People v. Registrar of Property of Guayama

64 P.R. 125
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 6, 1944
DocketNo. 1148
StatusPublished

This text of 64 P.R. 125 (People v. Registrar of Property of Guayama) 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
People v. Registrar of Property of Guayama, 64 P.R. 125 (prsupreme 1944).

Opinion

Mr. Justice De Jesús

delivered the opinion of the court.

The People of Puerto Rico, in the name of the Land Authority of Puerto Rico, instituted, in the District Court

of Guayama, a condemnation proceeding against the owners of a certain rural property located in Aibonito and all nat[127]*127ural or artificial persons having any interest or lien therein. In accordance with §5 (a) of the Act providing for condemnation proceedings, as amended by Act No. 19 of November 30, 1932 (Second and Third Special Sessions, p. 82), the petitioner filed, together with the petition, a declaration of taking for the acquisition and material delivery of the property and deposited in court, for the use and benefit of the respondents, the sum of $25,902.62, which it estimated to be the just‘and reasonable compensation for the property.

In view of the filing of the petition, of the declaration of taking, and of the deposit of the compensation, the court entered an order, the dispositive part of which reads thus:

“Therefore, it is adjudged, ordered, and decreed that the title in fee simple absolute to certain land having a net area of one hundred and ninety-four acres (cuerdas) and seven thousand and ninety-one ten-thousandths of an acre (194.7591 acres), located in the ward of El Llano, in the municipal district of Aibonito, Puerto Eico, and described in Exhibit ‘A’ accompanying the Declaration for Acquisition and Material Delivery of the Property and in Exhibit ‘One’, attached to this Order, is vested from the date of the filing of the Declaration for Acquisition and Material Delivery of the Property in the People of Puerto Eico, in the name and for the use of the Land Authority of Puerto Eico;
“That the Eegistrar of Property of Guayama, Puerto Eico, shall record, free of all encumbrances or liens, said title to the said property in fee simple absolute in favor of the People of Puerto Eico, in the name and for the use of the Land Authority of Puerto Eico. ’ ’

Upon the above order being presented for record in the Registry of Property of Guayama, the registrar recorded the same in the manner set forth in the following decision:

“The foregoing document, as to a property of 195.1036 acres which, after deducting therefrom 3445 ten-thousandths of an acre which is the area of the municipal road in the ward of Llano that crosses the property, leaves a net area of 194.7591 acres in the ward of Llano, Aibonito, described in the accompanying exhibit, submitted together with a copy of the petition in this case, is recorded at page 2, volume 46 of Aibonito, Property No. 1854, First Inscription. [128]*128Said property, according to the entries of tbe registry, is subject to the following encumbrances: a mortgage in favor of the Federal Land Bank of Baltimore; two mortgages in favor of the holder of certain promissory notes; and three attachments in favor of the Heirs of Manuel Berrios Ortiz, Etelvina Torres Colón, and Josefa Inés Torres Colón, respectively.”

As may be seen from the above-quoted decision, the registrar did not record in favor of the People of Puerto Rico the title in fee simple absolute free from encumbrances. On the contrary, he stated the various charges burdening the property. In opposition to the appeal taken from his decision by the People of Puerto Rico, the registrar requests that the same be dismissed:

(a) Because he has not been served with a simple copy of the instrument or instruments on which the appeal is based, citing Rule 92(a) of this court, and

(b) Because, according to the registrar, the document ■was recorded in full, and he did not deny the recording of any part thereof.

Going into the merits of the appeal, the registrar then urged that, although it appears from the judicial order that the creditors of the condemned property were made parties-defendant in the condemnation proceeding, it is not stated therein that the said creditors were served with notice of the petition for condemnation or that they gave their consent to the cancellation of their credits in the registry, or that the amount of the liens has been reserved by the court to be paid out in due course to the respective lien-holders, or that the liens had been previously paid.

Rule 92(a), erroneously copied by the registrar, is not capable of the interpretation given to it by him. After directing that, where an administrative appeal is filed, the secretary shall give notice to the parties in order that they may file their respective bi'iefs, it adds that six copies of [129]*129said briefs shall be filed and the original shall show that notice thereof has been served on the adverse party; and it concludes by stating:

“A simple typewritten copy of the instrument or instruments on which the appeal is based shall also be filed by the appellant.”' (Italics ours.)

The registrar, however, misquotes the foregoing statement and erroneously concludes that the appellant is bound to deliver to him a copy of the instrument or instruments on which the appeal is based.

The rule does not impose such a duty on the appellant. Where the latter must file said copy is in the office of the secretary of this court, attaching the same to the petition, for appeal.

The other ground for dismissal is also untenable. The judicial order clearly directed the registrar to record in favor of the People of Puerto Rico, in the name and for the use of the Land Authority of Puerto Rico, the title to said property in fee simple absolute, free from all encumbrances. But the registrar failed to comply with the order in its entirety. It was ordered therein that the title in fee simple absolute should be recorded free from all encumbrances, and it appears from the decision appealed from that that mandate was not complied with. Under these circumstances, Alvarez v. Registrar of San Germán, 29 P.R.R. 716, cited by the appellant is apposite. It was held in that case, that an administrative appeal is proper where the registrar refuses to give to the document involved its full legal effect, as it evidently happened in the instant case.

The failure of the registrar to expressly state in his decision that he denied the recording of the cancellation of the encumbrances, when in point of fact he denied it, does not deprive the appellant of his right to have the action of the registrar reviewed in an administrative- appeal. Were the-[130]*130contention of the respondent upheld, the right to take an administrative appeal from a registrar’s decision would he at the mercy of the registrar himself.

The case of Orta v. Registrar, 60 P.R.R. 768, cited by the respondent, is inapposite. In the instant case unlike the former’, it was not sought to have the registrar, on the basis of facts set forth by the petitioner, exercise his quasi-judicial discretion by taking some action or certifying as to the existence or nonexistence of encumbrances on the title to an immovable or as to the legal condition of the same. On the contrary, here there is involved a judicial order, wherein, putting aside any discretion on the part of the registrar, he is ordered to record, free of encumbrance, the title to a certain property in fee simple absolute, in favor of a certain «entity.

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Related

United States v. Certain Parcels of Land
40 F. Supp. 436 (D. Maryland, 1941)

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Bluebook (online)
64 P.R. 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-registrar-of-property-of-guayama-prsupreme-1944.