Ex parte Finlay, Waymouth & Lee

42 P.R. 812
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 17, 1931
DocketNo. 4851
StatusPublished

This text of 42 P.R. 812 (Ex parte Finlay, Waymouth & Lee) 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
Ex parte Finlay, Waymouth & Lee, 42 P.R. 812 (prsupreme 1931).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Hutchison

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Sometime after the appointment of a judicial administrator of the Estate of Frank B. Hatch, Carlos Armstrong e Hijos, Succrs., hereinafter referred to as appellant, appeared as intervener and moved:

First; to strike from the record two documents dated June 15, and August 17, 1925, and signed by an attorney as counsel for the widow of Hatch, whereby the latter renounced her right to the inheritance.

Second; to set aside two orders, one naming a temporary administrator and the other making the permanent appointment.

Third; to establish the nullity of a bond furnished by the judicial administrator, and to vacate everything done by such administrator thereunder.

Fourth; to set aside an order of October 27, 1926, for the distribution of $5,000 among creditors who had proved their claims, and another of November 13, 1926, for the sale [814]*814of real and personal property without previous notice to interested parties, the unknown heirs and creditors, and—

Fifth; to establish the validity and effect of a judgment obtained by intervener in June, 1925, and intervener’s right to an execution of such judgment by the sale of certain attached property.

Hatch died on May 8th, 1925. On May 9th, appellant commenced an action against his widow, Carmen Hernández, and John Doe and Richard Roe as his unknown heirs. An attachment was issued and levied on an undivided interest in a certain parcel of land. Later, after the discovery of a will, the district court at the instance of appellant ordered that the unknown defendants be substituted by Carmen Her-nández as sole and universal heir under the will. The complaint was amended accordingly, and in June a judgment by default was obtained against the widow.

On July 1st, appellant obtained leave to make the newly appointed judicial administrator a party to the action against the widow. Neither the complaint nor the summons was amended by adding the name of the administrator as a party. No summons was served upon the administrator.

Acting under a writ of execution, the marshal then levied upon $1,581.05 deposited in a bank by the temporary administrator in the name of the heirs of Frank B. Hatch, and drew a check for that amount in favor of appellant. Thereupon appellant obtained an order for the issuance of another writ of execution for the unsatisfied balance of the judgment amounting to $1,742.68.

The attached property was in the custody of the judicial administrator. Appellant had filed a motion in the administration proceeding for leave to sell the attached property. The court had not passed upon this motion. These facts were not brought to the attention of the district judge who ordered the issuance of a writ of execution.

When the judicial administrator learned that the attached property was about to be sold, he moved for an order [815]*815restraining appellant and the marshal from proceeding with the execution sale. Appellant opposed this motion. The district judge to whom this motion was presented then ordered that the property in question should not he sold until the motion for leave to sell the same could he considered and decided. Appellant’s next step was to present the motion first above mentioned. The present appeal is from an order overruling that motion.

The first contention of appellant is that the district court erred in basing its ruling on the record, on the documentary evidence adduced, and on the briefs, without taking into consideration the testimony and the admissions made at the hearing as appearing from the record thereof.

The order appealed from purports to have been made after an examination of the record in the administration proceeding, of the documentary evidence adduced in support of the motion, and of the briefs submitted. It is a fair inference that, if the testimony was discussed in the brief, it was considered by the court in the course of its examination of the briefs. If not so discussed, appellant would have no reason to complain of the court’s failure to make specific mention thereof in the order. It does not follow, however, from the omission of any specific reference to the testimony that the same was not considered by the court. On the contrary, every presumption is in favor of the correctness of the court’s action, and we can not assume with appellant that the judge did not consider the testimony.

Appellant’s second contention is that the court erred in not striking from the record the two documents dated June 15, and August 17, 1925, and subscribed by an attorney on behalf of Mrs. Hatch, whereby she renounced her right to the inheritance.

At the hearing of the motion it was admitted that the minutes did not contain any mention of an order (itself a part of the record) directing that the waiver of August 17, 1925, be included in the record. It was also admitted that [816]*816no revenue stamps bad been attached and canceled upon either of the two waivers, and that no mention of either document had been made in the register of actions.

Appellant quotes from Fairall’s Code of Civil Procedure, 407, as follows:

“A pleading prepared for the purposes of filing is not a pleading-in fact until it is filed and made a part of the record. Fletcher v. Maginnis, 136 Cal. 362, 362 Pac. 1015.”

Section 974 of the Civil Code provides that:

“The repudiation of an inheritance shall be made in a public or authentic instrument, or in writing presented to the district court having jurisdiction in testamentary or intestate proceedings.”

The petition for a judicial administration was filed on June 11th, 1925. On June 13th, the district court ordered that the widow and all creditors be cited for a hearing to be had on June 22nd. Immediately following this order, in the record of the proceeding for a judicial administration, comes the writing dated June 15th, 1925, and signed “F. B. For-naris, attorney for Carmen Hernández, Widow of Hatch,” whereby the widow appears, acknowledges services of the petition for the appointment of a judicial administrator and renounces her right as an heir. On June 24th, an amended petition was filed. On the same day the district judge fixed a day for another hearing and ordered that the widow, heirs, creditors and other persons interested be cited to appear- and assert their rights and show why a judicial administrator should not be appointed. At the same time and by the same order, a temporary administrator was also appointed.

The writing dated August 17th, acknowledges service of the amended petition and in other respects is in the same form as the one dated June 15th. It bears an endorsement by the district judge directing that it be made a part of the record, and another endorsement by the secretary indicating that it was filed on August 18.

Neither of the two writings in question falls within any [817]*817of the classifications contained in the schedule established by “An Act regulating the collection of fees and costs in civil cases in the district and municipal courts in Porto Eico and for other purposes” (Session Laws, 1915, p. 45). Both came in response to process served upon the widow in person.

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

Related

Fletcher v. Maginnis
68 P. 1015 (California Supreme Court, 1902)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 P.R. 812, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-finlay-waymouth-lee-prsupreme-1931.