Case ID: pr_5/html/0007-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr Justice Sulzbacher,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

García v. Roig et al.
    Appeal from the District Court of Mayagiiez.
    No. 12.
    Decided December 11, 1903.
    Intervention of Ownership. — The ownership of an estate conveyed to The People of Porto Bico by deed of sale executed in its favor by a plaintiff in intervention of ownership and recorded in the name of The People of Porto Bieo at the time the complaint was filed, cannot be declared in favor of said plaintiff in intervention.
    STATEMENT OP THE CASE.
    This is a case prosecuted in the District Court of Maya-güez, by Elisa García Sanjurjo, as plaintiff, represented and defended in this Supreme Court by Antonio Alvarez, Esq., and Antonio Roig Torrellas, now Ms assignee Pablo Roig Torrellas, represented and defended by Ms counsel, Fernando Vázquez, and Isidro Fernández Sanjurjo, as defendants, tbe latter not entering an appearance in tMs court, in the matter of a complaint in intervention of ownership pending before us on appeal in cassation for error of law, now appeal, taken by the party plaintiff from the judgment rendered by the District Court of Mayagiiez.
    On May 8, 1902, in execution proceedings instituted in the District Court of Mayagiiez by Antonio Roig Torrellas against Isidro Fernández Sanjurjo, for the recovery of a debt, an order issued for the attachment of so much of the property of the defendant as would cover the amount claimed, namely, one thousand pesos provincial money, or six hundred dollars, with legal interest and costs, calculated to be three hundred dollars, in satisfaction of two matured installments amounting to said sum, the same being an obligation contracted by Fernandez Sanjurjo, by virtue of a public instrument executed November 27, 1897.
    Said attachment was levied on June 10 following, upon an estate called “Carmen,” as being the property of the debtor, and consisting of two hundred and twenty-four and one quarter cuerdas, equal to eighty hectares, thirteen ares and eighty-nine centares, situated in barrio “Muradero,” within the Municipal District of Mayagiiez, planted with coffee, bananas, sugar-cane and timber, and having on the premises a dwelling house, store-houses and other buildings, the boundaries of- the property being: on the north, the brook called “Quebrada de Oro” and lands belonging to Francisco Ramos, to the widow of Roeafort, to the estate of La'cout and to Olivieri Hermanos; on the east a neighborhood road, lands owned by Alfredo Gómez and Jnan Luciano, by another neighborhood road, lands belonging to Genaro Cartagena, Manuel Bengoa and Pedro Agostini; on the west, lands of the old “Carmen” Estate, the “Quebrada de Oro” brook, the lands of Antonio López, Juan Rolan, Francisco Borrero, Ramon Ruiz, Añasco neighborhood road, lands of Luis Cartagena, and the highway to Añasco; and on the south'by lands belonging to Elisa, Dolores and Rosa Garcia Sanjurjo, and the river “Yaguez.” A cautionary notice of said attachment was duly entered in the Registry of Property of Mayagüez on June 25 of the same year.
    Elisa Garcia Sanjurjo, had by a public instrument executed on the 2nd of aforesaid month, purchased said estate from Isidro Fernández Sanjurjo for the sum of nineteen thousand dollars, whereof five thousand six hundred were retained for the satisfaction of a mortgage in favor of Tomás Quiñones, with which the property was incumbered, five thousand were paid by the vendee for the account of the vendor to several creditors of the latter, and the balance of eight thousand four hundred dollars was delivered to Fernández Sanjurjo in the presence of the notary and of the witnesses before whom the instrument was executed, the same being recorded in the Registry of Property of Mayagüez under date of August 18, 1902, with a notice to the effect that the property sold, in addition to the mortgage by which it was incumbered, was affected by the cautionary notice of the attachment levied at the request of Antonio Roig y Torrellas.
    By a subsequent deed executed on the 29th of the said month of August, which was also recorded in the Registry of Property of Mayagüez, Eliza Garcia Sanjurjo conveyed the estate “Carmen” to The People of Porto Rico for the snm of fifteen thousand dollars, of which she acknowledged having received eight thousand five hundred dollars, the ven-dee retaining the balance of six thousand five hundred dollars to meet the incumbrances upon said property, namely, the mortgage of five thousand six hundred dollars in favor of Tomás Quiñones and an attachment for nine hundred dollars in favor of Antonio Eoig Torrellas.
    While the execution proceedings instituted by Antonio-Eoig Torrellas against Isidro Fernández Sanjurjo were in progress, Elisa Garcia Sanjurjo filed a complaint in intervention of ownership in the Mayagiiez Court, under date of June 16, 190?. and prayed that judgment be rendered sustaining said complaint in intervention, with costs against the parties opposing the same, and ordering that the attachment levied upon the estate “Carmen” be dissolved, so that it might be left at her disposal, she alleging in support of her ' action that she had acquired said property by purchase from Isidro Fernández Sanjurjo, according to deed executed on June 2, 1902, a copy of which she attached to the complaint, said deed not yet having been recorded at the Eegistry of Property of Mayagiiez.
    Defendants Isidro Fernández Sanjurjo and Antonio Eoig y Torrellas being summoned to answer the complaint on July J and August 1, 1902, respectively, the former acquiesced therein, while Pablo Eoig y Torrellas, as assignee of Antonio Eoig y Torrellas, which character he proved, contested the same and prayed that the complaint be dismissed .with costs against the plaintiff in intervention, alleging, among other facts, that the deed filed by Elisa Garcia Sanjurjo did not appear recorded at the Eegistry of Property ; that upon being recorded it was with the incumbrance of the notice of attachment levied at the request of Antonio Eoig y Torrellas; that Fernández Sanjurjo, in effecting the sale of the estate “Carmen,” had been left without any property wherewith to satisfy the debt demanded of him, and that Elisa Garcia San-jurjo had conveyed the title of the estate “Carmen” to The People of Porto Eico, under date of August 29, acknowledging that the property was incumbered by a mortgage in favor' of Tomás Quiñones for the sum of five thousand six hundred dollars and a notice of attachment for nine hundred dollars in favor of Antonio Roig, wherefore she had left six thousand five hundred dollars, of the price of the property in the hands of the vendee by reason of the aforesaid incum-brances.
    • Among the documents introduced in evidence by both parties there appears the deed executed by Elisa Garcia Sanjurjo in favor of The People of Porto Rico, dated August 29, 1902, conveying the title to the estate “Carmen,” as above set forth, which deed has been recorded in the Registry of Property.
    The District Court of Mayagfiez, on December 20 of last year rendered judgment dismissing the complaint in intervention with costs against Elisa Garcia Sanjurjo.
    Prom this decision counsel for Elisa Garcia Sanjurjo took .an appeal in cassation for error of law, which was prosecuted as such, but afterwards proceeded with as an appeal, in conformity with the provisions of an act of the Legislative .Assembly of Porto Rico, approved March 12, 1903, converting this Supreme Court into a court of appeals, and a day being set for the hearing, the same was had, attorneys for plaintiff and defendant Roig Torrellas, being present.
    
      Mr. Alvares Nava, for appellant.
    
      Mr. Fernando Vázquez, for the respondent, Roig.
    The other respondent did not appear.
   Mr Justice Sulzbacher,

after making the above statement of facts, delivered the opinion of the court as follows:

Inasmuch, as the ownership of the estate “Carmen” belongs at present to The People of Porto Eico by virtue of the-deed of sale executed in its favor by plaintiff in intervention,, on August 29, 1902, and said estate was the property of The-People of Porto Eico at the time of answering the complaint, the ownership thereof cannot be declared.in favor of Elisa. Garcia Sanjurjo, as claimed by her in this suit. '

We adjudge that we should affirm, and do affirm, the judgment of December 20, 1902, appealed from, with costs of the-.appeal also against plaintiff. The record is ordered to be returned to the District Court of Mayagiiez, with the proper-certificate.

Chief Justice Quinones and Justices Hernández and Mac-Leary, concurred. ' '

Mr. Justice Figueras did not sit at the hearing of this: case.