Pérez Cosme v. District Court of San Juan

47 P.R. 546
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedSeptember 29, 1934
DocketNo. 962
StatusPublished

This text of 47 P.R. 546 (Pérez Cosme 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
Pérez Cosme v. District Court of San Juan, 47 P.R. 546 (prsupreme 1934).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Audrey

delivered the opinion of the Court.

At the request of Jesús Pérez Cosme and José Cruz, we issued a writ of certiorari and asked the lower court for the record.

In order to collect taxes owed by Juana Beatriz Vázquez, the collector of internal revenue of the town of Toa Baja attached a property of twelve acres and seventy-one hundredths of an acre, assessed at over $500, recorded in the name of Vicente Montañez and located in a ward of that town. The property being sold at auction, it was adjudicated for the purchase price-of $16.17 to Domingo Bios, to whom the collector delivered the certificate of purchase on June 30, 1932. On the 9th day of the following August, a little over a month afterwards, the collector notified said sale to Jesús Pérez Cosme and José Cruz, who had attachments on said property, the first for $1,000 and the second for $500. On July 31, 1933, before a year from the notice to said attaching creditors had elapsed, the latter tendered to the purchaser [548]*548Eíos tRe $16.17 which, he had paid at the auction, pins the other amounts inquired by law in order to be able to redeem the propei'ty, but Rios refused to accept the same. In view of these facts, Jesús Pérez Cosme and José Cruz brought suit in the District Court of San Juan against Domingo Rios and the Treasurer of Puerto Rico, depositing in the court the amount of $47.48 which they tendered to Rios, and prayed that the court would approve of the deposit of the money and would order the cancellation in the registry of the record of the certificate issued in favor of Domingo Rios. They added two other causes of action to that complaint, namely: to have the auction sale declared void, and also the certificate of purchase issued by the collector. The court ordered the summoning of the defendants in case they would choose to object to the deposit, which they did on various grounds. The plaintiffs abandoned their action against the Treasurer and moved for judgment on the pleadings against Rios. The court denied the same, on the grounds that the plaintiffs did not comply in making the deposit with the procedure prescribed by Section 349 of the Political Code, and that on the assumption that the court had jurisdiction of the subject matter, which it denies, the same is ineffective as regards this case because the special procedure of the Political Code excludes the general one of the Civil Code. In refusing to reconsider that decision, the court added that other causes of action which are inconsistent with the deposit, cannot be joined in the proceeding therefor; and that the court has no jurisdiction to pass upon the deposit either by reason of the amount thereof or of the subject matter according to the Political Code. After these decisions, the plaintiffs filed, with leave of court, an amended complaint in which, disregarding the two pauses of action of nullity which they had previously set forth, they set up the tender of payment made to Rios on July 31, 1933, to redeem the property, and that on account of his refusal to accept the same, they applied on August 5, 1933, to the registrar of property of [549]*549San Jnan, accompanied by two witnesses wbo saw tbe tender made to Bios, so that they would swear to those facts before the said officer- and that the latter would act in accordance with Section 349 of the Political Code and would consider the property as redeemed; and that the registrar refused to accept the money and the oath offered on the ground that the certificate of purchase was issued on June 30, 1932. For that reason the plaintiffs deposited the money in court in order that judgment be rendered considering the property as redeemed, its former owner as restored therein, subject to the attachments, and Bios as paid for said sum, and that the registrar would be directed to annul and set aside the record he made in favor of Bios.. The defendant Bios moved that the amended complaint be stricken out, and the court rendered judgment ordering the striking out and that the case be filed away for want of jurisdiction to pass upon the matter by means of the deposit proceeding.

After those decisions, the petition in certiorari was presented to us, wherein it is alleged as its basis and in substantial relation to the foregoing facts, that the decisions of the lower court are erroneous because it has jurisdiction over the matter, both by reason of the amount and of the subject matter: because there is no improper joinder of actions, and because the amended complaint sets up the same facts and refers to one of the actions alleged in the original complaint and confers jurisdiction to the court over the parties, over the subject matter, and over the object of the action.

Domingo Bios claims as intervener that the writ of cer-tiorari does not lie because the petition does not set up any error of procedure whatsoever; because the errors it mentions are of law; and because all the decisions complained of are appealable.

We could discharge the writ issued on the ground that it appears from the certified copy of the proceeding sent to us by the lower court that judgment has been rendered ordering the filing away of the case of the petitioners, thereby dis[550]*550posing of it, and hence the questions set forth in this extraordinary remedy may be properly determined in the appeal from the judgment. However, for the sake of a speedier administration of justice and inasmuch as we have issued the writ of certiorari, it seems convenient to us in this case to decide right now the questions raised.

In the first comp1aint a deposit was made, the approval of which was sought, as well as that the property sold for taxes be considered as redeemed, and two other causes of action on nullity were exercised; but that complaint has been substituted for all purposes, except as to the date of its filing, by the amended one which has been filed, and therefore we shall only refer to the last one in deciding this proceeding. Estate of Chavier v. Estate of Giráldez, 15 P.R.R. 145; Romero et al. v. Romero et al., 33 P.R.R. 105.

According to the facts we have stated with respect to the amended complaint, its object is inasmuch as the registrar of property refused to admit the deposit made to him by the plaintiffs in accordance with Section 349 of the Political Code and the affidavits relating- to the tender of the redemption money made to the purchaser of the property on the ground that such request was made to him on August 5, 1934, that is, after a year from June 30, 1932, when tho certificate of purchase was delivered to the purchaser, that the court declare, in consideration of the deposit made before it in the amount of $47.48, that the property has been redeemed in favor of its former owner. In other words, that the plaintiffs are entitled to the declaration by the court that the property has been redeemed, since they tendered the redemption money prior to August 9,1933, four days before a year elapsed from the time the notice of the sale was given to the plaintiffs for the attachments they had on the property.

A deposit made in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code is not now dealt with, as in the original complaint, but the fact that the special procedure fixed for redemption by the Political Code in such cases as the instant [551]*551having been followed, the registrar has refused to accept such deposit on the ground, mistaken according to the plaintiffs, that the time for redemption granted by the law is to he computed from the date of the certificate of sale delivered to the purchaser.

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47 P.R. 546, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perez-cosme-v-district-court-of-san-juan-prsupreme-1934.