Case Name: American Colonial Bank of Porto Rico v. The Registrar of Property
Court: Supreme Court of Puerto Rico
Jurisdiction: Puerto Rico
Decision Date: 1903-11-27
Citations: 4 P.R. 525
Docket Number: No. 10
Parties: American Colonial Bank of Porto Rico v. The Registrar of Property.
Judges: Justices Hernández, Sulzbacher and MacLeary concurred.
Reporter: Puerto Rico Reports
Volume: 4
Pages: 525–529

Head Matter:
American Colonial Bank of Porto Rico v. The Registrar of Property.
Appear from a decision of the Registrar of Property of Caguas.
No. 10.
Decided November 27, 1903.
PARTNERSHIP IN LIQUIDATION — PERSONALITY THEREOF. — The personality of an. association that has been dissolved continues under the representation of the liquidators appointed by the partners thereof for the purposes of the liquidation mentioned in article 228 of the Code of Commerce.
Contracts — Personality of the Parties — Curable Defects. — Failure to show the authorization of one of the parties executing a deed does not nullify the obligation contained therein, and is therefore a curable defect which does not preclude the admission of the deed to record in the Registry of Property.
STATEMENT OF THE CASE.
By public deed executed in this city before Juan de Guzmán Benitez, a lawyer and notary public, dated October 6, 1902, the firm doing business in San Juan under the style of “R. Fabián & Co. in Liquidation”, represented by the partner and liquidator thereof, Joaquin Villamil y Méndez, sold to the American Colonial Bank of Porto Rico, represented in said transaction by Edwin L. Arnold, cashier thereof, the share belonging to aforesaid firm of “R. Fabián & Co. in Liquidation-”, valued at eight hundred and twenty-three dollars and forty-five cents, in a farm situated in barrio “Pasto”, municipality of Morovis, consisting of nine hundred and ninety-one and eighty-eight cuer-das, the whole valued at seven thousand five hundred dollars, and owned by them in common with aforesaid bank; and said public deed having been presented at the Registry of Property of Caguas, for the purpose of having the same recorded, the admission thereof to record was refused by the Registrar for the reasons set iorth in the decision entered at the end of aforesaid deed which reads as follows:
“ The record of the above deed (folio 94 reverse, volume 15, of the municipal corporation of Barros, property No. 733, entry letter A.) is suspended because of the incurable defects of its ownership in common appearing recorded in the name of the firm of ‘ R. Fabián & Co.’, a person other than the true one, namely, the firm of ‘R. Fabián & Co. in Liquidation’, and in said document the representation claimed by Edwin L. Arnold is not established. Caguas, October 10, 1903. — S. Abella Bastón, Registrar.”
From this decision Juan' de Guzmán Benitez, Esq., on hehalf of the American Colonial Bank of Porto Rico, in due time took an appeal to this Supreme Court, praying that said decision be reversed and the Registrar ordered to record the deed free of charge, and to pay for the stamps and a sum not exceeding fifty dollars, which in the opinion of the court may cover the fees and expenses of counsel for appellant.
Mr. Juan de Guzmán Benitez, for appellant.

Opinion:
Mr. Chief Justice José S. Quiñones,
after making the above statement of facts, rendered the opinion of the court.
Although, according to article 20 of the Mortgage Law, in force in this Island, when the ownership or possession of real property or property rights appears recorded in favor of a person other than the one executing the transfer or encumbrance, registrars shall refuse to record the document presented, this provision is not applicable in the present case, for the share in common referred to, being recorded in favor of the firm of " R. Fabián & Co.", although said firm has been dissolved, the personality thereof continues under the representation of the liquidators appointed by the partners, for the purposes of the liquidation mentioned in article 228 of the Code of .'Commerce; and as the party executing the deed of sale in question is one of the liquidators appointed in the deed of dissolution of the partnership, and he being expressly authorized in aforesaid deed to dispose of the stocks and other properties of all kinds belonging to the firm, which is one of the means, in fact, the most adequate to effect the liquidation thereof, it is •evident that in the present case that lack of identity claimed by the registrar between the person in whose favor the share in common is recorded, and the one appearing as the vendor thereof, does not exist, and, therefore, the deed of sale executed by the liquidator'of "R. "Fabián <fc Co." is perfectly recordable.
As to' the failure to show that the other party appearing, Edwin L. Arnold, was the representative of the American Colonial Bank of Porto Rico, this defect does not nullify the obligation, and is, therefore, a curable defect which does not preclude the admission to record of the deed in the manner prescribed by section 4 of an act of the Legislative-Assembly of Porto Rico, to provide for appeals from the decisions of Registrars of Property, approved March 1, 1902.
In view of the aforesaid legal provisions, the decision of the Registrar of Property of Caguas, entered at the end of the deed of sale in question, is reversed, and said document declared recordable with the curable defect that Edwin L. Arnold's representation of the American Colonial Bank of Porto Rico has not been established. This decision is ordered to be communicated to the registrar for compliance' therewith, he being admonished to see to it that the provisions of aforesaid act of the Legislative Assembly are strictly complied with in the future by entering the cautionary notice ordered in section 4 of said act, with the warning that he will be held responsible should he fail to do so, as has been the case in the present instance. The document presented is directed to be returned to the appellant.
Justices Hernández, Sulzbacher and MacLeary concurred.
Mr. Justice Eigueras did not sit at the hearing of this case.