Vicenty v. Vázquez

11 P.R. 275
Supreme Court of Puerto Rico·Decided June 30, 1906·No. No. 2·Published

Opinion

Mr. Justice Figtjeras

delivered -the opinion of the court.

Jnan Yicenty Ramos filed a complaint in the District Court of May agues against Fernando Vázquez y Morales and Manuel Catalá y Dueño based upon the following grounds.

“First. That Claudio Barros Fernández, who contracted a second marriage with Ana Laeourt y Duperrois, sold to Pedro Paoli Fernán-dez, a coffee plantation, the area, situation and boundaries of which it is not necessary to describe.
“Second. That the purchaser, Paoli, constituted in favor of said Ana Laeourt a mortgage for 10,750 pesos, being the amount of his contribution to the marriage, which mortgage was recorded in the registry of property.
!' Third. That Ana Laeourt brought an action against Pedro Paoli for the annulment of certain possessory proceedings, which action was dismissed by final judgment and the plaintiff was adjudged to pay all the costs, amounting, according to the taxation, to the sum of 13,510.26 pesos.
“Fourth. That Pedro Paoli paid these costs in full, but subsequently Ana Laeourt died, and Paoli being her creditor in the amount [278]*278of the costs paid by him and her debtor at l^he same time for the amount of the mortgage for his contribution to the marriage, described in the second statement of facts, he prayed for and obtained from the court the cancellation of said mortgage, and it was ordered that her heirs be required to execute the cancellation.
“Fifth. That during the marriage of Claudio Barros y Fernández to Ana Lacourt she granted, without the authority of her husband, a general power of attorney to Pascasio Fajardo, by instrument executed on July 16, 1893, before Notary Rosendo Matienzo Cintron.
“Sixth. That said attorney in fact, Fajardo, conveyed the mortgage for 10,750 pesos held by Ana Lacourt to Federico Delgado.
“Seventh. That Delgado in' his turn assigned a half interest •therein each to Fernando Vázquez Ramos and Manuel Catalá.
“Eighth. That Fernando Vázquez Ramos assigned one half — that is to say, his mortgage interest — to his son, Fernando Vázquez Morales, all of these assignments being recorded in the registry of property.
“Ninth. That Fernando Vázquez Morales and Manuel Catalá, having become the owners of the mortgage credit of Ana Lacourt, they instituted summary foreclosure proceedings under which the mortgaged estate was awarded to them.
‘ ‘ Tenth. That the plaintiff has another mortgage constituted upon the same estate. ” ■ .

From these facts the plaintiff deduces the following conclusions :

“A That the mortgage in favor of Ana Lacourt is extinguished, and that it should be canceled.
“B. That the assignment of this encumbrance by Fajardo to Federico Delgado is void, and so are also the subsequent assignments.
“C. That, consequently, the foreclosure proceedings instituted by the defendants for the collection of the mortgage debt and all other acts derived therefrom are void. ’ ’

■ And he prays the court ‘ to declare the cancellation of the mortgage constituted in favor of Ana Lacourt, the nullity of the successive assignments of said mortgage made by the persons above named, the nullity of the foreclosure summary proceedings instituted by the defendants for the collection of [279]*279the mortgage debt, the nullity; of the award and of all subsequent transactions, with the costs against the defendants, and that an order issue to the Registrar, of Property of Maya-giiez to mate the cancellation of the records and entries and the proper cancellations in execution of the judgment.”

Answer -of Fernando Vázquez, the Defendant.

Demurrer to the complaint, included in the answer.

Lack of legal capacity in the plaintiff, because according to article 65 of the former Civil Code only the husband and his heirs may enforce the nullity of the acts executed by his wife without proper permission or authorization. And the plaintiff, Yicenty, was neither the husband of Ana Lacourt nor the heir of the person who had actually been her husband.

That the mortgage of the plaintiff was subsequent to that of the defendant and consequently the former must accept all the liens upon the estate encumbered, the defendant alleging that on this ground also the plaintiff lacks legal capacity to prosecute this complaint.

That he also lacks such capacity to bring an action for the annulment of the contracts to which he refers, because he did not become, either principally or subsidiarily, obligated by virtue thereof, the action f<?r nullity exercised being in such case opposed by article 1302 of the former Civil Code.

Answer to the Complaint.

First. In opposition to the complaint it is alleged only that although it is true that Claudio Borrás, the husband of Ana Lacourt, did not take part in the execution of the power of attorney which she conferred upon Pascasio Fajardo, it is a fact that said Borrás had, as her husband, granted her by a prior instrument, absolute permission to execute all kinds of acts or contracts, to administer her property and freely .to dispose of the same.

[280]*280■Second. By the words “denying the facts which do not agree with those alleged in' the answer,” the statement embodied in the complaint to the effect that Paoli had paid the costs which had been taxed against Ana Laconrt, is denied, as well as the allegation that he was her debtor and creditor for a larger amount, that he prayed for and obtained from the court the cancellation of the mortgage which had been constituted in her favor, as his contribution to the marriage, upon his estate and finally the allegation that the plaintiff, Juan Vicenty Ramos, has another mortgage upon the same estate; and the conclusions set forth in this opinion under letters A, B and C, which are also set forth in the complaint, are likewise denied — that is to say, that the mortgage constituted by Paoli in favor of Ana Lacourt is extinguished and should be canceled; that the assignment by Pascasio Fajardo and the successive assignments are void, and that the summary proceedings prosecuted by the defendants for the recovery of said mortgage and all subsequent acts are null; the answer concluding with a prayer that the complaint be dismissed with the costs against the plaintiff.

Counterclaim.

As counterclaim the defendant alleges that while Manuela Bernard was the owner of the estate in question, as the heir of Pedro Paoli, she found it impossible to resist the demands of Pedro Muñoz G-arcía, a guardsman of the municipal police, who had a very small salary, and was compelled to acknowledge in his favor a fictitious credit of $18,000 and to mortgage the estate as security, which mortgage, for the sum of $15,000, Muñoz assigned to the plaintiff, Juan Vicenty Ramos, notwithstanding the fact that the latter knew of the falsity of the consideration of the contract between Bernard and Muñoz. And this being the title the plaintiff now produces by way of counterclaim, the annulment of the deeds executed for such purpose is prayed for; and. consequently, that the [281]

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

Vicenty v. Vázquez, 11 P.R. 275 (prsupreme 1906).

11 P.R. 275 (Vicenty v. Vázquez) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.