Pol Serrano v. District Court of Aguadilla

48 P.R. 367
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 11, 1935
DocketNo. 6495
StatusPublished

This text of 48 P.R. 367 (Pol Serrano v. District Court of Aguadilla) 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
Pol Serrano v. District Court of Aguadilla, 48 P.R. 367 (prsupreme 1935).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Aldrey

delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff in an action of unlawful detainer took this appeal from a judgment of a Justice of this Supreme Court, rendered in a certiorari proceeding* commenced before him by the defendant during the vacation of this court, whereby he set aside an order of the court below refusing to approve the security which the defendant had tendered for his appeal from the judgment and holding that an appeal did not lie for failure to file security within the time granted for sucli appeal.

The appellant brought, in the -District Court of Agua-dilla, an action of unlawful detainer against the appellee,-wherein a judgment was rendered against the defendant, which was notified to him on August 4, 1933. On the following day, the 5th, the defendant appealed from that judgment and asked the court to fix the amount for which ho ought to file security for his appeal, and on the same day [369]*369it was fixed at $5,000. On the same day, the 5th, a bond was subscribed and sworn to, but it was not filed with the clerk of The court until the 7th, when it was filed without showing that it had been notified to plaintiff. That document was subscribed and sworn to by Hipólito Collazo and Aurelio Liado as sureties, of whom the first stated that he was the owner of properties in the Municipality of Utuado free of execution and without liens valued in excess of $5,000,, upon which properties he pays taxes to the Insular Treasury in excess of $250 annually. The other surety also swore-that he was the owner of real estate in the Municipality of Utuado, with real property free of execution and without; liens valued in excess of $5,000, upon which he pays taxes to the Insular Treasury in excess of $250 annually. On the following day, the 8th, the plaintiff secured in Utuado certain evidence with respect to the sureties, which he presented on the 9th to the court with a motion not to approve the bond. Notice of this motion was mailed on the same day, the 9th, in the postoffice at Mayagüez, where the attorney for the plaintiff resides, to be delivered in Arecibo, where the attorney for the defendant resides. In this motion it was alleged that the bond ought not to be approved because it was not drafted in accordance with section 355 of the Code of Civil Procer dure, and because the sureties do not have sufficient properties for the undertakings. The evidence consists of sworn statements in writing according to which Hipólito Collazo has no property at all registered in the Registry of Property of Utuado and that in the office of the Collector of Internal Revenue there are two receipts in his name, one for 2y% acres (cuerdas) of land valued at $50 and another of 9 acres assessed at $180. With respect to Aurelio Lladó„ there is a receipt for a property of 62.763 acres valued with the buildings thereon at $2,690, which according to a certificate of the registrar of property is encumbered with three mortgages, one for $3,020 as principal and interest thereon, another for $10,100 as principal, interest, and costs, and another for [370]*370$1,500; all three aggregating $14,620. On the 11th of the following August, the district court entered an order refusing to approve the bond and denying the appeal taken by the defendant. " Subsequent to the matters to which we have referred above, there is nothing else in the record of the district court with reference to the bond.

On August 15, the defendant Andres Pol Serrano petitioned a Justice of this Supreme Court during vacation for the issuance of a writ of certiorari to review the order of the District Court of Aguadilla of August 11 to which we have referred, and alleged for that purpose, in so far as it is now pertinent, that on the 11th of August he received by mail in Arecibo a copy of the motion of the plaintiff to quash and dismiss the appeal on the ground that the bond was not filed within five days from July 31 when judgment was entered, and also on the ground that the bond was insufficient; that on the same day, the 11th, he went to Agua-dilla to present a motion in writing opposing plaintiff’s motion to dismiss, requesting that it be set for hearing as to the solvency of his sureties and, if the court did not find the bond sufficient, to order that new sureties be offered and that he be granted a reasonable time therefor; but that when he arrived in Aguadilla between four and five in the afternoon he was served with notice of the order of the court refusing his appeal, in spite of which on that same afternoon he. filed his motion in opposition seeking to have the court reconsider its order of August 11, which was not reconsidered. He also contends that the. court erred in a matter of procedure when, without hearing the defendant or giving him an opportunity -to defend or to amend the bond or to add sureties, it refused do approve the bond and dismissed the appeal.

The Justice to whom that petition for certiorari was presented, after hearing the arguments of the parties, issued • the writ sought. Subsequently, he entered a judgment vacating the order of the district court of August 11, 1933, and Thereupon the plaintiff took the present appeal.

[371]*371In the record of the district court, in the petition for cer-tiorari, and in the order appealed from there are certain references to an attachment in the case, which we have disregarded, because that matter has not been made the subject of an assignment of error on this appeal, and it is separate from the question at issue. Nor is there any controversy as to whether the period of five days granted by the law for appeal from a judgment in an action of unlawful detainer is counted from the date on which judgment was notified by the clerk of the court to the parties or their counsel, as is expressly provided by the amendment of 1929 (Act. No. 11 of 1929, Session Laws, p. 138) to section 11 of the Unlawful Detainer Act. Similarly as to the fact that, according to section 12 of that act, the defendant is not entitled to appeal if he does not file a bond satisfactory to the court to answer for the damages which may be caused to the plaintiff and the costs of the appeal, when the complaint is not based upon the failure to pay the sums agreed upon, nor as to the fact that the bond must be filed within the period granted for the appeal. In brief, the defendant had, according to the law, five days counted from the 5th of August, to appeal and to present the bond required by the act.

While the order of the district court was entered' after judgment and was therefore appealable, nevertheless we think that the remedy of certiorari is proper in this case, since, in view of the summary character of the unlawful detainer proceeding, an appeal from said order would not have been an adequate, speedy, and effective remedy, particularly in view of the fact that an error of procedure is set up in that the bond was disapproved without giving the defendant an opportunity 'to show that 'the sureties had properties sufficient for the obligation which they undertook.

According to section 12 of the Unlawful Detainer Act and our decisions in the cases of Figueroa v. Sepúlveda, 24 P.R.R. 645, and Ramírez v. Pérez, 25 P.R.R. 214, the [372]*372period of five days granted by tbe law to appeal in an action of unlawful detainer may not be extended nor may a new term be granted for sncb purpose.

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