Rossy v. del Valle-Zeno

34 P.R. 696
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 10, 1925
DocketNo. 3665
StatusPublished

This text of 34 P.R. 696 (Rossy v. del Valle-Zeno) 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
Rossy v. del Valle-Zeno, 34 P.R. 696 (prsupreme 1925).

Opinion

Mr. Justice FraNco Soto

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a summary action of unlawful detainer. The complaint sets up two causes of action. The first alleges non-performance of certain conditions of the contract and' the second default in payment of the rent.

The action was prosecuted according to the special proceedings in unlawful detainer, but it is noted that during the trial the time for the submission of evidence was not limited and both parties were given ample opportunity to examine their evidence.

[698]*698Tlie trial judge, however, did not weigh the merits of the evidence but limited himself to considering only the technical point which he deemed should be decided first, referring to the nature of the contract involved in the action and holding that it was not a contract of lease, for which reason he dismissed the complaint so that the parties might ventilate the merits of the case in a plenary action. Nevertheless, it is strange that the parties had joined issue on the understanding that it was a contract of lease, for in his answer the defendant only denied the material facts of the complaint and set up new defenses in no way related to the classification or name of the contract, raising no objection to the special proceeding that had been elected by the plaintiff.

The written contract introduced in evidence does not differ from its narration in the complaint. The contract reads that the plaintiff leased to the defendant a piece of land of 5% acres as described by metes and bounds. Under the second clause the lessee should use the piece of land “for the extraction of stone for his own use and for sale in any of its forms, in blocks or squares, in bulk crushed and pulverized . . .”, etc. Under the fourth clause it was agreed that the compensation that the lessee should make to the lessor should be established on the basis of “quarry fees” in the manner and proportion specified in clause five which reads as follows:

“Fifth: The ‘Quarry Fees’ aforementioned shall consist in the payment by Mr. Del Valle Zeno to Mr. Rossy of a specified sum of money for each cubic meter of stone used for sale by the former, according to the following schedule:
“A. — If the extraction of stone should amount to four hundred cubic meters during each month or a less quantity or even if no extraction should be made, Mr. Del Valle Zeno shall pay to Mr. Rossy the sum of one hundred dollars for each month, this payment to be made within the first five days of the month following the ex[699]*699traction and beginning to count from the date of the execution of this contract signed by both parties.
“B.- — If the extraction should be made in quantities of more than four hundred cubic meters, then Mr. Del Yalle Zeno, in addition to the one hundred dollars fixed in the foregoing paragraph, shall pay to Mr. Rossy ten cents for each cubic meter of stone which over and above the four hundred meters fixed in the foregoing paragraph shall be- used for sale by Mr. Del Yalle Zeno, payment to be made also within the first five days of the month following the extraction, counting from the date of the signing of this contract by both parties.”

Clause six provides the manner of verifying the number of cubic meters of stone used by the lessee, and for that purpose “the representative of Mr. Rossy shall keep daily notes of the stone removed according to the transportation vouchers or tickets which for each truck or any other vehicle leaving the property shall be delivered to him by Mr. Valle Zeno’s representative,” .... etc.

The reasoning in the opinion of the trial judge for classifying the contract under such terms as one of purchase and sale of stone is summarized thus: 1st, the property in question is a stone quarry and could not be cultivated or used for agricultural purposes or for cattle-raising; 2nd, the manner of using or enjoying it is not left to the free will of the so-called lessee and he is charged with a specific way of using it; 3rd, that the enjoyment or use mentioned in section 1446 of the Civil Code are terms implying continuity of existence of the thing used, and that in this contract the object is ultimately to sell, the owner definitely disposing of the thing which as to him ceases to exist; 4th, to establish as a meritorious question that the defendant, who is bound to use the property for the extraction of stone, has invested $30,000 in the installation of crushing machinery and other implements for the extraction of stone and in the purchase of trucks for hauling the stone to the market.

[700]*700Following the opinion of the trial judge, the appellee maintains further in his brief that the contract is not one of lease because in it the indispensable condition which section 1464 of the Civil Code imposes on the lessee to return the property in the same condition in which it was received, can not be complied with, inasmuch as the removal and sale of stone is authorized and because the consideration has not the characteristics of rent because it was fixed as a share in the profits from the property.

The Civil Code does not define the meaning of lease in general. It says that a lease may be of things, works or services. Sec. 1445 (Comp. sec. 4551). And in a lease of things one of the parties thereto binds himself to give to the other the enjoyment or use of a thing for a specified time at a fixed price. Sec. 1446.

Manresa, in referring to a contract of lease and to the equivalent sections of the Spanish Civil Code, says that the legislators were careful not to venture a sole definition and instead of defining a lease in general, defined, on the one hand, the lease of things and, on the other hand, the lease of works and services. Yol. 10, pages 433 and 434.

It is seen, then, that in the Spanish Civil Code it was not sought to include anything new and the traditions based on the precedents of the Roman law as followed by the old Spanish legislation was preserved. In the work of Carlos Maynz on the Roman Law, translation by Pou and Or-dinaz, Vol. 2, p. 255, we read the following:

“A lease presents a clear analogy with a sale; it may even be said to be the sale of the specified use of a thing or of a work. Therefore, the majority of the general rules are common to both contracts. And this is why a contract of lease requires the concurrence of the three conditions which we have mentioned in that of sale, res, preiium, consensus.”

In a similar sense Scaevola says: “We might say without fear of paradox that a lease is a temporary purchase [701]*701and sale of the right to the use and enjoyment of a thing belonging to another.” Yol. 24, part 1, p. 402. And thns it may be understood that the points of contact which a lease has with a contract of purchase and sale is what causes confusion in certain cases. Besides, what we might call the ordinary type is not always adopted in leases. Sometimes certain special conditions are agreed upon which if they render the lease more complicated the contract on that account does not cease to be a lease if it were so understood and intended by the parties, the intention being shown at least by the name as such given by the parties to the contract. The commentators on the Roman Law used to describe those leases of a complex kind by the term “loca-tio irregularis.”

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34 P.R. 696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rossy-v-del-valle-zeno-prsupreme-1925.