Santini Fertilizer Co. v. Capiel

36 P.R. 316
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedFebruary 25, 1927
DocketNo. 3955
StatusPublished

This text of 36 P.R. 316 (Santini Fertilizer Co. v. Capiel) 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
Santini Fertilizer Co. v. Capiel, 36 P.R. 316 (prsupreme 1927).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Wolf

delivered the opinion of the court.

This appeal involves a race of diligence among rival creditors and claimants to the property once belonging to and in possession of Modesto G. Capiel and Eladia Castejón.

The District Court of San Juan rendered an opinion which we shall summarize as follows:

On the 25th of May, 1925, in execution of a judgment obtained by it against Modesto G. Capiel, the Banco Popular de Economías y Préstamos de San Juan bought in the auction sale the following property:

A. An option of purchase that Modesto G. Capiel had acquired from Ray P. Meaker and his wife in a rural property in Pueblo Viejo.

Another parcel of land in the same district which measured 15 feet by 60 feet, more or less.

B. A cane plantation with planted cane on the same property.

C. The actual crop of grape-fruit and oranges to be gathered from the same.

[317]*317The purchaser paid $100 for the property described under A and $50 for the property described under B and C.

In the sale the marshal announced that the property was for sale subject to two liens, one held by Dr. Eugenio Fer-nández García by virtue of an attachment and one held by the Santini Fertilizer Co. Inc. by reason of an attachment likewise obtained by the latter.

That the said. Santini Fertilizer Co. Inc., complainant in a suit against Modesto G. Capiel and Eladia Oastejón, was asking in a motion that the said Banco be required to deposit in court the sum of $1,617.46 by reason of the attachment, inasmuch as, so it was alleged, the bank had acquired the said property subject to the attachment of the Santini Fertilizer Co. Inc.

The court went on to describe the suit No. 1344 previously begun by the Santini Fertilizer Company, and then said:

“From this ease No. 1344 it appears that on the 31st of January, 1925, the District Court of San Juan, second. district, to secure the effectiveness of the judgment ordered the attachment of the property of the defendants Modesto. G-. Capiel and Eladia Oastejón to answer for the sum of $1,522.91 principal, interest, fees, costs and expenses of the proceeding without determining the amount of these accessories respectively, and that in the same manner and on the same day a writ was issued to the marshal of the court to execute the attachment, this being executed on a plantation of 25 acres of cane located in the ward of Pueblo Viejo in the municipality of Guaynabo, which was to be ground in the Central Juanita, Inc. of Bayamón. It does not appear that any notice was sent to the Registrar of Property and the action of the marshal was limited to serving a notice on the defendant Eladia Oastejón stating the execution of the attachment and notifying her not to dispose of the plantation or of its products except by reason of the judicial auction sale of the same, with citation to the complainant and in accordance to the law regarding the effectiveness of judgments, it not appearing that such notice was executed (sin que aparezca constancia de haberse diligenciado dicha notifica-ción) and also a notice signed.by the same marshal and directed to Antonio Monroig as administrator of the Central Juanita Inc. of Bayamón, notifying him of the execution of the attachment, and des[318]*318ignating tbe said Central at tbe motion of tbe complainant as a depositor of tbe plantation of cane which was attached and notifying it (the central) that it was made the depositary, and that the product of the said cane when finally ground should be placed at the disposition of the court up to the sum of $1,522.91. There is no order of the court naming a depositary and no further action than the order issuing the attachment.
“On the 12th of February, 1925, an extension of attachment was asked on a rural piece of property of 50 acres in the ward of Pueblo Viejo of Guaynabo and on another piece of property in the same wiard, 15 feet wide by 60 feet long, which was said to have been acquired by purchase on the part of Modesto G. Capiel from Mr. Ray P. Meaker in the year 1917, and the court on the following day ordered the extension telling the secretary to issue to the marshal the proper writ of attachment, which it does not appear was issued.
.1' On the fifth of March, 1925, Federico García Davila claimed from the marshal of the court in a proceeding of the trial of the right to a personal property (mediante procedimiento- de tercería de tienes muebles) the cane plantation of 25 acres which had been attached as the property of Eladia Castejón, the record showing the oath and corresponding bond and the certificate of the marshal that he had made the delivery to intervenor.
“On the 12th of November, 1925, the said Santini Fertilizer Oo. Inc., alleging the sale to the Banco Popular de Economías y Présta-mos de San Juan and that for this reason the judgment which was to be pronounced in the suit (of Santini) had been left without security, requested an extension against personal property of the defendant Modesto G. Capiel ordering the same on the appropiate date and issuing the writ .to the marshal who attached the amount of the product of 163 boxes of oranges delivered by Modesto G. Capiel to the Porto Rico Fruit Exchange Inc. and whatever other fruits that the said Modesto G. Capiel should turn over to the said corporation up to the sum of $1,522.91 claimed in the original complaint.
“Under these circumstances the complainant amended its complaint and the defendants answered agreeing to the claim and by stipulation judgment was rendered on the 24th of November, 1925, requiring them to satisfy to the complainant the sum of $1,617.46 as principal, interest, and costs. The judgment is unappealable and execution was issued inasmuch as defendant waived the term for appealing.
“These are the facts on which to base the motion of the Santini [319]*319Fertilizer ’ Company, Ine. and which tbe Banco Popular de Econo-mías y Préstamos de San Juan opposes and the first question to decide is the responsibility that the Bank has by reason of the attachment of the plantation of sugar cane.
“According to the record, this plantation was claimed in a proceeding of personal property by Federico García Dávila and delivered to him by the marshal and from the record it does not appear that the Bank has made nor could make effective any part of its judgment against the same, and if the bank has acquired from said Federico García Dávila or any other person, the Santini Fertilizer Co. Ine., which made no objection to the intervention, can claim nothing now by reason of such contracts made after the said writ (remedio).
“While it is true that the intervention did not lie by reason that the proceeding adopted was for personal property, the fact is that the parties did not allege anything to the contrary and the complainant proceeded in regard to the execution of the attachment just as if the plantation were personal property even to the point of naming a depositary. In addition to the fact that the attachment of the plantation of cane was void, inasmuch as the proceeding was not adjusted to the law in regard to the attachment of real property, it appears from the record that the depositary was named by the party and not by the court as the special law of the case requires.

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36 P.R. 316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/santini-fertilizer-co-v-capiel-prsupreme-1927.