de Goenaga v. O'Neill de Milán

85 P.R. 162
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 19, 1962
DocketNo. 12020
StatusPublished

This text of 85 P.R. 162 (de Goenaga v. O'Neill de Milán) 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
de Goenaga v. O'Neill de Milán, 85 P.R. 162 (prsupreme 1962).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Hernández Matos

delivered de opinion of the Court.

This is an action filed by the defendants for the specific performance of a contract of sale of a parcel of land situated in Hato Rey within the former Municipality of Río Piedras. The main point in dispute is whether at the time that the sale was executed — June 27, 1945 — the land on the northern boundary of said lot had been actually urbanized to form a public street named “Street No. 5.”

Concepción de Goenaga alleged in her amended complaint, in brief: that in the year 1945 the defendant brothers Luis and José O’Neill de Milán were owners of a lot situated in Hato Rey with an area of 5,927 square meters and which was recorded in the Registry of Property of Río Piedras “as a development known as ‘Garden City,’ divided into blocks, streets and lots, all in accordance with a development plan made by the surveyor Carlos Castro Martínez and approved by the Department of Health on November 12, 1926”; that on June 27, 1945 the defendants segregated from said property a lot which they sold to the plaintiff and which is described thus:

“Urban : Parcel of land consisting of 1465.22 square meters with the following boundaries: on the north, along 36.90 meters by -proposed Street No. 5 of this development; on the south* along 37.50 meters by O’Neill Street (formerly Street No. 1) ; on the east, along 38.50 meters by the main property; and on the west, along 40.50 meters, by proposed Street No. 4 of this urbanization.” (Italics ours.)

Plaintiff further alleged that in said parcel she caused a one-story concrete building to be built in which she established her needlework shop, “said building having been designed and constructed with a view to the northern, southern, and western boundaries of the lot purchased from the de[166]*166fendants with streets numbers 5, 4 and O’Neill”; that Street No. 5, the northern boundary of the lot, “has always been open to public traffic and has always been used, considered and regarded by plaintiff, as well as by the community, as a public thoroughfare of said development ‘Garden City,’ and according to the plan which was shown to the plaintiff and by virtue of which she made the purchase”; that the defendants in order to deprive the public in general and particularly the plaintiff of the use and enjoyment of said Street No. 5, and in violation of the contract of sale, maliciously and wil-fully went to the Planning Board and behind plaintiff’s back requested the subdivision of the remainder of the property, without notifying said Board of the sale that they had made to the plaintiff and particularly the fact that Street No. 5 was bounded on the north by the parcel that they sold to her, alleging falsely before the Board that the remainder of the property was bounded on the south “in part by lands belonging to the plaintiff instead of by Street No. 5”; that without summoning or hearing the plaintiff the Board on March 18, 1953 approved the subdivision of the remainder of the property into two lots, one of 1820.289 square meters, marked letter “A” and the other of 1118.675 square meters, marked letter “B”; that the defendants sold lot “B”, the northern boundary of which was not the remainder of the property but Street No. 5, and that they proposed to sell lot “A” which is not bounded by plaintiff’s parcel of land but by said Street No. 5; that codefendant Luis O’Neill de Milán for himself and as agent of his brother José had informed the plaintiff “that Street No. 5 had been eliminated and that neither she nor the public in general were entitled to go through or use said street as a public thoroughfare and that they have objected and object to having plaintiff construct a sidewalk along the northern boundary of plaintiff’s property, that is, the southern sidewalk of Street No. 5,” thereby violating the contract of sale, preventing her from freely using said street [167]*167and as a way of communication or traffic and as a servient tenement of light, view, air, and right of way, constituted on the property of the defendants and in favor of plaintiff’s property, which has lost in value and causing her a considerable reduction in her business, the damages of which are estimated in at least $15,000.

The plaintiff prayed for judgment with the following specific pronouncements: (1) decreeing that plaintiff’s parcel of land is bounded on the north by said proposed Street No. 5; (2) decreeing that the new parcels “A” and “B” are bounded on the south by Street No. 5; (3) ordering the registrar to enter said boundaries; (4) ordering the defendants to enjoin from selling parcel “A” without mentioning that it is bounded on the south by Street No. 5; (5) forbidding the defendants from eliminating Street No. 5 and to appropriate said strip of land for themselves; (6) decreeing that the remainder of the property was subject, insofar as Street No. 5 under project is concerned, to a servitude of right of way, air, light and view in favor of plaintiff’s property and to so enter it in the registry of property; and (7) that the defendants be ordered to pay $15,000 for damages if it is proved that they had sold to third persons the whole or part of the remainder of the main property or if for any reason the defendants are not able to comply with the terms stipulated in the deed of sale executed between plaintiff and defendants.

The defendants answered the amended complaint accepting some of the averments stated therein and denying others, particularly the real existence of the development “Garden City” and of Street No. 5. Their third and fourth defenses are as follows:

“Third Defense.—
“1. In the year 1932 the development plan made by surveyor Carlos Castro Martínez and approved by the Department of Health of Puerto Rico, to which plaintiff refers in paragraph 3 of the amended complaint, was eliminated by virtue of the provision of § 4 of Act No. 11 of April' 11, 1931.
[168]*168“2. Twelve years later, that is in 1945, the defendants having failed to do any work in the aforesaid development and having desisted from carrying it out, agreed to execute and did execute before Notary Rafael R. Fuertes, deed number 11 of June 27, 1945, with a view to consolidating into a single property the lots laid out in the plans of the aforesaid development, and in order to carry out said purpose the defendants expressly stated in said deed that they eliminated the aforesaid urbanization or subdivision of lots, reconsolidating them into a single property which is described as follows:
‘Rural: lot of five thousand nine hundred twenty-seven square meters, bounded on the north, along one hundred and four meters, by railway of the American Railroad Company which leads from San Juan to Carolina, bounded also along thirty-five meters, by lands of Luis Ocasio, formerly Juan B. Huyke; on the south, along one hundred thirty-six meters, by O’Neill Street, formerly Street number one of this development; on the east, along forty-eight meters, by street number six of this development, formerly lands of Catalina Lefebre, and along twenty meters by lands of Juan Pacheco Tavares, formerly Mr. Hutchinson; and on the west, by land of Martín Martell, formerly street number two.’
“3.

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Bluebook (online)
85 P.R. 162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/de-goenaga-v-oneill-de-milan-prsupreme-1962.