Case Name: GUILLERMO ALVAREZ Y SANCHEZ v. THE UNITED STATES
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1910-02-21
Citations: 45 Ct. Cl. 609
Docket Number: 
Parties: GUILLERMO ALVAREZ Y SANCHEZ v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Volume: 45
Pages: 609–610

Head Matter:
GUILLERMO ALVAREZ Y SANCHEZ v. THE UNITED STATES.
[42 C. Cls., 458;
216 U. S. R., 167.]
On the claimant's appeal.
The petition sets up these facts: The claimant, a subject of Spain, living in Porto Rico, purchases a purchasable office in per- ■ petuity (that of procurador of the-courts) and receives a patent for the office approved by the King of Spain. After the treaty with Spain in 1S9S the military governor of the island issues a general order whereby the office of procurador is abolished and the claimant deprived of it. The chief question in the case is whether the office held in perpetuity was a property right secured to the claimant by the treaty.
The court below decides:
I. The order of the military governor of Porto Rico in 1899 abolishing the office of solicitor or procurator was not a tortious act, though it deprived the claimant of an office. The court has jurisdiction of a suit to recover the value of the office.
.II. Such a claim arises out of the act of a public officer and not out of the treaty with Spain, and the court is not inhibited from exercising jurisdiction by the Revised Statutes, § 1066.
III. The Treaty of Paris, 10th December, 1898 (30 Stat. L., p. 1751), provides (Art. VIII) that the cession of the island to the United States “ cam- not in any respect, impair the property or , rights which by law belong to the peaceful possession of prop erty of all hinds.” But this did not prevent the military governor of the island from abolishing a public office because it was purchasable and held in perpetuity under the laws of Spain, nor did it prevent the Government of the United States from ratifying the order of the military governor by the Act mil April, 1900 (31 Stat L., p. 77).
IY. When Porto Rico passed into the possession of the United States the sovereignty of Spain passed with it; and the inhabitants became subject to the will of the United States, though their private rights and their relations to each other remain unchanged.
V.When the treaty with Spain was negotiated the principle of uti possidetis was recognized; and there being no stipulation in the treaty to the contrary, the property of the sovereignty of Spain, including public offices, passed to the Government of the United States.
VI.The cession of the island to the United States imposed no obligation to indemnify the inhabitants for losses caused thereby.
VII.An office purchasable and held in perpetuity may have possessed a property right under the laws of Spain; but when the office passed to and became an office of the United States the right of property therein ceased and disappeared.
VIII.The public officers in Porto Rico who continued to hold their offices after the conquest and treaty, held at the sufferance of the United States.
IX.A public office under American law and usage is a trust which can not be a subject of purchase and is not capable of being inherited.
The decision of the court below is affirmed on the same grounds.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Harlan
delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court February 21, 1910.