Fernandez v. Perez

6 P.R. Fed. 665
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 9, 1914
DocketNo. 184
StatusPublished

This text of 6 P.R. Fed. 665 (Fernandez v. Perez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fernandez v. Perez, 6 P.R. Fed. 665 (prd 1914).

Opinion

HamiltoN, Judge,

delivered the following opinion:

Tbis is said to be tbe dean of all cases on tbe calendar of tbis court, and now comes on for a final decree.

One José Perez was in business at Mayaguez, and a creditor of Ms for 6,000 pesos, Claudio Barro, died in Spain in 1899. Complainant Fernandez was the attorney in fact of Barro’s executor, and sued Perez in attachment in tbe United States provisional court on January 4, 1900. Tbe next day there was filed for record in the registry of property a mortgage by Perez to Victor Ochoa for 20,000 pesos, at five years, without interest, conveying five pieces of land in Mayaguez, described in tbe bill at bar. On October 22 of tbe same year, Perez executed a further mortgage for $5,000 to one Maristany upon tbe same, land and one additional tract. Tbe point was raised that a foreign executor cannot sue in tbe Federal court, and tbe Fernandez suit was dismissed. Perez thereupon sued Fernandez on December 12, 1901, for damages resulting from tbe attachment, and recovered judgment for $7,000, from which Fernandez appealed. He was successful April 23, 1906, in tbe United States Supreme Court. 202 U. S. 80, 50 L. ed. 942, 26 Sup. [668]*668Ct. Rep. 561. He bad not filed a supersedeas bond (Perez v. Fernandez, 1 Porto Rico Fed. Rep. 148), and so Fernandez proceeded on September 19, 1906, to a judgment of restitution in this court, which succeeded the provisional court. There was, however, a return of nulla bona, and Fernandez accordingly brought this suit on October 10, 1906, and ten days later noted a lis pendens thereof in the registry at Mayaguez.

On January 31, 1908, a final decree was obtained in this, suit, subjecting property described in the bill to satisfy the judgment of restitution. Before the date of sale Perez and Ochoa, who were defendants brought in by publication, but who had not appeared, moved to open the decree and be allowed to defend, and Perfecta Blanco filed a bill setting up a conveyance of the property to her. The Blanco claim came about from the foreclosure on December 14, 1905, by Victor Ochoa, of the Perez mortgage of 1899. The property described in the mortgage was adjudicated to Ochoa on June 8, 1906, and the judicial deed therefor was executed five .days later, and promptly recorded. On July 15, 1906; Ochoa and wife, who had meantime retired to Spain, sold by notarial deed to Perfecta Blanco four of the five parcels described in the bill for the price of $10,000. Perfecta Blanco was the mother-in-law of José Perez, whose wife had died in 1905. The deed to Perfecta Blanco was filed for record at Mayaguez, October 24, 1906.

The decree was not opened, and, upon appeal to the Supreme Court, Perez and Ochoa were on April —, 1911, admitted to defend, and in August, 1911, the complainant filed the present amended and supplemental bill, which made Perfecta Blanco also a defendant. No further Us pendens was filed. Answers-were filed and testimony taken.

[669]*669A demurrer in this case has been recently argued, setting up the statute of limitations of six years; but this was overruled by the court, (ante, 342.)

This case presents many questions. There are first to be considered those which relate to the form of the instruments involved, and afterwards those affecting their essential validity.

1. It is argued that, as all parties concerned are Spaniards, the conveyances between them after the American occupation are invalid under the act of March 3, 1881, to restrict the ownership of real estate in the territories to American citizens. 24 Stat. at L. 476, chap. 340, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 1167. On this theory, if Perez could not convey .to a Spaniard, the title remains in him, subject to any proper claims of his creditors. It is true that for many purposes Porto Eico is to be considered as a territory of the United States. It has an organized government, and its governor, for instance, is 'entitled to demand the return of fugitives from justice under the law applicable to governors of territories. New York ex rel. Kopel v. Bingham, 211 U. S. 468, 53 L. ed. 286, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 190. It was, however, Spanish territory before it was ceded to the United States, and the law governing the rights and duties of the Spanish inhabitants is found in the treaty of Paris. To this claim the treaty, in its spirit if not in its terms, is a sufficient answer. Porto Eico was Spanish, and became American with the agreement that “Spanish subjects, natives of the Peninsula, residing in the territory, over which Spain by the present treaty relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty, may remain in such territory <jr may remove therefrom, retaining in either event all their rights of property, including the right to sell or dispose of such property or of its proceeds; and they [670]*670shall also have the right to carry on their industry, commerce, and professions.” Article 9 of the treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898 [30 Stat. at L. 1759]. “They shall have the right to appear before such courts, and to pursue the same course as citizens of the country to which the courts belong.” Article 11 of. the treaty of Paris. It would be impossible to hold that there was not under this treaty the right of free contract between Spaniards residing in Porto Pico; The treaty, though brief, is remedial in its nature, and will be construed liberally in fav- or of citizens of the losing nation. Nothing loss is becoming the dignity of the United States.

It is true that defendant Blanco was not a Spanish resident of Porto Pico, but she is protected by the old treaty with Spain which came into effect again upon the restoration of peaceful relations between the United States and Spain. Taylor, International Pub. Law, p. 604. That gave the citizens of each country the right to hold property in the other. 30 Stat. at L. 1759.

2. The deed from defendant Ochoa to defendant Blanco, bearing date July 15, 1906, is attacked upon the ground that on March 8, 1906, the legislative assembly of Porto Pico, by an act found on page 151 of the Session Laws, repealed the notarial law existing before that time, and enacted another which did not make any provision for acts of foreign notaries. It might be that execution of foreign deeds would be controlled by § 1750 of the Pevised Statutes, but this would not aid, inasmuch as the execution by Ochoa was before a Spanish notary, and not before an American consular official.

The conveyance of lands is subject to regulation by the lex loci, the law of the country within whose jurisdiction the prop[671]*671erty lies. Arndt v. Griggs, 134 U. S. 316, 33 L. ed. 918, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 557. The point raised is not as to the validity of the deed between the parties, but that, conceding this, if it was not properly recorded it could not bind third parties, such as the complainant herein. And it could not be recorded unless it was properly acknowledged.

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Related

Rea v. Missouri
84 U.S. 532 (Supreme Court, 1873)
Smith v. Vodges, Assignee
92 U.S. 183 (Supreme Court, 1876)
Arndt v. Griggs
134 U.S. 316 (Supreme Court, 1890)
Perez v. Fernandez
202 U.S. 80 (Supreme Court, 1906)
Romeu v. Todd
206 U.S. 358 (Supreme Court, 1907)
New York Ex Rel. Kopel v. Bingham
211 U.S. 468 (Supreme Court, 1909)

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Bluebook (online)
6 P.R. Fed. 665, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fernandez-v-perez-prd-1914.