2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-EIGHT - Public Lands (§§ 1 — 737) › PART II - Land Authority (§§ 241 — 512) › Chapter 37 - Proportional Profit Farms (Title IV of Land Law) › Subchapter II - Operation of the Farms (§§ 481 — 491) › § 489 - Payments upon death or disability of laborers—Judicial proceedings in absence of designation of beneficiary

(a) Whenever upon the death of a workman or laborer who works or has worked for the Land Authority and/or a proportional profit farm any amounts of money are owing him by the Authority and/or the farm by reason of salaries or wages earned as an advance for his work, subsidies, undistributed profits, or payment of any differential, and said workman or laborer has not left a declaration of beneficiaries as provided in § 488 of this title, the amounts owing to said workman or laborer for such reasons shall belong to the persons who were dependent upon him for their support. Said persons shall be determined through proceedings for a declaration of dependents before the part of the District Court of the last domicile of the deceased laborer. The procedure to be followed for the purpose shall be similar to the one prescribed for processing a declaration of heirs, but the status of dependents of such laborers at the time of his demise shall be established exclusively on the basis of oral evidence, except in the case of a legitimate wife, when it shall be accredited through the proper marriage certificate; Provided, That said declaration of dependents shall not be subject to the inheritance laws in force in Puerto Rico. The District Court is hereby vested with jurisdiction to transact the said declaration of dependents irrespective of the amount due the deceased laborer.
(b) Declarations of dependents filed in the District Court shall be transacted with all urgency by said court and shall be given preference in the dockets thereof; Provided, further, That neither said court nor the officials thereof shall collect any costs or fees of any kind, nor shall any stamps whatsoever be required to be cancelled, for the transaction or approval of such declarations, or for the resolutions and/or certifications issued for use of the persons interested therein, or for use of the Land Authority, or of any agency of the Commonwealth or municipal governments. The officials in charge of vital statistics and registries in each municipality and in the Department of Health of the Government of Puerto Rico shall issue free of charge to the persons interested in these proceedings, to the courts, and to the Land Authority all the certificates necessary for the aforesaid purpose.
(c) In determining the dependents of such laborers at the time of their demise, the District Court shall be governed by the rules hereinafter established, and the inheritance laws of Puerto Rico shall not apply in such cases; Provided, That it is the legislative intent that the sums owing such laborers for said reasons be received by the persons who were dependent upon the laborer at the time of his demise, with the exceptions hereinafter established.
(d) In determining the dependents who are entitled to the amounts which the Land Authority and/or the farms owe such laborers for said reasons at the time of their demise, the following rules shall be observed by the District Court:
(1) Rules.— The District Court shall determine, on the basis of the evidence submitted:
(A) Who are the persons who were dependent upon the deceased laborer for their support.
(B) The degree of dependency of each one of them, irrespective of the relationship that existed between them and the deceased laborer:
(i) The proportional share of each dependent of the amounts owing the deceased laborer according to the degree of dependency determined by the court.
(ii) In the case of a mentally disabled laborer whose incapacity is accredited through medical certificate, the court shall direct that payment of the total amounts owing said laborer be made to the person or institution having him under his or its custody.
(iii) In the case of laborers incapacitated through civil interdiction, the Authority and/or the farm is authorized to pay directly to the laborer the amounts owing for the reasons above stated.
(iv) In case the dependents are minors, the payments belonging to them shall be made directly and without need of fulfilling any other requisite, to the mother, relative, or private person having them under her or his custody and care, said person being under obligation to expend the amount so received exclusively for the benefit of the minors.
History —Apr. 12, 1941, No. 26, p. 388, added as § 72-B on May 7, 1948, No. 107, p. 252, retroactive to Feb. 1, 1948.