People v. Suárez

51 P.R. 877
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJuly 13, 1937
DocketNo. 6592
StatusPublished

This text of 51 P.R. 877 (People v. Suárez) 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. Suárez, 51 P.R. 877 (prsupreme 1937).

Opinion

Me. Justice Teavieso

delivered the opinion of the court.

Eligió Suárez was accused and convicted of a violation of section 11 of Act No. 67 of May 13, 1934 (Session Laws, p. 458), entitled “An Act to regulate the manufacture, possession, storage,, transportation, sale or gift of explosives in Puerto Rico, defining offenses, prescribing penalties, declaring an emergency, and for other purposes.” The offense charged is described in the information, thus:

“The said defendant, Eligió Suárez, on or about one day in July, 1935, in the Municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico, which forms part of the Judicial District of San Juan, did unlawfully use dynamite and some other explosive, unknown to the undersigned District Attorney, for the purpose of damaging and destroying the building used as a post office in Puerta de Tierra.”

[880]*880Feeling aggrieved by tbe sentence of three years in jail at hard labor imposed on him, the accused took the present appeal; and in support thereof he has charged the lower court with the commission of eleven errors. We will proceed to consider them in the same order in which they have been assigned.

1. That tbe District Court of San Juan erred in taking cognizance of the case.

The appellant maintains that the jurisdiction in this case corresponds exclusively to the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, as a federal building is involved; that even if the insular courts should have jurisdiction of such cases, the evidence herein does not show that the alleged offense was committed within the jurisdiction of the District Court of San Juan; and that the law on which the information is based is unconstitutional because it contains more than one subject under the same title.

The evidence offered by the prosecution established beyond a reasonable doubt that “the building occupied by the post office of Puerta de Tierra,” which is the place where the criminal acts with which the accused is charged were committed, is situated at Stop 5%, at the corner of Pónce de León Avenue and Padre Hoff Street, in the ward of Puerta de Tierra. This court takes judicial notice that the ward of Puerta de Tierra is comprised with in the jurisdictional limits of the District Court of San Juan.

The statute (Act No. 67 of 1934) defines the crime with which the appellant is charged as follows:

“Section 11. — Unlawful use; punishment. — Any person unlawfully using dynamite or other explosive for the purpose of inflicting bodily injury upon, or to terrify and frighten any person, or to injure or destroy any property, or to damage the same in any manner, shall be liable, etc.”

The information in the instant case conforms to the language of the statute and is sufficient to inform the accused [881]*881of the nature of the offense with which he is charged. The words “the building occupied by the post office of Puerta de Tierra,” do not charge the accused with the commission of a federal offense. Those words have been included in the information in order to better describe and identify the property which it is alleged the accused attempted to destroy illegally. The information would be equally sufficient if it charged the accused with the intent to destroy “the building located at the corner of Ponce de León Avenue and Padre Hoff Street.” All that the statute requires is that the explosive be used for the purpose of injuring or destroying any property, irrespective of its owner. If the accused raises the question of jurisdiction, alleging that the property which was sought to be destroyed belongs to the People of the United States and that hence the Federal Court has exclusive jurisdiction of the ease, it is incumbent upon him to prove such allegation.

The appellant in his brief says: “It has been decided by the courts of the United States that it is presumed that when the Federal Government occupies lands or buildings for governmental purposes, such lands or buildings are the property of the Federal Government, and hence, the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts is exclusive.” But the appellant does not aid us by indicating to us the sources of his information for he does not cite a single ■ authority which supports that doctrine. Although we have made a careful study of the federal decisions on the matter, we have not been able to find any basis to support it.

The States — and the People of Puerto Rico by virtue of its Organic Act — have exclusive jurisdiction to take cognizance of 'and punish all the crimes committed within their territorial limits. That is the general rule of jurisdiction. It is based, naturally, on the fact that the States are sovereign, with 'all the powers inherent to sovereignty, whereas the Federal Government is a government of delegated powers, [882]*882find can only exercise such, powers as have been delegated to it by the States. The exception to tbe general rule is that established by the Federal Constitution (Article 1, section 8, subdivision 17) in granting to Congress the exclusive legislative power over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, and other needful buildings. "When the Federal Government purchases lands for any of said purposes and the State legislature gives its consent, the lands so purchased become ipso facto submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, and the jurisdiction of the State ceases completely. See U. S. v. Cornell (C.C.R.I. 1819) 2 Mason 60, 25 Fed. Cases No. 14867.

J(< The jurisprudence we have examined holds:

'"A state retains complete and exclusive political jurisdiction over land within its limits purchased by the United States as a site for a public building, unless such purchase was with the consent of its legislature, or jurisdiction has been otherwise ceded to the United States.” United States v. San Francisco Bridge Co., 88 F. 891.

In. the case of U. S. v. Penn, 48 Fed. 669, the United States had purchased the Arlington grounds, during the war, at a public sale for delinquent taxes. The State of Virginia had never ceded its jurisdiction over said property. And it -was held that the Federal Court did not have jurisdiction over a crime of petty larceny committed in the National'Cemetery I of said State. i

The Federal Supreme Court in Fort Leavenworth R. R. Co. v. Lowe, 114 U. S. 525, 531, 29 L. Ed. 264, in holding I that the State of Kansas had not lost its jurisdiction over 8 the Fort Leavenworth Military Reservation, said: I

“The consent of the States to the purchase of lands within them | for the special purposes named is, however, essential, under the 1 ■Constitution, to the transfer to the general government, with the title, of political jurisdiction and dominion. • Where lands are acquired without such consent, the possession of the United States, [883]*883unless political jurisdiction be ceded to them in some other way, is simply that of an ordinary proprietor. The property in that case, unless used as a means to carry out the purposes of the government, is subject to the legislative authority and control of the States equally with the property of private individuals.”

See also U. S. v.

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Bluebook (online)
51 P.R. 877, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-suarez-prsupreme-1937.