Case Name: Ex Parte Suarez
Court: Supreme Court of Puerto Rico
Jurisdiction: Puerto Rico
Decision Date: 1907-06-10
Citations: 12 P.R. 385
Docket Number: No. 89
Parties: Ex Parte Suarez.
Judges: Chief Justice Quiñones and Justices Hernandez, Figueras and MacLeary concurred.
Reporter: Puerto Rico Reports
Volume: 12
Pages: 385–386

Head Matter:
Ex Parte Suarez.
Appeal from the District Court of San Juan.
No. 89.
Decided June 10, 1907.
Habeas Corpus — Jurisdiction.—Although the allegation of the petitioner to the effect that he has been convicted, without being summoned or heard at the trial, constitutes a sufficient ground for his release from imprisonment under the writ of habeas corpus, where it is sufficiently proved by the sole testimony of the prisoner himself, without any corroboration whatever. However, the evidence taken in this case is not sufficient to prove the truth of the allegation.
The facts are stated in the opinion.
Mr. Figueroa Maestre for appellant.
Mr. Bossy, fiscal, for respondent.

Opinion:
Me. Justice Wole
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellant made an application 'to the District Court of San Juan for a writ of habeas corpus and that court after hearing the cause remanded the prisoner. The petition sets forth that the prisoner who had been proceeded against (pro-cesado) for two crimes against the internal revenue was sentenced in each case to the payment of $100 or an alternative punishment of one month; that'the. prisoner is in the municipal jail of Bayamón; and that his custody is illegal because the court exceeded its jurisdiction in not having heard the petitioner in the court room, either by counsel or in his own behalf and in not having heard any proof of defense of the prisoner. There were no briefs presented, -but there was oral argument, and we agree with the fiscal that the petitioner does not make out a prima facie case for release. At the hearing below the contention seems to have been that the prisoner was never duly cited in the original case but even if such had been made the ground of the application for a release we are not satisfied from the proof that the prisoner was in fact not cited or duly arrested as he himself admits that he had knowledge of the complaint. While a straightforward allegation .and-proof on the part of the prisoner even by his own uncorroborated testimony that he had never been cited might suffice to secure his discharge in a proper case, the character of the evidence before ns, as we have said, does not convince us that the prisoner Avas not duly convicted. The petition is deficient in another respect in that it does not exclude the hypothesis that the prisoner may have been heard although not in the court room.
It has not been properly alleged or shown that the prisoner is confined without due process of law and the sentence of the District Court of San Juan must be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Chief Justice Quiñones and Justices Hernandez, Figueras and MacLeary concurred.