Vilariño Martínez v. Registrar of Property of Ponce

89 P.R. 586
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedDecember 17, 1968
DocketNo. G-63-2
StatusPublished

This text of 89 P.R. 586 (Vilariño Martínez v. Registrar of Property of Ponce) 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
Vilariño Martínez v. Registrar of Property of Ponce, 89 P.R. 586 (prsupreme 1968).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Pérez Pimentel

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Francisco Vilariño Martínez is the father with patria potestas over his minor son Francisco Vilariño Rodríguez. The Ponce Real Estate Corporation, of which Vilariño Mar-tínez is secretary, granted a personal loan to minor Vilariño Rodríguez for the purchase of a house and lot, according to [587]*587agreement of the Board of Directors of said corporation, which insofar as pertinent provides:

“Pedro Santiago, President of the Ponce Real Estate Corporation, is hereby authorized to grant a personal loan to minor Francisco Vilariño Rodríguez, represented by his father with patria potestas, Frank Vilariño Martínez, for the amount of five thousand seven hundred dollars ($5,700) to purchase lot No. Ten-B of block “E” of Urbanización Villa Grillasca in Barrio Canas in Ponce, with an area of 237.50 square meters, with a reinforced concrete house only one story high, with flat roof and tile floors, consisting of three bedrooms with closets, living-dining room, kitchen with closet, bathroom and porch. The principal due shall be payable to the Ponce Real Estate Corporation at its domicile at the rate of fifty dollars ($50) per month, deducting interest at the agreed rate, remainder to be credited to the outstanding principal until full payment of the debt.”

By deed No. 810 executed in San Juan on September 9, 1960 before Notary Francisco Castro Amy, minor Vilariño Rodriguez, represented by his father, acquired by purchase and for the amount of $5,700 from Julián H. Zimmerman, as Federal Housing Commissioner, the property described in the aforesaid contract of the Board of Directors of Ponce Real Estate Corp.

Said deed being presented at the Registry of Property of Ponce, the registrar notified the applicant of defects which precluded the recording and the corresponding legal term having elapsed, he proceeded to return all the papers entering a cautionary notice of 60 days at the margin in the following terms:

“This document is hereby returned and its registration suspended for failure to attach the corresponding judicial authorization required for the transaction executed, pursuant to the provisions of § 159 of the Civil Code and §§ 614 to 616 of the Code of Civil Procedure which regulate the matter, and a cautionary notice of 60 days is entered instead pursuant to Act No. 73 of June 23, 1958. Ponce, September 19, 1962.”

[588]*588In requesting the reversal of the registrar’s note, appellant maintains that the previous judicial authorization of the Superior Court was not necessary to execute the transaction by which the minor acquired the real property, free of liens or onerous conditions.

Appellant is not right. Section 159 of the Civil Code (31 L.P.R.A. § 616) provides that the exercise of the patria potestas does not authorize the father or the mother to alienate or lay any encumbrance upon real property of any class whatever, or upon personal property, the value of which exceeds five hundred dollars, pertaining to the child and which may be under the administration of its parents, without the previous authorization of the part of the Superior Court wherein the property is situated and the demonstration of the necessity and utility of the alienation or encumbrance and in accordance with the provisions of the law relative to special legal proceedings.

The procedure to obtain authorization over the rights and property of minors is established by §§ 614 to 616 of the Code of Civil Procedure (32 L.P.R.A. §§ 2721 to 2723).

In construing these rules of procedures, and determining their scope and after comparing them with the provisions in force before 1911, we said in Amy et al. v. Heirs of Verges, 37 P.R.R. 46, 59 (1927), cited with approval in Lókpez v. Fernández, 61 P.R.R. 503, 538 (1943), the following:

“The obvious purpose of these more recent enactments was not merely to re-establish the rules prescribed by. the laws in force at the time of the adoption of our present Code of Civil Procedure and to supply omissions therein, but also to provide additional protection for the rights of minors by conferring upon the court and upon the district attorney powers that they did not have, and by imposing upon them duties and responsibilities that did not exist under the Spanish Civil Code and system of procedure. Otherwise, there was no need and no satisfactory explanation could be given for the modification made in those laws, and the fact of such modification is self-evident.
[589]*589“The effect of these changes, insofar as the control of the court over the exercise of the patria potestas is concerned, has been to reduce parental authority to the same general level as that of a tutor or guardian.” (Italics ours.)

Once more we must ratify the preceding doctrine. Guardians are not authorized to borrow money in the name of their wards without the previous judicial authorization. Section 212 of the Civil Code (31 L.P.R.A. § 786). The parents or tutor shall be in need of the previous judicial authorization for the placing or investment to be made of the thing obtained by the minor or incapacitated person through the act or contract referred to in the authorization. Section 614 of the Code of Civil Procedure (32 L.P.R.A. § 2721).

Appellant alleges that § 159 of the Code does not forbid parents to borrow money in the name of their minor children under their patria potestas without judicial authorization. That is true if we adhere strictly to the letter of said provision; but if we consider the purpose pursued by the lawmaker in relation to the protection of the minors’ interests by the courts established in said section as well as in the procedure to obtain authorization over the rights and property of the minors, we are bound to conclude that the previous judicial authorization for a parent to borrow money in the name of his minor child is indispensable and necessary. Otherwise, the interests of the minors could be prejudiced, by subjecting the minor’s property to the payment of loan obligations contracted by his father in his name. This way, what the law directly and expressly forbids could be indirectly achieved. The loan having been executed and not fulfilled, as agreed, the debtor would be liable for its payment with all his properties because as the registrar correctly. points out, § 1811 of the Civil Code (31 L.P.R.A. § -5171) provides that “A debtor is liable for the fulfilment of his obligations with all his present and future property.” A judicial sale of the minor’s property in the execution of [590]*590the judgment rendered against him, by virtue of the loan obligation, deprives the minor of his property by a forced sale without a previous judicial determination as to the necessity and utility for the minor of the transaction executed in his name by his father, and the consequences of which, as we have shown, are a forced sale or alienation of his personal and real property. In this indirect manner the father succeeds in selling or alienating the real property of his minor son without judicial authorization, in open violation of § 159 of the Civil Code and the aforecited sections of the Code of Civil Procedure.

Referring to the restrictions which the law imposes on the exercise of patria potestas, we said in F. Zayas, S. en C. v. Torres, 51 P.R.R. 772, 776 (1937) :

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

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
89 P.R. 586, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vilarino-martinez-v-registrar-of-property-of-ponce-prsupreme-1968.