Veve v. Fajardo Sugar Growers' Ass'n

18 P.R. 277
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Veve v. Fajardo Sugar Growers' Ass'n. Read the opinion of the Court — 17 P.R. Dec. 1036
Supreme Court of Puerto Rico·Decided April 22, 1912·No. No. 720·Published

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Hernández

delivered the opinion of the court.

On February 9, 1911, Concepción and Josefina Yeve, with their respective husbands, José S. Belaval and Prisco Viz-carrondo, filed an amended complaint in the District Court of the Judicial District of Humacao against The Fajardo Sugar Growers’ Association, praying that judgment be rendered sustaining their action of unlawful detainer and ordering the ejectment of the defendant, its representatives and employes, from the estate “Aurora,” whereof' the plaintiffs were owners, with costs and counsel fees against the defendant corporation.

Said complaint was contested by the defendant, and trial having been had, judgment was rendered on April 12, 1911, dismissing the complaint with costs against the plaintiffs, who took an appeal to this Supreme Court.

Counsel for appellants in his brief confines to three the facts alleged in the latter’s complaint. These facts are the following:

1. Default in payment of the rent according to the terms, agreed upon in the deed of March 31, 1906.

2. The defendant corporation’s permitting the Fajardo Development Company to establish a right of way by rum ning a railway track through estate “Aurora” and connecting in two places- the tracks of said corporation with that of The Esperanza Central Sugar Company without the consent [280]*280of the owners of the estate “Aurora,” thereby causing the depreciation of said property to the detriment of its owners.

3. The lessees and occupants of estate “Aurora” have made nse thereof without the diligence of. a father of a family, by felling, cutting down, and destroying the greater part of the woods and failing to replant any portion of them, through which acts, not stipulated, they have caused the depreciation of said estate.

From these facts .the appellants derive the grounds for dispossession contained in paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 of section 1472 of the Civil Code, namely:

2. Default in payment of the price agreed upon.

3. Violation of any of the conditions stipulated in the contract.

4. Employing the thing leased in uses or services not stipulated and which cause the same to be impaired, or not complying, in regard to its use, with the provisions of paragraph 2 of section 1458.

Paragraph 2 of this section provides that the lessee shall use the thing leased as would a diligent father of a family, applying the same to the use agreed upon and, in the absence of an agreement, to the use which may be inferred from the nature of the thing leased, according to the custom of the land.

With reference to the first ground for dispossession, the following facts appear to have been borne out at the trial:

(a) By public deed of March 31, 1906, José S. Belaval, as attorney in fact of his wife, Concepción Veve, and Josefina Veve de Vizcarrondo executed in favor of The Esperanza Central Sugar Company a contract of lease of estate “Aurora,” whereof the former are owners, for a period of 11 years and rent of $2,400 for the first year and $4,800 for each of the succeeding years, which sums were to be paid by the lessee to the joint owners, one-half to each every semester in advance, on July 1 and January 1 of each year. It'was expressly agreed that if the lessee or its successor in interest should [281]*281fail to pay any of the semesters punctually both, lessors ■would have the right, each for herself, to rescind the contract and prosecute an action for the immediate evacuation of the estate, or to continue the contract, should they deem it advisable', and demand payment of the arrears through the proper action.

(h) All the assets and rights of The Esperanza Central Sugar Company were sold at public auction by the marshal of the District Court of the United States for Porto Bico, the proper deed of sale having been executed on July 12, 1909, in favor of The Colonial Sugar Company, to which corporation was awarded the contract of lease of estate “Aurora. ’ ’

(c) By another deed, executed in New York on November 17, 1909, The Colonial Sugar Company transferred and conveyed to The Fajardo Sugar Growers’ Association several contracts of lease, among them that of estate “Aurora,” under the stipulations which regulated the same.

(d) The rent for the semester of January to July, 1910, that should have been paid in advance on January 1 of that year, was paid with checks drawn December 29, 1909, by Jorge Bird León in favor of the lessors, Concepción and Josefina Veve, against the Banco Territorial y Agrícola, one of the checks having been indorsed to the American Colonial Bank and the other to Bird & Barceló.

(e) For payment of the rent from July to December, 1910, which should have been satisfied on July 1 of that year, the defendant sent, through its attorneys, to each of the plaintiffs a certificate of deposit in the American Colonial Bank for the sum of $1,200 made on the 27th of the preceding June, the certificate of deposit sent to Concepción having been returned by her because of an important error she had observed therein, in order that the sender might correct, the same, should it deem it advisable, as stated by said lessor in a letter dated June 30 of that year. In another letter of July 6 following said Concepción insisted upon the return [282]*282of the certificate because of the subsistence of the same error to which reference has been made. Josefina Yeve also returned, on June 30, 1910, the certificate of deposit made in. her favor.

(f) By notarial deeds of July 11 and 12, 1910, Josefina and Concepción Veve were required to accept both of aforesaid certificates of deposit in payment of the rent for the semester from July to December, 1910, as otherwise the con-signation would be made in due legal form, both lessors refusing to receive in payment such certificates of deposit.

(g) Thereupon The Fajardo Sugar Growers’ Association applied to the District Court of TIumacao praying that the consignation of the $2,400 be declared to have been made through the two certificates of deposit referred to, and said court, by an order of July 19, 1910, directed that these certificates be kept in the custody of the secretary of the court as representing the sums that should be paid Josefina and Con-cepción Yeve to cover the semester of rent of estate “Aurora” from July to December, 1910.

(h) Notice of aforesaid order was first served on Josefina Veve, and then, on December 13 of said year, on Con-cepción Veve and her husband, José S. Belaval, who the next day filed a writing in opposition to the consignation made, the decision rendered by the court thereon not appearing in the record; but it appears therein that on December 28 of aforesaid year the attorneys for The Fajardo Sugar Growers’ Association asked the court to consider the certificates of deposit as having been withdrawn, the sums they represented being substituted by United States bills, to which the court assented, and on December 31 ordered the substitution prayed for to be made; whereupon the spouses, Veve-Belaval, filed a motion for the annulment of said order, which motion was argued by the parties, but the decision rendered thereon does not appear on the record.

(*) As to the semester of'the lease from January to June, 1911, it appears that under date of December 31, 1910, Mr. [283]*283and Mrs.

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Veve v. Fajardo Sugar Growers' Ass'n, 18 P.R. 277 (prsupreme 1912).

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