Case Name: Ex Parte Rivera
Court: Supreme Court of Puerto Rico
Jurisdiction: Puerto Rico
Decision Date: 1903-10-21
Citations: 4 P.R. 189
Docket Number: No. 24
Parties: Ex Parte Rivera.
Judges: Chief Justice Quiñones and Justices Hernández, Sulzba-cher and MacLeary, concurred.
Reporter: Puerto Rico Reports
Volume: 4
Pages: 189–191

Head Matter:
Ex Parte Rivera.
Application for a writ of habeas corpus.
No. 24.
Decided October 21, 1903.
Pine. — Subsidiary Imprisonment. — A judgment sentencing the accused to ninety days of imprisonment and payment of a fine of one hundred dollars, or in default of said payment, to undergo one day of imprisonment for each dollar, or one hundred days of additional imprisonment, is legal as to the principal sentence and corresponding cumulative sentence prescribed by law.
STATEMENT OF THE CASE.
The petitioner, Luis Rivera Iglesias states the facts as follows: Luis Rivera Iglesias was sentenced by the District Court of San Juan, in a criminal action prosecuted against him for disturbing the public peace, to ninety days of imprisonment and to pay a fine of one hundred dollars, or, in case of failure to pay the fine, to undergo one day of imprisonment for each dollar he failed to pay and the costs. This judgment was rendered on the 29th of July last, on which date he commenced to serve said sentence, wherefore 1 on the 16th instant he had served eighty days, which, with ten days allowed him by the warden for good conduct, completed the ninety days of the principal penalty. Now, after having served the principal penalty, the warden of the jail, José Valentín Berrios, illegally detains him, in order that he may serve one hundred days more, in satisfaction of the fine of one hundred dollars. According to section 322 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, imprisonment for failure to pay the fine' must not extend beyond the term for which the defendant might be sentenced; and if petitioner, according to section 368 of the Penal Code, could not have-been sentenced to imprisonment in jail for more than ninety days, it is evident that the imposition of one hundred days of imprisonment for non-payment of the fine, is illegal. For this reason, and in view of the provisions of section 483 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, petitioner prays that a. writ of habeas corpios be issued ordering Luis Rivera Igle- sias to be brought before the court, and that a day and hour be set for the hearing; that the Fiscal be cited, and as a result of the hearing, that petitioner be discharged.
Mr. JFalcón, for the petitioner.
Mr. del Toro, Fiscal, for the People.

Opinion:
Opinion of tlie Court.
The petitioner, Luis Rivera Iglesias, is not, at the present time, illegally deprived of his liberty, inasmuch as he has not yet served the corresponding additional term of imprisonment prescribed by law. We therefore hold that the writ prayed for by the prisoner, Luis Rivera Iglesias, must be denied and he is remanded to the jail where he has been serving his sentence, under the custody of the warden thereof, and the costs are taxed against the petitioner.
Chief Justice Quiñones and Justices Hernández, Sulzba-cher and MacLeary, concurred.
Mr. Justice Figueras did not sit at the hearing of this case.