Domenech v. Rola

9 P.R. 85
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Domenech v. Rola. Read the opinion of the Court — 9 P.R. Dec. 95
Supreme Court of Puerto Rico·Decided June 18, 1905·No. No. 2·Published

Opinion

Mr. Justice HeRNÁNdez

delivered the opinion of tlie court.

Carmen Hernández de Sus, a resident of Aguadilla, died in said town on October 18, 1899, leaving a closed will executed on June 6th of the same year, which was duly proto-coled. In the fifth clause of this will she enumerated among the property belonging to her, a two-story masonry house, situated on Comercio street of said town, which was the same house which she devised by the seventh clause to Juan Maria Domenech y Anazagasti. By the eighth clause she instituted as the only and universal heirs of the residue of her property, after the payment of the legacies, Juan Maria, Juan Nepomu-ceno, and Manuel Maria Domenech y Anazagasti. By the ninth.clause she appointed Vicente Viñas y Martinez executor to carry out the provisions of her will, the legal, term of the executorship being extendable for such time as might be necessary. By the tenth clause she prohibited any judicial intervention in the settlement of her estate, under the penalty that any heir seeking it should lose his riglit and that his share should accrue to the others.

A few days after the death of the testatrix, Dolores Rola prayed the Municipal Court of Aguadilla for a provisional [87]*87attachment upon the property of the decedent, to secure the payment of 5,300 pesos which she alleged to he dne her, and by order of October 28, 1899, said attachment issued and was levied, among other property, on the house on Comercio street, of which Juan Maria Domenech y Anazagasti was the devisee, and was recorded in the Begistry of Property of Aguadilla on October 31, 1899, and was canceled on February 26, 1901, by virtue of a judgment of the District Court of Mayagüez on April 11th of the preceding year, rendered in the separate proceedings in opposition to the provisional attachment levied on property of the Estate of Carmen Hernández de Sus, upon the petition of Dolores Bola.

By an order of April 12th of said year, the said District Court of Mayagüez admitted the complaint filed by Dolores Bola against the executor and heirs of Carmen Hernández de Sus, for the recovery of the debt which had led to the provisional attachment, it being held at the same time that the ratification of such attachment was not necessary because it had already been dissolved. The heirs, Juan Maria, Juan Nepamuceno and Manuel Maria Domenech were summoned to make answer to the complaint on the 16th of said month of April.

Before the cancellation in the Begistry of Property of Aguadilla of the notice of the attachment on the house on Comercio street aforementioned, and when Juan Maria, Juan Nepomuceno and Manuel Maria Domenech had already been summoned to make answer to the complaint, B.1 Ulpiano Colón y Ferrer, the general agent of Juan Maria Domenech y Aga-zagasti, sold to Manuel V. Ferrer, by public deed executed in the city of Ponce on September 26, 1900, the house of which he was the devisee, for the price and amount of $3,500, of which the former acknowledged the receipt; and at the same timé, as the agent of Juan Maria Domenech y Anazagasti and Juan Nepamuceno and Manuel Maria Domenech y Ana-zagasti, the three heirs of Carmen Hernández de Sus, he conveyed and transferred to Javier Mariani y Palmieri all the [88]*88rights and interest which his principals might have in the property which constituted the estate of said testatrix, for the price and amount of $2,500, which the vendor, Ulpiano Colón, likewise acknowledged to have received.

The Registrar of Property of Aguadilla refused to admit said deed of September 26, 1900, to record, on account of the incurable defect of said house on Comercio street not being-recordable in the name of the vendor Juan Maria Domenech, owing to the fact that the latter had acquired it in the capacity of a devisee of Carmen Hernandez de Sus, and the delivery or tradition to be made by the executor or heir did not appear, and that a devisee cannot occupy the thing devised on his own authority and therefore dispose of it, according to a resolution of the Director General of Registries of Spain of February 4,1880, and articles 885,1025 and 1027 of the former Civil Code.

In view of the refusal of said registrar to admit the deed to record, Manuel V. Domenech y Ferrer, Javier Mariani y Palmieri, ánd R. Ulpiano Colón y Ferrer, as the attorney in fact of Juan Maria Domenech y Anazagasti, executed a notarial act on August 28, 1901, in which they stated that since the death of the testatrix, Carmen Hernández de Sus, her heirs had made delivery of. the house devised to the devisee and heir, Juan Maria Domenech y Anazagasti, who, availing himself of his powers as the owner of such property, had sold it to Manuel V. Domenech, which Javier Mariani, who was sub-rogated to all the rights and actions pertaining to the heirs of Carmen Hernández de Sus, acknowledged.

Notwithstanding the notarial act referred to, the Registrar of Property of Aguadilla persisted in his refusal to admit to record the deed of sale of September 26, 1900, both on tlie ground that the testamentary executor, Vicente Viñas Martinez, did not appear to have taken part in the delivery of the devise, and that it did not appear that the estate had been settled and, consequently, that the debts against it had been paid, which payments took precedence over the legacies, and [89]*89that a cautionary notice was not entered owing to an incurable defect being involved.

As the party interested did not accept the refusal of the registrar, the latter forwarded the data with his report to the Supreme Court for the proper decision, the court rehdering a decision on December 18, 1901, the conclusions of law and adjudging portion whereof read as follows:

“By the presentation in the Registry of Property of Aguadilla of-the notarial act executed on August 28th of last year, by Javier Mariani y Palmieri, as the assignee of the heirs of the decedent, Carmen Hernandez de Sus, the defect which prevented the record of the deed of sale of the house involved in this appeal should have been considered as cured, inasmuch as said document shows that the house-in question was delivered by the heirs named in the will of Carmen Hernandez to the devisee, Juan Maria Domenech, the agreement of the executor not being necessary thereto, as required by the registrar in his second decision, in which he ratified what he had stated on this point in the first decision, and according to section 885 of the Civil Code it- is not -required that the delivery of the devise be made by the heir and executor jointly, but by either of the two.
“With regard to the second ground upon which the registrar bases his refusal, it cannot be sustained either, because the delivery of the house devised to the devisee, Juan Maria Domenech, being established as it has been, since the death of the testatrix, Carmen Hernandez, and as it does not appear that any judicial proceedings as to'” such estate are pending, there is no reason which prevents the record of said real property in the registry of property in favor of the de-visee who acquired his ownership since the death of the testatrix, without prejudice to the rights of action of the creditors of the estate to enforce payment of their credits against the property of the estate, of which they will have to make use in the courts of justice in the proper form.

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