Las Monjas Racing Corp. v. Insular Racing Commission

57 P.R. 94
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJune 14, 1940
DocketNo. 7937
StatusPublished

This text of 57 P.R. 94 (Las Monjas Racing Corp. v. Insular Racing Commission) 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
Las Monjas Racing Corp. v. Insular Racing Commission, 57 P.R. 94 (prsupreme 1940).

Opinion

Mu. Justice Travieso

delivered the opinion of the conrt.

On December 12, 1938, the Insular Racing Commission demanded from Las Monjas Racing Corporation the furnishing of a bond in the sum of $200, in cash, to cover the expenses [95]*95"whicli tlie commission might have to incur in connection with the supervision and direction of the horse races to be held in Las Monjas Race Track, and at the same time it warned said corporation that if it failed to furnish the said bond, the Insular Racing Commission would omit to designate the employees or officers who, in accordance with the law and the regulations of the commission, must be present and act in the race tracks on the days when races are held.

Feeling aggrieved by the action of the commission and having advertised for certain races to be held on December 25, 1938, Las Monjas Racing Corporation applied to the District Court of San Juan for an injunction to restrain the defendant commission from requiring from the plaintiff the furnishing of any bond, and likewise to restrain it from abstaining to provide, designate, or appoint the employees who, in accordance with the law and the regulations, said commission was bound to appoint for the race track of the plaintiff.

An order to show cause having been issued, the defendant commission appeared and filed a demurrer to the petition on the grounds: (a) that there was a misjoinder of causes of action; (b) that the complaint was ambiguous and uncertain; and (c) that a writ of injunction did not lie in this case because what the petitioner sought was to have the commission abstain from complying with the lawful provisions of a statute enacted for the benefit of the public.

On December 21, 1938, the district court issued a preliminary injunction. Thereupon, the commission took the present appeal and in support thereof it urges: that the lower court erred in overruling the grounds of demurrer; in granting the preliminary injunction without having before it any evidence to support the petition; and in granting* the injunction in the terms in which the same was issued.

The first ground of demurrer directed against the petition referred to an alleged misjoinder of two causes of action. The appellant urges that two purposes were [96]*96sought by the petition: (1) to restrain the defendant from, requiring a bond; and (2) to compel- the commission to appoint the officers and employees for the races which the-petitioner proposed to hold. It argues that, although it is true that the first purpose might be attained through a writ of injunction, it is otherwise as to the second purpose, for it would be equivalent to compelling the performance of ministerial duties through an injunction instead of resorting-to mandamus, which is the proper legal remedy for that, purpose.

We think that the lower court did not err in overruling said ground of demurrer. There was no misjoinder of causes of action. Only one cause of action was set forth. In accordance with the facts alleged in the petition and admitted as true under the demurrer, the commission required á bond and threatened to abstain from designating the employees if such requirement was not complied with. In order to set aside that requirement and to prevent the carrying out of said threat, an injunction was sought. If the relief prayed for by the petitioner and granted by the court had been confined to enjoining the commission from requiring the bond,, thus leaving the commission free to carry out its threat not to appoint the necessary officers and employees for the petitioner to hold the races, the writ of injunction would have become academic, as the petitioner would have had to face the alternative of either furnishing the bond in spite of the injunction, or forego the holding of the races for lack of the employees required by law, and who, as alleged, the commission was bound to appoint.

The district court had jurisdiction over the litigants and power and jurisdiction to prohibit the defendant commission from requiring of the petitioning corporation to furnish a bond that the commission had no right to demand. In these-circumstances, and there being involved an equitable proceeding such as that" of injunction, the court was bound to exer*-cise its powers and to retain its jurisdiction in order to dos [97]*97entire justice and to prevent its decree from being disobeyed or ignored through acts or omissions committed or incurred for the sole purpose of evading compliance with such decree.

The following paragraphs taken from Corpus Juris are applicable to the situation presented by the case at bar: '

“It is a well-settled rule that a court of equity which has obtained jurisdiction of a controversy on any ground, or for any purpose, will retain such jurisdiction for the purpose of administering complete relief and doing entire justice with respect to the subject matter, particularly with respect to the enforcement of its own de-' cree. . . . Before the rule can be applied, some ground of equitable jurisdiction must first be asserted and established, and the subject to be adjudicated must be something incidental thereto, or so closely connected therewith as to render its determination necessary to a final decision of the whole controversy between the parties.
The provisions of codes and practice acts with reference to joinder of causes of action and counterclaims have not changed the rule with regard to retention of jurisdiction in equitable actions.” 21 C. J., sec. 117* page 134.
By virtue of this rule, a court of equity-, when its jurisdiction has been invoked for any equitable purpose, will proceed to determine any other equities existing between the parties, connected with the main subject of the suit, and grant all relief necessary to an entire adjustment of such subject, provided it is authorized by the pleadings.” 21 C. J., see. 118, page 137.
“It is a general rule that whore the controversy requires any purely equitable relief, such as will give a court of equity the right to act, the court will proceed to a final determination of all the matters at issue, and in doing so, it may establish purely legal rights and grant legal remedies, which would otherwise be beyond its power, such as rendering personal decrees for money, or as damages for breach of contract. This doctrine prevails not only in code states, but also in states where courts of law and chancery are separately maintained.
- ‘‘The.court, having once taken rightful cognizance of a cause, is empowered and required to afford complete relief, even though it incidentally involves the granting of a remedy ordinarily administered by the court in a special proceeding.” 21 C. J. 138!, sec. 119.

[98]*98The ground of demurrer relating to tlie supposed ambiguity of tlie petition lacks merit. The averments of the petition are clear and present no doubt whatever.

The second assignment of error is based on the action of the lower court in issuing the preliminary injunction without taking any evidence and without giving the defendant an opportunity to answer the complaint.

The appellant has no cause for complaint. In its argument under this assignment of error it overlooks the fact that what the lower court entered was an order for an injunction pendente Ute and not a decree for a permanent injunction.

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Bluebook (online)
57 P.R. 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/las-monjas-racing-corp-v-insular-racing-commission-prsupreme-1940.