Law of Civil Procedure. Such is the question which we are called upon to consider and decide.

There is no doubt whatever as to the necessity for the authorization of the court. That question is not involved in the present case. Here, the tutor obtained the authorization of the court as required by law. The question is simply whether in 1903 it was necessary to have the property appraised by experts and sold at public auction besides obtaining the authorization of the court.

“Because real property belonging to orphans cannot be lightly alienated, except for debt or when greatly to the interest of the orphans, as was explained in the title treating of that matter; and even then such alienations must be authorized by the judge of the place and the property announced for sale at public atiction for thirty days; * * !i.” Title XVIII, Law LX, Partida 3. See 3 Spanish Codes, 218.

As we have said, the old Law of Civil Procedure went into effect in this Island in 1886. Three of its articles— 2014, 2015 and 2016 — under Title XI, which treats of the [405]*405alienation of property of minors and incapacitated persons and the settlement of their rights out of court, provide as follows:

“Article 2014. — The authority shall be granted in all cases under the condition that the sale must be made at public auction, after an appraisement, if property mentioned in numbers 1, 3 or 4 of article 2010 is involved.
“Sales made by the father, or mother, in a proper case, exercising' parental authority, are excepted from the foregoing rule. Such sales may be made without any other requisite than that of having first obtained judicial authority with a hearing of the promotor fiscal-find of the persons mentioned in articles 219 and 213 of the mortgage laws respectively in force in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico.
“Article 2015. — The judge shall always appoint the experts for the appraisement, who cannot be challenged. Neither can the third expert be challenged, if it should become necessary to appoint one upon disagreement of the first two experts.
“Article 2016. — After the appraisement has been made, the judge shall order that the sale be announced for a period of thirty days, designating the day, hour and place where it is to take place, and that edicts be posted in the customary places, inserting them also, should he deem it proper, in some official newspaper.” (War Department translation.)

By Royal Decree of July 31, 1889, tlxe civil code in force in the Peninsula, compiled in accordance with the provisions of the law of May 11, 1888, and approved by Royal Decree of July 24, 1889, was extended to the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines. With the code the family council was introduced into this Island and the authorization formerly given by the courts for the alienation of property of minors' subject to tutorship was required to be given by the council.

Article 269 provides that “the guardian requires the authority of the family council,” among other specified cases, “to alienate or encumber the property constituting the capital of minors or incapacitated persons, or to make contracts or execute instruments subject to record.”

[406]*406The code not only required the authorization, but provided further in articles 270, 271 and 272 as follows:

“Article 270. — The family council cannot authorize the guardian to alienate or encumber the property of the minor or incapacitated person unless it be for reasons of necessity or utility, which the guardian shall duly prove.
1 ‘ This authority shall be exercised in regard to specified things.
“Article 271. — The family council, before granting authorization to encumber real property or constitute property rights in favor of third persons, may previously hear the opinion of experts with regard to the conditions of the encumbrance and possibilities of bettering it.
“Article 272. — If real property, rights subject to record, jewelry, or personal property the value of which is over 4,000 pesetas, is in question, the alienation thereof shall be made at public auction with the intervention of the guardian or protutor.
“Securities quoted on exchange, public as well as commercial or industrial, shall be sold by an exchange agent or by a commercial broker.” (War Department translation.)

Considering the foreg’oing provisions, which embrace the whole matter, can it he concluded that articles 2010 et seq. of the Law of Civil Procedure remained in force in so far as they referred to the sale of property belonging to minors' subject to tutorship!

Let us consider the opinion of the most distinguished of the commentators on the Law of Civil Procedure, Manresa. In a footnote to article 2011 of the law of the Peninsula— the same as article 2010 of that of Porto Rico — he says:

“This article, as is confirmed by the following one, refers to all minors, whether subject to patria potestas or to tutorship, and to incapacitated persons also subject to tutorship, providing as to all of them that the authorization of the court shall be necessary for the alienation or encumbrance of the property specified in the said article.

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Bluebook (online)
24 P.R. 403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cortes-v-crehore-prsupreme-1916.