Travieso v. McCormick

54 P.R. 312
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedFebruary 16, 1939
DocketNo. 7296
StatusPublished

This text of 54 P.R. 312 (Travieso v. McCormick) 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
Travieso v. McCormick, 54 P.R. 312 (prsupreme 1939).

Opinion

Mr. Justice De Jesús

delivered the opinion of the Court.

On March 21, 1932, Juan and Felicita Travieso Marín, brothers, filed the original complaint in this suit in the District Court of Bayamón to recover an interest which they allege they have in a certain farm situated in the municipality of Grnaynabo. The suit was filed originally against defendants Chloris McCormick, Enrique Carbia, Salvador Sierra and others, some of which were not subpoenaed, and when trial began plaintiffs waived their action in regard to some others, thereby remaining as defendants Chloris McCormick and Enrique Carbia. Therefore in the summary of the pleadings of the parties which we will make we will leave out the other defendants, ■ who for one reason or another are not parties to this suit, limiting our attention to the allegations of plaintiffs and of defendants McCormick and Carbia.

On February 17, 1933, the complaint was amended and the pleadings against these two defendants can be summed up as follows: That Aquilino Marín Velázquez, plaintiffs’ grandfather on their mother’s side, died in October, 1918, at Río Piedras, leaving a will dated July 6, 1918, in which he instituted as his only and universal heirs his four legitimate sons of last names Marín and Ollor, and his grandchildren, the plaintiffs, who in turn are' legitimate children óf his daughter Hermenegilda Marin Ollor, who died before him and was the- wife of Juan Travieso, plaintiffs ’ father. That the estate left by Aquilino Marin Velázquez consisted of a parcel of land of eighteen cuerdas situated in the ward Los Frailes, of G-uaynabo, of which a fifth part in com[314]*314mon fell to the plaintiffs as their inheritance from their grandfather. That in the year 1919, plaintiffs then being-minors, their father, Jnan Travieso, without the required judicial authorization, appeared before a Notary, representing them, and with the other heirs together sold by a public deed to Elias P. Wilcox an undivided half of said farm. The area of said farm later turned out to be 23 cuerdas and not 18 as appeared in the title. That in the year 1919 Elias P. Wilcox sold his share in said property to Rafael Bernabe, who acquired it knowing that Wilcox had no just and legal title which he could convey him and that Bernabe, in the year 1922, filed in his own name in the District Court of San Juan a dominion title proceeding* on said property, in which proceedings the former owners were neither mentioned nor notified. That a decision was rendered on December 7, 1922, in favor of the petitioner, giving him dominion title on a parcel of 11 .-97 cuerdas which turned out to be the area of the portion which Wilcox sold him. That Bernabe falsely alleged that he was in possession of .said parcel, when in reality he did not take possession of it until the 23rd of January of the following year, aided by a writ of injunction issued by the District Court of San Juan, Second Section. That in the year 1930 Jaime Fort, who was the person used by Bernabe to take possession of the farm in the aforementioned manner, sold it to defendant McCormick and that the latter knew when she acquired the property that the vendor’s title was null and void. The other defendant, Enrique Carbia, without any title whatsoever, in the year 1923 took possession of another parcel of three cuerdas of said farm which originally was thought to have an area of 18 cuerdas,. but turned out to have 23, without paying any rent to plaintiffs for their joint tenancy consisting of a fifth part of said three cuerdas>. That the crops produced by a fifth undivided portion of the parcel occupied by Mrs. McCormick amount to $2,000. The complaint ends praying that judgment be rendered ordering defendants to deliver to plain[315]*315tiffs a fifth undivided portion of each of the aforesaid parcels and also to pay $5,000 and $2,000 respectively for the crops produced or which should have been produced by said two properties, and that defendants be ordered to pay also the costs, expenses and attorney’s fees.

Defendants answered separately. Defendant McCormick denied the allegations of the complaint and alleged prescription, the ordinary prescription, having been in possession of the property quietly, publicly and peacefully and without any interruption for ten years among* persons present, as well as the extraordinary prescription of thirty years.

The defendant Carbia also denied the allegations of the complaint and against the same alleged that any defect which Wilcox’s title may have had was ratified by acts of the plaintiffs. He also alleged prescription, the ordinary as well as the extraordinary one, and also that' he was a third party having acquired the property from the person appearing in the Registry of Property as owner, and without there appearing in said Registry any defect which would invalidate said title.

The Court’s findings of facts may be summed up as follows: Aquilino Marín Velázquez died at Río Piedras, in October, 1918, leaving as his testamentary heirs his legitimate children Juan Antonio, María Nicomedes, Concepción and Aquilino Marin Ollor, and his grandchildren the plaintiffs Juan and Felicita Travieso Marin, children of his legitimate daughter Hermenegilda Marin Ollor, who died before the testator.

These heirs received in joint tenancy a parcel of land the area of which was supposedly eighteen cuerdas, but later turned out to be twenty-three cuerdas, recorded in the name of deceased Aquilino Marin Velázquez in the Registry of Property.

On August 9, 1919, the legitimate children of deceased, in their own right, and the grandchildren, the minors Juan and [316]*316Felicita Travieso Marín, represented by their father Juan Travieso, who had patria potestas over them, appeared before the notary Juan B. Soto and together executed a deed of sale of the half in joint tenancy of said parcel in favor of Elias B. Wilcox. The father, Juan Travieso, did not obtain the judicial authority for the sale that he made of the real property of his children, but eighteen days later the minor Juan Travieso Marin was emancipated by his father through a deed executed for that purpose, which deed was not recorded in the Civil Registry, as is required by Section 233 of the Civil Code (1930 ed.) in order that the emancipation may prejudice a third party. On the same day of the emancipation, the plaintiff Juan Travieso and the plaintiff Felicita Travieso, who had also been emancipated by marriage, together with their father Juan Travieso, executed a deed before Notary H. Torres Sola in which they ratified the sale which had been made by their father without judicial authority and in the same deed they sold to Octavio. García Salgado their share in the other half of said parcel. On the following day, August 28, 1919, Wilcox sold by public deed the aforementioned joint tenancy to Rafael Bernabe. When the joint tenancy existing between Octavio García Sal-gado and Rafael Bernabe on said farm was divided, 11.97 cuerdas corresponded to Rafael Bernabe, on which he filed dominion title proceedings in the District Court of San Juan, the corresponding judgment being rendered and his dominion title recorded in the Registry of Property on September 18, 1922, at page 129 of vol. 56 of Río Piedras, first entry. On November, 1922, Bernabe sold the whole of the undivided farm to Manuel Prida, who recorded his title in the Registry of Property. In May, 1923, Prida sold to Jaime and Gustavo Fort, which gave rise to the third entry. In September, 1923, Gustavo Fort sold to Jaime Fort, as appears from the fourth entry.

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Bluebook (online)
54 P.R. 312, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/travieso-v-mccormick-prsupreme-1939.