Rodríguez v. Suárez García

48 P.R. 281
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedMarch 21, 1935
DocketNo. 6463
StatusPublished

This text of 48 P.R. 281 (Rodríguez v. Suárez García) 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
Rodríguez v. Suárez García, 48 P.R. 281 (prsupreme 1935).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Del Toro

delivered the opinion of the court.

Soledad Rodríguez, for herself and as mother with patria potestas over her minor children Salvador and Olga Acosta y Rodriguez, brought, in the District Court of San Juan, an action against José Suárez García and Dolores Acosta Ló-pez, to recover the sum of $985. She set forth two causes of action; in the first she alleged facts showing that Salvador and Olga are the sole and universal heirs of their legitimate father José Manuel Acosta López, who died on June 23, 1928, and prayed that they be declared such heirs; and in the second, in support of her prayer that the defendants be adjudged to pay the sum claimed with interest thereon, she alleged substantially the following facts:

José Manuel Acosta López, at the time of his death, was the owner of a credit for nine hundred eighty-five dollars, awarded to him in the partition of the estates of the decedents, José Manuel Acosta Moroto and Monica de la Cruz López Marrero, made by a public deed.

In the same partition, there was allotted to the defendant Dolores Acosta López “in part for the payment of the aforesaid credit,” a certain described urban property.

On April 7, 1915, the said defendant sold the above-mentioned property to the other defendant, José Suárez García. Thereafter Suárez has continued to be owner of the property “with notice both personal and from the registry of property that such property was, and still is, answerable for the payment of the credit in question, which payment the aforesaid defendant assumed.”

The credit has not been paid by either of the defendants or by anyone in their behalf; and on the contrary said de[283]*283fendants have refused to pay the same, notwithstanding the demands made upon them by plaintiffs’ predecessor in interest during his lifetime and those which the plaintiffs have been making up to less than a year before the filing of the complaint.

The defendant José Suárez García appeared and demurred to the second cause of action for insufficiency, and upon the ground that in any event it was barred in accordance with section 1865 of the Civil Code, 1911 ed.

The court heard both parties and sustained the demurrer, and, finding that the complaint was not susceptible of amendment, it rendered judgment for the defendants, without special imposition of costs.

Feeling aggrieved by that decision, the plaintiffs took the present appeal, and they have assigned in their brief the commission of three errors.

We shall consider the first and third assignments together. In the first the appellants contend that the holding of the district court as to the insufficiency of the second cause of action is contrary to the law and the adjudicated cases, and in the second that, assuming that the complaint were defective, it would be susceptible of amendment, and that accordingly the court ought not to have rendered final judgment in the case without first giving the plaintiffs an opportunity to amend their complaint.

The appellants maintain that there is a legal connection between them and the defendant Suárez, since, although Suarez took no part in the partition, he is not a third party (tercero), because upon acquiring the property of which he is the owner, he had notice, personally and from the registry, that such property had been allotted to the defendant Acosta to pay the credit sued upon. In support of this contention they cite section 23 of the Mortgage Law, the decisions of this court in the cases of Vergara v. Pérez, 44 P.R.R. 140, and Luiña Hermanos & Co. et al. v. Registrar of Property, [284]*2843 P.R.R. 18, 2d ed., the judgment of the Supreme Court of Spain of May 23, 1899, and the opinion of the commentator Barr achina.

The appellee Suárez on the contrary maintains that the authorities cited do not have the scope attributed to them by the appellant, and he cites in his favor the decisions of this court in the cases of Bou v. Registrar, 39 P.R.R. 318, Sánchez v. Hartzell et al., 26 P.R.R. 620, and Bas v. Ferrán, 14 P.R.R. 181 — upon which the district court based the judgment appealed from — and the opinion of the commentator Galindo.

Everything in this case depends upon the nature of the right which arises from the mention in the registry of the fact of the allotment of the property to the defendant Acosta in part to pay the credit sought to be enforced herein. If it is a real right, it prejudices the defendant García, a subsequent purchaser; if it is a personal right, it is only binding on the person to whom the allotment was made, the defendant López.

It is true that this court in the cited case of Bas v. Ferrán, 14 P.R.R. 181, held that “The fact that it has been made to appear in the registry that the balance of the purchase price remains unpaid in accordance with the provisions of article 9 of the Mortgage Law, does not in itself change the nature of the civil action which the vendor has a right to bring, nor does the mere statement that a part of the price remains unpaid constitute a real right in favor of the vendor, nor could it operate to the prejudice of a third party unless it is expressly mentioned in the registry of property.”

It is likewise true that twenty-one years later the above ruling was applied in the case of Bou v. Registrar, 39 P.R.R. 318, 319, in which it was said that “the recital (mención) to which the legislation refers is one which establishes a real right in some one,” both decisions being based on section 29 [285]*285of the Mortgage Law, according to which it is only “ownership or any other property right expressly mentioned in records or cautionary notices, although not appearing in the registry as a separate and special record,” which “shall be effective against third persons from the date of the entry made upon presentation of the instrument,” so that if the mention does not refer to ownership or any other real right, it does not, even though existent, prejudice or bind third persons (terceros).

But the case which we are now considering is different. The cases of Bas v. Ferrán, supra, and Bou v. Registrar, supra, dealt with mentions of deferred purchase price, while the instant case is concerned with the allotment of a property for the payment of the debts of a decedent’s estate, from which a true real right arises.

In Vergara v. Pérez, 44 P.R.R. 140, this court speaking through Mr. Justice Hutchison, said:

“The district court dismissed an unlawful detainer proceeding for want of evidence sufficient to establish title in plaintiff. In a deed of partition the property had been awarded to plaintiff for the purpose of paying certain debts against the estate of plaintiff’s deceased mother. The theory of the district judge was that title had not vested in plaintiff because she had not paid the outstanding debts against the estate. These debts became, of course, a charge upon the land. The payment thereof was not made a condition precedent to the vesting of title in plaintiff nor did her right of possession depend upon such previous payment.”

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