Suárez v. Betancourt

64 P.R. 447
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJanuary 25, 1945
DocketNo. 8988
StatusPublished

This text of 64 P.R. 447 (Suárez v. Betancourt) 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
Suárez v. Betancourt, 64 P.R. 447 (prsupreme 1945).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Todd, Jr.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

In a complaint of unlawful detainer filed in this case on February 3, 1944, in the District Court of San Juan, it was alleged that the defendant “withholds the possession and materially occupies, without paying any rental or other consideration” the property described, that is, a house situated in Santurce. The complaint also contains the following allegations :

“2. The property described was acquired by the plaintiff on December 16, 1943, and on that same day the defendant was asked to vacate said property before the 31st of said month of December and subsequently, that is, on January 13, 1944, the plaintiff, again asked the defendant to vacate said property before the end of January 1944; that notwithstanding said demands and that the de[449]*449fendant agreed to vacate said property on the above-mentioned dates, said defendant continues in the material possession of the property and flatly refuses to vacate the same.
3. lhat plaintiff lives at present in a house which is not her property and has not been such within the year preceding the filing of this complaint, and the plaintiff in good faith needs to recover the material possession of the property above-referred to in order to immediately occupy the same together with her family as their dwelling.”

The defendant failed to answer the complaint and on February 18, 1944, the day set for the hearing, he orally agreed and consented, through his attorney, that judgment be entered against him and waived his right of appeal. Through Judge Massari the court rendered judgment decreeing the eviction and ordering the defendant to "surrender the property within the period of 50 days, counted from February 18, and if he failed to do so that an order of execution be accordingly issued, hfe also stated that the judgment was final by reason of defendant’s waiver.

On April 5, 1944. when only four out of the fifty days granted in the judgment to vacate the house were left, the defendant, represented by another attorney, filed a motion in the lower court seeking the nullity of the judgment rendered in this case on the following ground: “That the complaint which gave rise to this action was filed on February 3, 1944, that is, after the enforcement of the rent regulations promulgated by the Office of Price Administration, wherein it is provided that the landlord must serve notice on the tenant at least 10 days prior to the proposed removal and he should notify within the next 24 hours the Office of Price Administration (Pent Division) which requirement was not fulfilled in this ease according to the complaint wherein in it was not only alleged.”

The plaintiff objected to said motion and alleged that the court lacked jurisdiction to review it because said judgment was entered and made final at the request of defendant him[450]*450self without a reconsideration being timely sought and because it is the intention of the defendant to delay the execution of the judgment and bis eviction from the property ‘ ‘ notwithstanding the fact that he is not and has never been .a tenant of the plaintiff.”

On April 10, after the 50 days granted to the defendant to vacate had expired, the plaintiff sought in a separate motion the latter’s eviction from the property. The lower court did not dispose of this motion and held a hearing on the motion of nullity of the judgment and on June 12, 1944, through Judge Belaval, it rendered judgment granting defendant’s motion and setting aside the judgment rendered. A motion for reconsideration was denied whereupon the plaintiff took the present appeal.

It is a well-settled rule that the parties may not, by stipulation, confer jurisdiction on a court which lacks the same to act on the subject matter of the action. Nor is validity bestowed on a judgment rendered without jurisdiction by the mere fact that it was entered by consent of the parties. See annotation in 86 A.L.R. 84, 88. To this effect we have held that in a judgment entered by consent the defendant “expressly admitted as true the facts set forth in the complaint and a judgment of such nature rendered by a court with jurisdiction over the subject matter and the parties is valid and cannot be collaterally attached.” Ex parte Morales, 17 P.R.R. 1004. The principal question to be decided in this appeal is whether the lower court acted with jurisdiction in rendering the judgment by consent, or whether on the contrary, the nonfulfillment on the part of the plaintiff of the requirements provided by the rent regulations deprived the court of jurisdiction in the action of unlawful detainer.

The Rent Regulations for Housing enforced in Puerto Rico by the Office of Price Administration are the same National Regulations in force in the TJnited States which were [451]*451made extensive to Puerto Eieo to become effective on February 1, 1944. It is stated thus in the second paragraph of Article 1, A, which sets forth, besides, the scope thereof in the following manner:

“The National Keguiations were made extensive to Puerto Kieo by the amendment of January 3, 1944, effective on February 9, 1944, and they apply to all buildings, constructions or any part thereof, and to the piemises adjacent thereto, and to any other property, whether real or personal, rented or offered for rent for housing purposes in Puerto Rico together with all the privileges, servings, accessories, equipment, facilities and improvements related to the use or occupancy of the property.” '(Italics ours.)

Article 13, A(9) of the Keguiations defines the word tenant thus:

“ ‘Tenant’ includes a subtenant, lessee, sublessee, or other person entitled to the possession or to the use or occupancy of any housing accommodations.” (Italics ours.)

Article 6 of the Keguiations, which deals in general with “Kemoval of Tenant,” provides in its subdivision A certain restrictions and in subdivision D, the notices required prior to the action of unlawful detainer. In the margin we quote those which in our opinion are pertinent to this case.1 [452]*452Lastly, we should state that pursuant to Article 1, D of the Regulations, on Waiver of Benefit Void, it is provided that an “agreement by the tenant to waive the benefit of any provision of these Regulations is void.”

After quoting some of the articles of said Regulations, the lower court based its decision setting aside the judgment on the following grounds, which in part read thus:

“We cannot assume that the defendant in this case is a tenant at sufferance, inasmuch as his condition as such arises solely from the fact that when Pura María Suárez acquired the property which she. now seeks to recover, she considered the contract terminated, that she notified the defendant to vacate said property first before December' 31, 1943, and later before January 31, 1944. In our opinion the plea of tenant at sufferance was made, in order to bring this action at first instance in the District Court rather than in the Municipal Court, according to the amount of the rent. ^ ^ ^
[453]*453“Oil March 6, 1944, The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, speaking through Mr. Chief Justice Travieso, decided certiorari No. 1542, Américo Miranda .v. District Court of San Juan,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 P.R. 447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/suarez-v-betancourt-prsupreme-1945.