2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-EIGHT - Public Lands (§§ 1 — 737) › PART II - Land Authority (§§ 241 — 512) › Chapter 35 - Illegal Land Holding by Corporations (500-Acre Law) › Subchapter I - Proceedings Under Land Law (§§ 401 — 407) › § 402 - Holding of over 500 acres by juridical person prohibited; penalties; confiscation and sale; preference of Land Authority

The acquisition, holding, or any other form of direct or indirect control of land in excess of five hundred (500) acres by any [juridical] person, as said term is defined in §§ 241 et seq. of this title, is hereby declared unlawful. This provision shall be applicable to any extension of land, which, jointly with such land as the acquirer may hold, possess, control or exploit at the time of the acquisition, aggregates over five hundred (500) acres. [Juridical] persons may, however, loan funds upon land security, and acquire land when necessary to collect loans, but they shall, within five (5) years after receiving the title thereto alienate such land as they may hold in excess of five hundred (500) acres.
Actions filed for violation of this section shall be governed by the general provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, and by the special provisions of the Quo Warranto Act, §§ 3391—3397 of Title 32, relative to corporations engaged in agriculture and holding land in excess of five hundred (500) acres; Provided, therefore, That when it should be established that an [juridical] person, as said term is defined in §§ 241 et seq. of this title, has performed acts in violation of the provisions of this section, the judgment shall, in case the defendant is a domestic corporation, decree the dissolution thereof, and in the case of a foreign corporation, the prohibition to continue doing business in the country; and the nullity of all acts done and contracts made by the [juridical] person; the cancellation of every entry or registration originated by same in the public registries of Puerto Rico; and a fine may be levied.
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico may, at its option, demand, in the proceeding itself, the confiscation in its favor of the real property of the defendant entity, or the alienation of said property at public auction within a period of not more than six (6) months reckoned from the date on which final judgment is entered.
The confiscation or alienation shall in every case be made upon proper compensation in the manner established by the Condemnation Proceedings Law, §§ 2901—2913 of Title 32. The Supreme Court is hereby empowered to appoint receivers who, in behalf and with the approval of said Supreme Court, shall be exclusively in charge of the liquidation and sale of the property of the [juridical] person or persons affected. The receivers shall give preference in the purchase of land to the Land Authority of Puerto Rico, which shall hold preferential option for the fair value of the property fixed in the final judgment. The receivers shall have the duty of beginning the sale of the land within a period of not more than six (6) months after the receivership is established. The Land Authority shall have a preferential right to purchase said lands for their fair value within a period of not to exceed five (5) years, during which no sale may be made to any other person or entity. This period of five (5) years may be extended for another year on authority of the court on petition of the Authority. Upon the expiration of such period or periods, the land shall be sold at public auction. The Authority shall have priority or preference for the purchase of land at public auction in those cases where it bids a price equal to that bid by the highest bidder. And the edicts published shall so state.
The violation, after a final judgment is entered, of an order prohibiting the doing of business, shall be punished by a maximum fine of five hundred dollars ($500) for each day that the entity continues to exercise its functions, recoverable from the property of the entity; and the persons representing such entities shall be held in contempt of court punishable by a minimum penalty of imprisonment in jail for a term of from one (1) to six (6) months.
For the purpose of fixing the value of the property, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is authorized to enter the property or holding the object of controversy.
History —Apr. 12, 1941, No. 26, p. 388, § 58; May 14, 1943, No. 160, p. 520; May 5, 1945, No. 57, p. 208.