2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 114 - Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Special Fiscal and Operational Sustainability Act (§§ 9101 — 9153) › Subchapter IV - Plans For Final And Binding Judgments Pending Payment (§§ 9141 — 9143) › § 9141 - Applicability and payment plans

In view of the negative impact on the fiscal and operational stability of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the municipal governments that the payment of a lump sum would entail, the provisions of this subchapter shall apply to all final and binding judgments, except for those related to eminent domains that, on the date of approval of this Act, are pending payment and those issued during the effective term of this Act, whereby the agencies, instrumentalities, public corporations, municipalities, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are compelled to make a disbursement of funds chargeable to the General Fund, the fund of the public corporation in question, or chargeable to the municipal budget, as the case may be.
In the event that the agencies, instrumentalities, public corporations, municipalities, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or officials who have availed themselves of the benefits of this subchapter, are required to make a disbursement of funds chargeable to the General Fund, the fund of the public corporation in question, or chargeable to the municipal budget, as the case may be, and there is no payment plan previously agreed on in writing and approved by the Court, the provisions of this Section shall apply, regardless of the nature of the judgment or in the case of an administrative, extrajudicial or judicial transaction. The Secretary of Justice shall evaluate the applicable payment plan in accordance with the amount of the judgment, upon which he/she shall request a certification of the availability of funds to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Board of Directors or the governing body of the public corporation in question, or of the Mayor of the corresponding Municipality. Only for purposes of the application of this Section, the term Commonwealth shall include the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies and instrumentalities, public corporations, and municipalities. Payment plans shall be established in accordance with the following terms:
(a) If the amount owed by the Commonwealth, a public corporation or municipality is equal to or less than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000), it may be paid off through a one (1) to three (3) year payment plan from the time the payment obligation becomes final and binding.
(b) If the amount owed by the Commonwealth, a public corporation, or municipality exceeds one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000), but does not exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000), it may be paid off through a three (3) year and one (1) day to four (4) year payment plan from the time the payment obligation becomes final and binding.
(c) If the amount owed by the Commonwealth, a public corporation, or municipality exceeds one million dollars ($1,000,000), but does not exceed or is equal to seven million dollars ($7,000,000), it may be paid off through a four (4) year and one (1) day to seven (7) year payment plan from the time the payment obligation becomes final and binding.
(d) If the amount owed by the Commonwealth, a public corporation, or municipality exceeds seven million dollars ($7,000,000), but does not exceed twenty million dollars ($20,000,000), it shall be paid off through a seven (7) year and one (1) day to ten (10) year payment plan from the time the payment obligation becomes final and binding.
(e) If the judgment owed by the Commonwealth, a public corporation, or municipality exceeds twenty million dollars ($20,000,000), the payment plan applicable thereto shall be fixed during the drawing up of the budget following the date on which the payment obligation becomes final and binding, taking into consideration the fiscal situation, and said payment plan shall never exceed an annual sum of three million dollars ($3,000,000).
(f) In order to determine the applicable payment plan, the judgment shall not be divided by claimant, but rather the total thereof shall be considered as the item value.
(g) If there were no funds available to honor the payment plan during a specific fiscal year, it shall be postponed for the following fiscal year, thus said payment plan shall be automatically extended for the number of unpaid installments.
(h) If the Director of the Office of Management and Budget determines that the budget of the agency may cover the payment plan arising from a judgment issued against it, he/she shall thus notify the agency, which shall make the adjustments and negotiations needed to defray the same from its own budget, without the need for an additional appropriation of funds. In these cases, the filing of a request for additional funds with the Office of Management and Budget shall not be allowed.
(i) The Commonwealth, a public corporation or municipality shall not make any payment whatsoever unless the creditor of the judgment provides an official certification issued by the pertinent agency stating that the creditor has no outstanding debt with the Department of the Treasury, the Municipal Revenues Collection Center, and the Child Support Administration. In the event that the creditor of the judgment has an outstanding debt with any agency, entity or public corporation of the Commonwealth, or with a municipality, the amount of said debt shall be deducted from the total amount to be paid. In the event that the creditor of the judgment has requested an administrative review of the debt, the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the public corporation or the municipality, as the case may be, shall refrain from making any payment whatsoever until the review process has concluded. If the existence of the challenged debt is confirmed, the amount thereof shall be deducted from the total amount to be paid.
These provisions shall apply to the Municipalities, which shall establish through a municipal ordinance the adequate parameters for the implementation thereof, in accordance with the provisions of subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), and (i) of this section.
The payment plans for judgments issued by virtue of this section, as well as the provisions thereof, shall remain in effect for the time frame established in the payment plan, and shall not be affected or invalidated by the expiration of the effectiveness of this Act.
History —June 17, 2014, No. 66, § 28.