2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTY-TWO - Code of Civil Procedure (§§ 1 — 3576) › Subtitle 4 - Special Legal Proceedings Law (§§ 2241 — 3355a) › PART V - Other Actions (§§ 2951 — 3355a) › Chapter 251 - Actions Against the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (§§ 3061 — 3092a) › § 3077 - Claims and suits against the Commonwealth; authorization

Authorization is hereby granted to sue the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico before the Court of First Instance of Puerto Rico for the causes set forth in the following actions:
(a) Actions for damages to persons or property up to the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) caused by a culpable or negligent action or omission of any official, agent or employee of the Commonwealth or of any other person acting in an official capacity within the scope of his/her duty, office or employment; or actions for damages for alleged actions of medical and hospital malpractice of the healthcare professionals working in the areas of obstetrics, orthopedics, general surgery or trauma exclusively at public health institutions of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies, instrumentalities and/or municipalities, regardless of whether said institutions are being administered or operated by a private entity. When because of said action or omission damages are caused to more than one person or when there are several causes of action to which a single injured party is entitled, the compensation for all damages caused by said action or omission may not exceed the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000). If the court determines that the sum of the damages caused to each of the persons exceeds one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000), the court shall proceed to distribute said sum prorated among the plaintiffs, taking as basis the damages suffered by each one. When an action is filed against the Commonwealth for damages to the person or to the property, the court shall order, through the publication of edicts in a newspaper of general circulation, that all persons that may have a common interest be notified that they must appear before the court on the date set forth in the edicts so as to jointly proceed to distribute the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) among the plaintiffs, as provided in §§ 3077—3092a of this title.
(b) Actions to recover real or personal property or an interest therein, with or without compensation for damages sustained by said property or on account of revenues or profits therefrom and for the demarcation of rural property.
(c) Civil actions in which the amount claimed does not exceed seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) in principal and which are based on the Constitution or on any law of Puerto Rico, or on any regulation of any department or division of the Commonwealth, or on any contract, express or tacit with the Commonwealth.
No authorization is granted to sue the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies, instrumentalities and municipalities when, because of errors product of incorrect information obtained through a computer system, a contract is cancelled or actions are taken pursuant to the same, such as requiring documentation. To those ends, immunity shall be granted when errors attributable to mechanical malfunction or some atmospheric phenomenon, act of vandalism or computer virus (sequence of instructions introduced in the memory of a computer so that when processed it makes for the anomalous functioning of the machine). The immunity herein granted does not exempt from liability for claims related to the cybernetic problem of the year 2000.
—June 29, 1955, No. 104, p. 550, § 2; June 30, 1965, No. 111, p. 312, § 1; Sept. 25, 1983, No. 30, p. 434, § 1; Oct. 5, 1999, No. 309, § 1; Aug. 24, 2004, No. 229, § 1; Aug. 23, 2005, No. 62, § 2; Dec. 5, 2006, No. 260, § 2; June 27, 2011, No. 103, § 2.
History