Goffinet v. Sánchez

24 P.R. 695
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJanuary 30, 1917
DocketNo. 1512
StatusPublished

This text of 24 P.R. 695 (Goffinet v. Sánchez) 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
Goffinet v. Sánchez, 24 P.R. 695 (prsupreme 1917).

Opinion

Me. Justice Hutchison

delivered the opinion of the court.

Petitioners, appellants, filed in the District Court of Hu-macao the following complaint:

“Barons Augusto and Constantino Goffinet, the complainants in the above-entitled cause, appear by their attorney, Herminio Díaz, and complain of Francisco Sánchez Rodríguez and his wife, Mercedes Pagan, alleging the following facts:
“First. — That in a private 'document executed in the city of San Juan on November 9, 1912, between the complainants and defendants and signed before notary Herminio Díaz Navarro, which is attached hereto as a part of this complaint as if included therein, the parties set out the following:
“1. That Francisco Sánchez Rodríguez and his wife were in the possession and use of the eight properties described in the said contract:
“2. That upon the dissolution of the firm of Aponte, Sánchez & Co., the said Sánchez assumed the obligation incurred by virtue of a contract executed between the S: A. des Sucreries de Saint Jean and the aforesaid firm, relative to the planting and grinding of one hundred and fifty acres of sugar cane for the crops of the years 1912, 1913 and 1914, on lands leased by said firm from Carolina Cajas, widow of Valdes, consisting of 317 acres, situated in the ward of Quebradas, of the Municipal District of San Lorenzo, the said Sán-chez and his wife also binding themselves by another contract to prepare, plant and cultivate in cane for the crop of 1912, fifty acres, and for the crops of 1913 and 1914, one hundred acres; the said two contracts having been rescinded by mutual agreement of the S. A. des Sucreries de Saint Jean and said Sánchez and his wife on November 9, 1912.
“3. That in order to comply with said contract, plaintiffs agreed with the defendants that the former should give a credit to the latter, which they did, the defendants admitting that they were indebted to the plaintiffs up to October 18, 1912, in the sum of ten thousand [697]*697■dollars, with interest at tbe rate of 10 per cent per annum, and both parties agreed that the contract by virtue of which the said credit was opened had been inoperative since the 9th of November, 1912, and that the said ten thousand dollars should be charged to the new credit, which, according to this new contract, as hereinafter provided, shall be opened.
“4. That by another contract signed on the same date as the present contract, Sánchez and his wife became bound with respect to the properties described in this new contract, in the following manner: (a) to deliver to the S. A. des Sucreries de Saint Jean for grinding during the crop of 1913, and at Central Santa Juana, situated in the city of Caguas, all sugar cane growing on November 9, 1912, and owned by Sanchez and his wife as successors of Aponte, Sanchez & Co., and in their own right; (Z>) to prepare, plant and cultivate in sugar cane, at their own expense, from six to eight hundred acres for the crop of 1914, and from eight hundred to one thousand acres for each of the crops of 1915 to 1918, inclusive, being at liberty to plant the above number of acres on the properties they may deem convenient of those described in the enclosed contract; (c) to deliver to the S. A. des Sucreries de Saint Jean for grinding at the Central Santa Juana during each of the said crops of the years 1914 to 1918, inclusive, all sugar cane that said Sánchez and his wife might obtain by virtue of the obligation incurred as provided in paragraph B, next preceding.
“5. That in order to attend to the management, maintenance, cultivation and improvement of the cane which Sánchez and his wife were to plant on the said properties, the plaintiffs agreed with the defendants to grant to the latter an agricultural loan by virtue of which the defendants were to receive, upon the signing of this contract, from the Barons Goffinet, the sum of five thousand dollars, for which sum the defendant then gave a receipt; and the defendants should receive, further, to be charged to said credit, and from the plaintiffs, up to the sum of seventy dollars per acre of sugar cane of the first growth, and forty dollars per acre of second growth, giving the proper receipts; it being understood that the said sum shall be delivered to the defendants whenever, in the opinion of the agent of Barons Goffinet, Sánchez and his wife had properly cultivated the said lands, and always in proportion to the work performed.
“6. Sánchez and his -wife agreed to refund to plaintiffs Goffi-net or whoever might represent them, at the end of each crop, what[698]*698ever sum they should owe them for principal and interest at the rate of 10 per cent per annum by virtue of the sums received on account of the said agricultural loan.
“7. As security for the payment to be made on said date to Messrs. Goffinet, or whoever represented them, of any sum due on said date for principal and interest, Sánchez and his wife, in the manner and with the preferences prescribed by the law regarding agricultural contracts of March 10, 1910, as amended on March 9, 1911, pledged all sugar cane that might be obtained and the sugar produced therefrom on the said properties as provided in the aforesaid contract for the planting and grinding of cane as finally executed between Sánchez and his wife and the S. A. des Sucreries de Saint Jean.
"8. It was understood and stipulated that inasmuch as the lawful representative and attorney in fact in this Island of the Sucre-ries de Saint Jean was the person who in the name of the complainants executed this contract of agricultural loan, the said corporation was notified of the same for the purposes of the provisions of section 11 of the said law for agricultural loans and grinding of cane.
“Second. — The foregoing contract was presented in the Registry of Agricultural Contracts on January 15, 1914, and recorded on February 5, 1914, as to the eight properties to which it refers, on folios 29, 33, 36, 42, 45, 48 and 51, volume first, of San Lorenzo, properties numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, registrations first, respectively.
“Third. — Pursuant to said contract plaintiffs gave to defendants for the crop of 1914 the advances stipulated. On September 1, 1914, and by deed executed in Caguas before notary Lorenzo Jiménez, defendants confessed to be indebted to the plaintiffs, according to a liquidation made, in the sum of ten thousand dollars; and that being unable to pay the said sum, they promised to pay the same by instalments on the 30th of June of the years 1915, 1916 and 1917, and at the time of the crops corresponding to said years as agreed in the aforesaid contract of agricultural loan; that is to say, that after refunding with the sugar the total sum of the advances received for each crop, the remainder of the sum obtained from said sugar should be applied to the payment of the said ten thousand dollars. Defendants gave in pledge to plaintiffs as a guaranty for the performance of said agreement, the one hundred and sixty oxen, four horses, twenty carts and two hoisting machines referred to in the deed, which were and are the property of said defendants, the plaintiffs remaining in possession of said properties a^ agreed in the deed.
[699]*699“Fourth.

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

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 P.R. 695, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goffinet-v-sanchez-prsupreme-1917.