BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-04-18
Injunction S|ODS Work.
On me Pier.
San Juan District Court Issues
Order Restraining Further
Construction.
The First Injunction Applied For In Rorto
Rico.
Formal Suit Begun.

The New York and Porto Rico
Steamship Company has been restrained
from constructing or erecting wharf
or pier in the harbor of San Juan,
pending the termination of an action
which has been brought against it by
the People of Porto Rico in the District
Court of San Juan. incidentally the
first injunction proceedings ever insti-
tuted in this island have been started
The restraining order was served upon
Mr. Benjamin F. Butler at 5 o'clock
last evening by the .Alguacil of the
District Court 1t was served upon Mr..
Wilfred Higgins, the constructing en-
oineer at 2 o'clock this morning when
the men were about to start work.
In the petition filed by the Attorney
General on behalf of the People of
Porto Rico, he recites the transfer of the
island of Porto Rico to the United
States, and alleges that in said transfer
the rights of individuals, provinces and
the chur h wele 10 b. held free from
interference.
He also alleges that the right to the
har5or shores of San Jtlan was always in
charge of the Spanish Board of Public
Works of San Juan, which during the
Spanish government was an insularbody
that the island of Porto Rico had spent
many millions Of dollars on said water
front, and that at the time of the Amer
ican invasion the island was receiving
an annual Inco1ne of forty Thousand
dollars for the wharfage rights along
said water front.
The petition alleges the granting O
the revocable license by Secretary Root
the revocation ipso facto of said license
by the Inauguration of civil government
in Porto Rico under the provisions 0
the Foraker Act.
He further states that the pier i
now being reconstructed without author
ity of law, and that the Legislative &C
revoking all rights Of the compan
prevents and takes away from it an
right to the water front.
In his prayer for relief the Attorne
General asks that the court decla1
that the New York and Porto Ric
, Company never did acquire any righ
, TO erect and maintain pier in San Jua
harbor; that upon the inauguration c
civil government the revokable licens
{ became null and void; that upon approve
bNthe Governor of the act of the 1egi
1ative assembly revoking said right tha
, the said right became vested in the PEI
, pie Of Porto Hico; that the pier now i
) course of construction is public nu
, sance; that the pier is a continuin
, trespass.
, He finally asks permanent iniun'
ton lorever restraining the erection G
construction of the pier, and during tn
tendency of the action prays for
temporary restraining order.
, This proceeding is particularly int
e,ting and important in view of tw
facts. the first, that it is the first iniunC
ton ever issued by any Court in tn
island of Porto Rico, and that as suc
it marks an era in the administrator
of justice on this island; and secon,
that the government has applied fo
the protection of it's rights to the court
of law, instead of protecting thos
rights under its own force of arms.
This later fact is specially signifcan
on account of the usual practice il
81 ,.ilar cases in the tine of the Spanisl
administration of the island Unde
the Spanish law, the government a
the Supreme head Of all right to an,
property, would have seized the pie
without process of Las, and withou
any request for the adjudication of th'
matter by the judicial authority.