2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTY-TWO - Code of Civil Procedure (§§ 1 — 3576) › Subtitle 4 - Special Legal Proceedings Law (§§ 2241 — 3355a) › PART IV - Condemnation of Private Property (§§ 2901 — 2927) › Chapter 239 - General Provisions (§§ 2901 — 2927) › § 2910 - Desistance from taking; reversion to former owner; damages and interest

In any proceedings heretofore or hereafter instituted by and on behalf and under the authority of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or the Commonwealth Government, whether the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the Commonwealth Government is acting in said proceedings on its own initiative and for its own use or is acting at the request and for the purposes of any agency or instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and in any proceedings heretofore or hereafter instituted by and on behalf of the Puerto Rico Housing Authority, any municipal housing authority, any municipality, the Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico, or the legal representative of the Puerto Rico Housing Authority, of any municipal housing authority, of any municipality of Puerto Rico, and of any agency or instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, are hereby authorized to desist in whole or in part, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or of the agencies, instrumentalities, or subdivisions of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico represented by them, from the acquisition of any property or part thereof or of any interest heretofore or hereafter condemned by or for the condemning organization, by declaration of taking or otherwise, and the title to said property shall revert in whole or in part, as the case of desistance may be, to the former owners thereof; Provided, That the former owners of said properties may claim in the same proceeding by which title thereto has been acquired, any damages caused by said taking and the subsequent desistance in whole or in part from such taking. The sum that the said court may determine shall be paid for damages by the actor in the condemnation proceedings which originated the taking, shall earn interest at the rate of six percent (6%) per annum from the date of the taking by the condemning organization, until full payment of the sum determined therefor. The judgment by which the amount to be paid for damages pursuant to the foregoing provision may be determined shall be appealable by any of the parties affected thereby, to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, but if the appellants are the former owners of the property taken, of the taking of which it was later desisted from, and the said judgment appealed from should be affirmed on appeal, the condemning entity shall not be obliged to the payment of interest on and after the date the notice of appeal was filed, and until the date the judgment is affirmed; and if the appeal should be the condemning entity, and the said judgment so appealed from should be reversed on appeal, in that case, the condemning entity shall not be either obliged to pay interest from the date notice of appeal was filed and until the reversal thereof.
In case the taking of a property is made upon the declaration of taking provided for by § 2907 of this title and, in conformity therewith, the sum estimated by the condemning entity as just compensation for the property the object of condemnation has been deposited in court, the following rules shall govern in the cases of a desistance in whole or in part:
(a) If the judgment entered in the claim for damages for the whole or partial desistance from the taking, exceed the sum deposited, and the former owner of the property should have withdrawn the same, the condemning entity shall only pay interest on the difference between the one and the other sum, and subject to the provisions above made with regard to appeals.
(b) If the sum determined for damages for the desistance in whole or in part from the taking, is less than the sum deposited, and the former owner of the property taken should have withdrawn the sum so deposited, he shall be obliged to return to the condemning entity the excess retained above the sum determined for damages, and no interest shall accrue thereon.
For the payment in full of the sums mentioned in the preceding paragraphs and interest thereon, as above provided, the good faith of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is hereby irrevocably pledged.
The power above conferred for desisting in whole or in part, and in the manner above outlined, from the properties taken by condemnation, may be exercised upon stipulation or covenant by the persons so authorized.
History —Mar. 12, 1903, p. 50, added as § 5(d) on May 12, 1949, No. 286, p. 844, § 1.