Pietri v. Burgos

42 P.R. 122
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 17, 1931
DocketNo. 5120
StatusPublished

This text of 42 P.R. 122 (Pietri v. Burgos) 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
Pietri v. Burgos, 42 P.R. 122 (prsupreme 1931).

Opinion

MR. Chieb Justice Del Toro

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an intervention proceeding instituted by Luis C. Pietri against Valentín Burgos Santos, Gustavo Burgos Santos, and Maria Ortiz. The district court rendered judgment in favor of the intervener, and the defendants in the proceeding, Valentín and Gustavo Burgos, appealed from that judgment to this Court.

It appears from the record that Valentin Burgos had brought an action of debt in the District Court of Arecibo against the other defendants in the said proceeding, Gustavo Burgos and his wife, Maria Ortiz. There were serious differences between the defendant spouses, who lived apart. The wife was residing in San Juan and moved for a change of venue to the district court of her residence, which motion was filed in said District Court of Arecibo on May 5, 1926, together with a demurrer to the complaint and an affidavit of merits.

On June 21, 1926, while the motion for a change of venue [124]*124was pending, the plaintiff moved for an attachment to secnre the effectiveness of any judgment that might he rendered, which was ordered by the court three days later, and the property claimed in the intervention proceeding was accordingly attached.

On August 11,1926, the District Court of Arecibo granted a change of venue to the District Court of San Juan. The latter court then proceeded with the case and finally rendered a judgment in favor of the plaintiff on two of the causes of action stated, and adjudged the defendant to pay to the plaintiff two claims for one thousand dollars each, with interest and costs.

In the execution of the above judgment a public sale of the attached property was advertised for September 11, 1928, and it was then that the intervention proceeding was brought by Pietri, who alleged that he had purchased the property from its owner, Maria Ortiz, on March 26, 1928, by a public deed duly recorded in the registry of property, free from any attachment.

The- defendants in intervention, Burgos, answered. The other defendant failed to plead, and her default was entered. The case went to trial, evidence for both sides was heard and the court, on the ground that the attachment decreed by the District Court of Arecibo was void, rendered judgment for the interveners, with costs.

The appellants in their brief have assigned three errors, one of which goes to the root of the controversy, namely, the nullity mentioned; another refers to a certain fact occurring subsequent to the pleadings; and the last relates to the imposition of costs.

There is no doubt that the intervener acquired from its lawful owner the property in question, which is a parcel of land measuring eighty-four acres {cuerdas), located in the ward of Toro Negro, Cialitos, in the municipal district of Ciales. Nor is there any doubt that according to the registry [125]*125lie acquired the said property apparently subject, among other liens, to the above-mentioned attachment, decreed by the District Court of Arecibo.

However, the intervener advanced the contention, which was sustained by the district court, that the said lien was apparent but not real, as the same had been recorded by virtue of an order made without jurisdiction and hence without any legal force.

So it is, indeed. In Ramos v. Lloveras, 36 P.R.R. 616, 630, this Court, speaking through Mr. Justice Hutchison, said:

“Turning again to I Sutherland, supra, at page 603, section 1000, as pointed out by appellant, the author, citing Brady v. Times Mirror Co., 106 Cal. 56, and Nolan v. McDuffie, 125 Cal. 334, says:
“ £A motion for the change of the place of trial intercepts all judicial action in the ease, and suspends the power of the court to act upon any other question until the motion has been determined. Pending the hearing of the motion and until it is passed upon, the court has no jurisdiction to hear and determine any demurrer to the complaint, and its order made in passing upon the same is a nullity. If the motion should be granted, the defendant is entitled to have the demurrer passed upon in the county to which the change is to be made’.”

Previously, in Successors of Abarca v. Nones et al., 30 P.R.R. 810, 812, it had said:

“A motion for a change of venue presents to the court the question that it has no jurisdiction of the action because another court has such jurisdiction, and for this reason the court in which such a motion is made is without power to decide any other question until the motion for a change has been ruled on, for if the defendants have a right to a change of venue, it is also their right that any motion or proceeding in the action shah be ruled upon by the court of their residence; therefore, the order appealed from was erroneous in holding that the plaintiffs had abandoned their action against Lius Lorenzi without having first ruled on the motion of the defendants for a change of venue.”

[126]*126This is a clear question. When the plaintiff moved the District Court of Arecibó to secure the effectiveness of any judgment that might be rendered in the action, and the court decreed the attachment, the defendant Ortiz had already filed a motion for a change of venue, which was eventually granted. Therefore, that court had no jurisdiction to decide any other question than that of the venue, and the order made to secure the effectiveness of the judgment and the attachment levied by virtue thereof have no legal force. This being so, it must be concluded that, when Pietri acquired the property, the same was not burdened by the attachment on which was based the notice for a public sale in execution of the judgment entered against its former owner. There was no legal connection between the property and the plaintiff in the action of debt, Valentin Burgos. The former owner of the property had sold it to the intervener, Pietri, who acquired the same free from the said attachment. The lower court did not err in so ruling; on the contrary, it decided correctly the question submitted for its determination.

The appellants in their brief attack on the merits the change of venue ordered in the action of debt. This comes too late. They had an opportunity to appeal but failed to avail themselves of it. No jurisdictional question which could be raised regardless of the consent of the parties is involved.

The appellants in a supplemental brief, in support of the contention that the District Court of Arecibo had jurisdiction to order the attachment notwithstanding the pendency of the motion for a change of venue previously filed, cite the following decisions of this Court: Rodríguez v. Dist. Court of San Juan, 31 P.R.R. 659; U. S. Casualty Co. v. Méndez, 38 P.R.R. 895; and Banco Comercial v. Registrar, 40 P.R.R. 329.

We have considered the cited cases and none of them favors the appellants. The fact that in Rodríguez v. Dist. Court, supra, it was held that the order of the court, entered [127]*127subsequent to the filing of a motion for a change of venue, was void on other grounds, no reference being made to the change of venue, does not mean that this Supreme Court concluded that the district court had jurisdiction to enter such an order notwithstanding the motion for a change of venue.

The decision in U. S. Casualty Co. v.

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Related

Brady v. Times-Mirror Co.
39 P. 209 (California Supreme Court, 1895)
Nolan v. Mcduffie
58 P. 4 (California Supreme Court, 1899)

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Bluebook (online)
42 P.R. 122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pietri-v-burgos-prsupreme-1931.