Vidal Garrastazú v. Monagas

66 P.R. 588
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 12, 1946
DocketNo. 9240
StatusPublished

This text of 66 P.R. 588 (Vidal Garrastazú v. Monagas) 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
Vidal Garrastazú v. Monagas, 66 P.R. 588 (prsupreme 1946).

Opinion

Opinion op the Court 1

Some of the defendants appeal from a judgment for plaintiff in an action for the liquidation of Monagas & Yidal, a partnership {sociedad). Since the main defense of the de-iedants-appellants who actively opposed the complaint, is that the issues involved in this action were finally adjudicated on three different occasions, we deem it advisable to make first a choronological summary of the facts established by the evidence, and then proceed to analyze the pleadings in this case in the light of the prior suits.

I

In 1905, Juan Monagas, J osé Arturo Monagas, and Bamiro Vidal constituted the partnership Monagas & Vidal for a term which expired on June 30, 1924, and it was agreed that in case of death of any of the partners the. partnership would' continue between the surviving partners and the heirs of the deceased partner.

The partners contributed to the partnership the Belvedere lístate, which they owned in equal shares, and the estate was recorded as property of the partnership. José Arturo Mo-nagas died in 1915 and Bamiro Vidal in 1921.

Vidal left, in addition to his widow and a five-year old son, a default judgment for $900, rendered against him by the District Court of Mayagüez, in Civil Case No. 6889. The Judgment was in favor of José Mora. Two years after Vidal’s death, Bamón Beauchamps bought that judgment and [592]*592substituted himself as plaintiff. Beauchamps later obtained the substitution of Vidal’s widow and child as parties defendant, without notice to them. He then proceeded to execute the judgment, selling at public auction one-third of the Belvedere Estate (which estate, as we have seen, belonged to the partnership Monagas & Vidal and not to the individual members thereof). At the public sale Beauchamps bought in the one-third interest in the estate (which third was then assessed at $14,309.33, defendant Monagas admits was worth $10,000, and plaintiffs claim was worth much more) for $900, the amount of the judgment. On the next day Juan Monagas appeared as purchasing from Beauchamps the undivided interest for $1,602. Monagas then succeeded, we cannot understand how, in recording the one-third interest in the Belvedere Estate in his name, despite the fact that the whole property was already recorded in the name of the partnership Mona-gas & Vidal.

One year later, in March 1924, Juan Monagas and the heirs of José Arturo Monagas brought an action (Civil No. 10,416) in the District Court of Mayagiiez against the heirs of Ramiro Vidal to liquidate the partnership Monagas & Vidal. The complaint set out that the partnership was dissolved “by operation of law” when the judgment for $900 in case No. 6889 was executed; that the heirs of Vidal thus lost, and Juan Monagas acquired, the share which Ramiro Vidal had in the partnership; that Vidal’s widow acknowledged all this but, as Vidal’s son and heir was a minor, the “intervention of the court” was necessary.

Vidal’s widow consented in writing to judgment for plaintiffs. As she now explains (without being contradicted by Monagas), she signed the written consent at the request of Juan Monagas, while confined in a clinic, and relying on his false representations regarding the contents and effect of the document.

The court, upon examination of the complaint and the consent, without hearing any evidence on the merits of the [593]*593case or passing upon the necessity or utility of the consent as regards Vidal’s minor son, rendered judgment for plaintiffs, declaring the partnership Monagas & Vidal dissolved and liquidated, and awarding two-thirds of the property, that is, the Belvedere Estate, to Juan Monagas, one-third to the heirs of José Arturo Monagas, and nothing to the heirs of Vidal. '

Juan Monagas and the heirs of José Arturo Monagas have ever since leased the Belvedere Estate to the firm Tió & Sarri-bolin, for $10,000 per annum plus taxes, from 1926 to 1937, and for $15,000 per annum plus taxes, since 1937.

Shortly after becoming of age, Vidal’s son, plaintiff and appellee herein, brought an action- in the Distrit Court of Mayagüez (Civil Case No. 783) against Juan Monagas, and the heirs of Monagas’s wife, the heirs of José Arturo Mo-nagas, and the heirs of Beauchamps. The complaint set out • two causes of action and alleged the following facts; (a) The first cause of action set up the execution of the judgment against Vidal in case No. 6889 which culminated in the acquisition by Monagas of the one-third of the Belvedere Estate which according to the complaint belonged to Vidal; and it further alleged that the execution of the judgment was the result of a conspiracy entered into by Monagas and Beau-champs to defraud the heirs of Vidal, and that it was null and void because the heirs of Vidal had not been notified of the motion or the order substituting them as parties defendant, and because of other irregularities in the proceedings. (b) The second cause of action repeated the facts set out in the first cause of action and added allegations regarding the constitution of the partnership Monagas & Vidal, and the complaint, consent, and judgment in case No. 10,416 declaring the partnership Monagas & Vidal dissolved and liquidated, and alleged that both the execution of the judgment in case No. 6,889 and the judgment in case No. 10,416 were null and void by reason of irregularities in the proceedings, because they were part of a conspiracy entered into by [594]*594Monagas and Beauchamps to deprive the lieirs of Vidal of the one-third interest in the Belvedere Estate which belonged to them, and because the consent of Vidal’s widow to judgment in case No. 10,416 was obtained by Monagas by false and fraudulent representations. Once in the second cause of action it is said that the Belvedere Estate belonged to the partnership Monagas & Vidal but elsewhere it is said, as was said in the first cause of action, that the estate belonged to the three partners in common. The complaint ended by praying for the annulment of the proceedings had in cases Nos. 6,889 and 10,416, and recovery by the heirs of Vidal of one-third of the Belvedere Estate, together with mesne profits since 1921.

Juan Monagas and his wife’s heirs demurred to the complaint in case No. 783, and the court sustained the demurrer and entered judgment for defendants, which became final when plaintiff’s appeal was dismissed because the notice of appeal had not been served on the heirs of Ramón Beauchamps.2

We will briefly set forth the grounds upon which the court sustained the demurrer in case No. 783. The court conceded that, under 40 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the time during which plaintiff' Vidal was a minor should not be included in computing the period of prescription applicable to the action, unless the action were deemed to be for the recovery of real property. But the court held that it was precisely an action to recover a one-third interest in the Belvedere Estate, and hence the period during which the plaintiff was a minors should not be excluded for the purpose of prescription; and that if this period was included, the complaint on its face showed that the action was barred and moreover that the defendants had acquired prescriptive title to the Belvedere Estate.3 The court further held that the [595]*595complaint was insufficient in so far at it did not offer to restore to Monagas the amount which he appears to have paid to Beachamps for the one-third interest in the Belvedere Estate.

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66 P.R. 588, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vidal-garrastazu-v-monagas-prsupreme-1946.