Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/226/145/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 02:12:49+00:00

Document:
Whether prescription goes only to the remedy or extinguishes the right, it affects the jurisdiction no more than any other defense.
The judgment of a court that a right is established cannot be impeached collaterally by proof that the judgment was wrong.
The provisions of Article 137 of the Civil Code of Porto Rico of 1889 and of § 199 of the Act of March 1, 1902, of Porto Rico, requiring actions to claim filiation to be commenced within prescribed periods, do not deprive the court of jurisdiction in case the action is not brought until after the prescribed period. It is a defense that must be pleaded.
This Court will be slow to control the discretion of the Supreme Court of Porto Rico as to a matter wholly within its power, such as sending a case back to the lower court for further opportunity to cross-examine.
13 Porto Rico, 18, affirmed.
This was a proceeding by the appellees, as illegitimate children of Adolfo Desmornes, deceased, to be adjudged his recognized children. The appellant answered that he was the nephew and heir of Desmornes, and denied that the appellees were his children or ever were recognized as such. The district court held that the action had prescribed under the limitations imposed upon actions of this class by the Civil Codes of 1889 and 1902. This decision was reversed by the supreme court on the ground that the bar to the action had not been pleaded, and a decree was entered for the appellees upon a consideration of the evidence taken below.
The case was argued in this Court in behalf of the appellant only, and we shall content ourselves with discussing the argument made by him. By the Civil Code of 1889, Art. 137, actions of this kind "can be instituted only during the life of the presumed parents," with certain exceptions. It appears by the complaint that Desmornes died on November 2, 1905, before this suit was brought. By the statute of Porto Rico approved March 1, 1902, § 199, under which the appellant says that the appellees proceed, "An action to claim filiation may be filed at any time within two years after the child shall become of age," etc. It appeared in evidence that the appellees became of age more than two years before this action was filed. It is urged that the words of both statutes are jurisdictional, and constitute a condition precedent. It is said further that the Supreme Court of Porto Rico in later decisions has shown an inclination to recede from the doctrine of the present one; but as this case has not been overruled in terms, we shall do no more than indicate why we think the decision right.
Whether prescription goes only to the remedy or extinguishes the right, it affects the jurisdiction no more than any other defense. When a court has general jurisdiction to try the question whether an alleged right exists, the rules that determine the existence of the right ordinarily govern the duty only of the court, not its power. Its judgment that the right is established cannot be impeached collaterally by proof that the judgment was wrong. For instance, a common law court ought not to give judgment for the plaintiff upon a parol promise without consideration, but if it does so, the judgment is not open to collateral attack. Even words in a statute that might seem to affect the power of the court, such as "no action shall be brought," in the statute of frauds, are assumed without question merely to fix the law by which the court should decide, as is explained in Fauntleroy v. Lum, 210 U. S. 230, 210 U. S. 235. We see no reason why the ordinary rule should not apply to this case.
on to deny in the first place all possible matters of that sort. Sawyer v. Boston, 144 Mass. 470, 472. "For if he should do so, the declaration would be more prolix than was convenient." Hawkings v. Billhead, Cro.Car. 404.
"The mere fact that the time of bringing suit goes in some sense to the jurisdiction of the court does not necessarily take the case out of the general rules of pleading."
Sawyer v. Boston, supra. It would seem, as observed by the court below, that the defendant was free to renounce the objection if he saw fit. We know of no public policy that would prevent his permitting the appellees to acquire rights that earlier they were entitled to. So that, on this ground as well as on that of convenience, we are of opinion that the general rule of pleading applies.
The only matter remaining to be mentioned is a suggestion that the supreme court should have sent the case back to the lower court to give the appellant an opportunity to cross-examine the appellees; but, there being no question of the power of the supreme court, we should be slow to control its discretion on this point.

References: § 199
 Art. 137
 § 199
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