Velázquez Torres v. Velázquez Morales

82 P.R. 600
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedMay 16, 1961
DocketNo. 11753
StatusPublished

This text of 82 P.R. 600 (Velázquez Torres v. Velázquez Morales) 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
Velázquez Torres v. Velázquez Morales, 82 P.R. 600 (prsupreme 1961).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Blanco Lugo

delivered the opinion of the Court..

Marcos Velázquez Santiago, also known as Marcos Ramos,, died in Ponce on March 30, 1950. By judgment of the. former District Court of said city, his widow Isabel Sabater and his two recognized natural daughters named Juana Ve-lázquez Morales and Rosa Maria Velázquez Caqui as, were; declared as his sole and universal heirs. After having paid, the inheritance tax, the aforesaid persons proceeded to the-liquidation and division of the inheritance estate, executing; the corresponding public deed. Four lots without buildings-were adjudicated to the Velázquez sisters in payment of their shares.

On March 1, 1951, the aforesaid sisters and the plaintiff,. Enrique Velázquez Torres, executed a public deed which they' entitled deed of sale and division of material property, in which (a) they “sold” to the plaintiff a share of one half" in two of the lots located in the Clausells ward and Vives-Street in Ponce, for the total sum of $1,625, which the vendors, confessed they had received prior to the execution, and (6) the community existing between the defendant and her sister Rosa Maria, was divided. The latter was adjudicated the-rest of the co-ownership of one half of the lot and the house.' on Vives Street. Afterwards, Rosa Maria sold this share to> [603]*603the plaintiff, who by virtue thereof came to be the sole owner of the lot.1 The aforesaid deed was explained on the same date by a private document subscribed by the Velázquez sisters and their brother.2 As appears from this document, Rosa Maria and Enrique, each one owed Juana the sum of $714.84, which they later paid. This amount represented, the difference between the adjudications of the inherited estate.

The evidence shows that the plaintiff was an illegitimate child of the ancestor whom the widow refused to acknowledge-by virtue of a deed prepared for said purpose. However, his two sisters agreed to acknowledge him and to adjudicate him a share of the property equivalent to the share to which [604]*604he would have been entitled as heir if said deed had been signed.3

The defendant Juana Velázquez had acquired in 1949 through purchase from her father a lot on Molina Street4 .adjacent to that owned by the plaintiff on Vives Street. This lot was not a part of the inheritance estate which was divided among the three, two sisters and the brother. Although in the Registry it appears with an area of 555.12 square meters, a survey made within a suit for limitation of boundaries between the same parties showed that it measured 540.375 square meters.

[605]*605In the year 1912 the deceased, Marcos Velázquez, had established a coach rental business on the lot at Vives Street. When he bought the lot on Molina Street the coaches drove in through Vives Street and went out on Molina Street. For the purpose of operating said business, certain area was devoted to a stable and the stable was separated by a fence from the place devoted to parking of the coaches which was part of the lot on Vives Street. This area is the one precisely claimed by the plaintiff in the present action5 to be part of the area of the lot on Vives Street and that the defendant alleges is located within the area of her lot on Molina Street.. As to said particular the trial court settled the conflict in the evidence by determining that “the lot of 540.375 square meters of the defendant does not include any part of the lot belonging to the plaintiff.” It also concluded that “when the title of the lot described in the complaint was transferred to the plaintiff, said lot was fenced, and he received it for what was enclosed within its boundaries at that time.”6

The Superior Court, Ponce Part, dismissed the complaint. It held: (a) that the deed of March 1,1951, although entitled a deed of sale, was really a donation, and consequently the plaintiff had nothing to claim, and (b) that if it were considered of sale, since the contract was not based on a unit [606]*606•price per meter, the vendors were not bound to answer for the deficiency in the area, and that, in any case, the action "had prescribed because more than six months had elapsed •since the execution of the deed until the filing of the present action.

I

To decide the controversy raised, it is necessary that we first determine the true nature of the deed executed on March 1, 1951, by the two Velázquez sisters and their "brother.

Section 2 of Act No. 229 of May 12, 1942 (Sess. Laws, p. 1296, 31 L.P.R.A. § 502) provides that children born out of wedlock prior to the effective date7 of this Act and who lack the qualification of natural children according to previous legislation,8 may be recognized for all legal purposes by the voluntary action of their parents, and in their default by that of the persons having the right to inherit therefrom. The “legal purposes” referred to in this Act are the rights •mentioned in § 127 of the Civil Code, 1930 ed. (31 L.P.R.A. § 506) : (1) to use the surname of the parent making the •recognition; (2) to be supported by the same; (3) to receive the hereditary portion determined in the Code.

As to the right to use the surname of the father, § 2 of Act No. 229 of 1942, supra, was amended by Act No. 243 of May 12, 1945 (Sess. Laws, p. 814) and a provision was added to the effect that in the absence of voluntary recognition referred to in the first paragraph of said section, the ■children who lacked the qualification of natural children •according to previous legislation will be considered as such [607]*607for the only purpose of starting the action of filiation to ‘obtain the surname of their father. Such action shall be ■prosecuted in accordance with the “proceedings” fixed by the Civil Code of Puerto Rico for the recognition of natural -children. In other words, they were authorized to start the action of filiation without patrimonial consequences, and were denied access to the courts when the result was the participation in the distribution of' the inheritance left at the death of the father.

Now, the legislator did not entirely foreclose the opportunity of the illegitimate child born prior to 1942 to participate in the inheritance of his father, and determined he could do so when he was recognized voluntarily by his father and in default thereof by the persons having the right to inherit therefrom. This last classification can only include such heirs as may be affected by the arrival of an additional Iieir, who upon being included among the persons having a right to the inheritance, will reduce the forced or legal portion of the other heirs which voluntarily recognized him. And, •obviously, among these affected heirs in the present case, the widow is not included, whose quota in usufruct could not diminish because of the addition of a natural son as a person with a right to the inheritance, because when the recognition took place, whatever share corresponded to her in the inheritance had already been liquidated upon adjudicating to her .a house and lot on Vives Street.

As to the recognition by “voluntary action” of the parents, we have decided in Correa v. Heirs of Pizá, 64 P.R.R. 938 (1945) that a recognition by a birth certificate, will,

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82 P.R. 600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/velazquez-torres-v-velazquez-morales-prsupreme-1961.