Hull v. District Court of San Juan

42 P.R. 146
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 22, 1931
DocketNo. 758
StatusPublished

This text of 42 P.R. 146 (Hull v. District Court of San Juan) 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
Hull v. District Court of San Juan, 42 P.R. 146 (prsupreme 1931).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Audrey

delivered the opinion of the Court.

American Colonial Bank and Trust Company of Porto Pico, a corporation, in its capacity as administrator of the .Catholic Church in Puerto Rico, on February 17, 1931, [147]*147brought an action of unlawful detainer against Hardwood Hull for nonpayment of several instalments of rent in the amount of $1,866.66, at the agreed rate of $125 monthly, on the lower story of a certain house located in this city. The defendant interposed a demurrer to the complaint, and filed an answer denying its allegations. The demurrer was overruled on the ground that the defendant had not appeared in court to support it; and, after a trial, judgment was rendered for the plaintiff; and the defendant was ordered to vacate the house. Thereupon the defendant filed a petition for certiorari in this court, and the writ having been issued the original record of the case is now before us and we have heard the parties thereto.

Two errors of procedure are set up in the petition for certiorari, and the first of these is predicated on the overruling by the court of the demurrer for failure of the defendant to make an appearance in support thereof.

According to sections 196 and 198 of the Code of Civil Procedure, a demurrer to the complaint raises an issue of law which must be tried by the court, unless it is referred upon consent; and section 199 provides that issues of law must be disposed of before issues of fact are decided. Under these provisions, therefore, a demurrer must be decided by the court and should not be overruled on the ground that the party interposing the same has not appeared to support it. In Anderson v. Fulton County Home Builders, 92 S. E. 934; Vaughan v. Farmers’ & Merchants’ Bank, 93 S. E. 228, and Porter v. Parker, 126 S. E. 381, all decided by the Supreme Court of Georgia, it has been held that a demurrer must be disposed of although the demurrant or Ms counsel should fail to appear in court. In the first of those cases it was said: “The failure of the defendant to appear would not authorize the dismissal of a demurrer. ...” To overrule a demurrer for failure of the party to appear in support thereof is tantamount to its dismissal without considering it. However, the error of the lower court on tMs point is not [148]*148of such a character as would warrant the setting aside of the trial that was held, since the same questions presented by the demurrer may be discussed in the appeal from the judgment. In the last two of the cited cases it was also said that the error complained of was not such as required a new trial; and in Manrique v. Diez, 22 P.R.R. 167, we have declared that a mere informality would not give a right to invoke the remedy of certiorari. Consequently, the writ of certiorari herein can not be sustained on that ground.

It is also alleged in the petition herein that the defendant set up in the lower court as a ground for demurrer the failure to state in the complaint facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and that the complaint can not be amended because the American Colonial Bank and Trust Company of Porto Pico is not the real party in interest in accordance with the doctrine laid down in J. Ochoa & Bro. v. José González Clemente, & Co., 29 P.R.R. 948; and that the overruling of such objection violates section 51 of the Code of Civil Procedure, providing that every action must be exercised in the name of the real party in interest, and constitutes the other error of procedure urged.

What is sought by the foregoing ground of the petition is that we review the ruling on the said demurrer within the special proceeding in certiorari.

In Rodríguez v. Sepulveda, 19 P.R.R. 1107, we have said that the overruling or sustaining of a demurrer can not be pleaded as an error of procedure in a petition for a writ of certiorari; and in Succession of Rodriguez v. Alfaro, 22 P.R.R. 169, we held that certiorari is not the proper proceeding for determining whether a complaint is sufficient to support a judgment for the plaintiff and for setting aside the said judgment on the ground of the insufficiency of that pleading, unless a question of jurisdiction should be involved; and that the sufficiency or insufficiency of the complaint to support a judgment for plaintiff is a question reviewable by appeal and not by certiorari.

[149]*149In this case the objection relating to plaintiff’s capacity to institute the action of unlawful detainer does not attack the jurisdiction of the lower court, which was competent to take cognizance of the present action, since the lease rentals computed on an annual basis exceeded the sum of $1,000 and the property, the object of the suit, is located within the territorial jurisdiction of that court.

Also, we have declared in Sánchez v. Cuevas Zequeira, 23 P.R.R. 47, 51, that it has been held repeatedly by the courts in the continental United States and by this Court that as certiorari is an extraordinary remedy, it does not lie when there is another adequate, speedy, and efficient remedy in the ordinary course of law. In the instant case an appeal from the judgment of dispossession entered was available and such remedy is an adequate, speedy, and efficient one, since it may be brought in the short period of five days and the question raised by the certiorari herein in connection with the overruling of the demurrer might have been submitted and determined within such appeal; and the fact that it is provided by section 12 of the Unlawful Detainer Act that whenever the action of unlawful detainer is founded' upon the nonpayment of the amounts agreed upon, the defendant shall be denied the right of appeal unless he deposits in the office of the clerk of the court the amount due as the price up to the date of the judgment, is not a valid reason for substituting the extraordinary remedy of certiorari for the ordinary remedy of appeal, even though the plaintiff may withdraw the amount so deposited. The issuance of writs of certiorari by this Court should not prevail over the remedy by appeal granted by law, unless there is involved a grave error of procedure, which does not exist here.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, inasmuch as the statutory period for taking an appeal from the judgment is five days and the original record of the proceedings in the lower court was forwarded to us on the last day available for taking the appeal, and also in view of the fact that the defendant may [150]*150have concluded that, since a preliminary writ was issued by this Court, the certiorari herein would be finally granted, and as we may exercise discretion in this kind of proceedings, we think that we have power, in the furtherance of justice, to examine the record sent up by the lower court with a view to determining whether the error complained of exists, or whether it has been cured, if present.

At the trial it was shown that the plaintiff is a corporation organized under the laws of this Island; that the Eoman Catholic Apostolic Church in Puerto Eico is the record owner of the house which is the object of the dispossession proceedings, located in the city of San Juan; that by public deed executed before a notary the Eight Eeverend Bishop of the Diocese of San Juan, Puerto Eico, Monsignor Edwin V.

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Related

Anderson v. Fulton County Home Builders
92 S.E. 934 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1917)
Porter v. Parker
126 S.E. 381 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1925)
Vaughn v. Farmers & Merchants Bank
93 S.E. 228 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1917)

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Bluebook (online)
42 P.R. 146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hull-v-district-court-of-san-juan-prsupreme-1931.