2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE FIVE - Agriculture (§§ 1 — 4706) › Chapter 36 - Cooperative Development Company (§§ 981 — 981y) › § 981h - Lands and property

(a) The Company may acquire, by condemnation, the lands and any other properties and property rights necessary for the carrying out of the purposes for which it was created.
(b) When, in the judgment of the Company, it is necessary to take immediate possession of the property to be condemned, the Company shall request the Governor of Puerto Rico to acquire same in behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Governor shall have power to acquire, by any lawful means, for the use and benefit of the Company, such property and property rights as may be necessary and desirable for the carrying out of its aims and purposes.
(c) The Company shall place beforehand at the disposal of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico the necessary funds estimated as the value of the properties or rights to be condemned. The difference in value that the court may determine shall be paid by the Company, or, in lieu thereof, from the Public Treasury. In the latter case, the Company shall be under obligation to refund that difference as soon as its financial condition will permit.
(d) Once such refund is fully made, title to the property so acquired shall be conveyed to the Company by order of the court, with due record thereof.
(e) In those cases in which the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall deem it necessary and desirable that the title to the properties and/or rights so acquired be recorded directly in favor of the Company to step up the fulfillment of the aims and purposes for which it was created, he may so request from the court at any time within the eminent domain proceeding, and the court shall so order.
(f) All real and personal property and any right or interest therein that the Company may deem necessary to acquire for the carrying out of its purposes, are hereby declared of public utility, and may, at its request, be condemned by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, represented by its Governor, without the previous declaration of public utility provided in the General Law of Eminent Domain, §§ 2901—2913 of Title 32.
(g) Once the petition for acquisitions is filed, the court shall have power to fix the term within which the conditions under which the persons in possession of the properties object of the proceeding must make physical delivery thereof to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or to the Company. No appeal or bond furnished therefor shall delay the acquisition of the properties by and the delivery thereof to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or to the Company, as the case may be.
(h) The Company is hereby empowered to sell, convey, exchange, or lease the properties so acquired, or any part thereof, to legally organized cooperative societies.
(i) The Company shall have power to receive funds from cooperative societies as advance payments on account of contracts on alienation of property to be executed later. The Company may place the funds so received at the disposal of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as and for the purposes provided in subsection (b) of this section.
(j) Condemnation proceedings initiated under the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) of this section shall be prosecuted pursuant to the provisions of the General Law of Eminent Domain, §§ 2901—2913 of Title 32, and to such effects the Company shall enjoy all the rights and shall assume all the obligations provided by said law for any expropriating authority.
(k) Those natural or juridical persons against whom or against which eminent domain proceedings have been brought by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico under the provisions of this chapter, and in lieu thereof their legal heirs, shall have a preferent right to reacquire ownership of and title to the properties condemned from them and the remainder thereof when the Company or the cooperative association in favor of which the Company has conveyed condemned property may resolve to alienate wholly or partially the said condemned property. Excepted from the preceding provision are those cases in which other cooperative associations, or in lieu thereof, any department, agency or instrumentality of the Government of Puerto Rico, including municipalities and the Government of the Capital, may be interested in acquiring for a public purpose, said condemned property or such part thereof as it has been resolved to alienate.
(l) The persons in whose behalf is established the above preference for reacquiring the condemned property of any specific part thereof, in case of alienation, shall be required to pay a price not lower than the market value of the property at the time it is sold by the Company. The same rule shall apply to any improvements made thereon. The market value at the time of the transaction shall be determined through appraisal by the Department of the Treasury.
(m) In order to render effective the preference established in subsections (k), (l), (n) and (o), the latter insofar as applicable, of this section, there shall be stated in the contract entered into between the Company and the respective cooperative association for the conveyance of a condemned property, the express obligation that the cooperative association receives the condemned property subject to the conditions imposed in the said subsections (g), (h), (k) and (l), the latter insofar as applicable, of this section, and that it, further, binds itself to comply therewith. These conditions shall expressly appear in the entry of the registration made in the Property Registry under the said contract between the Company and the cooperative association concerned.
(n) In order to render said preference effective, the alienating entity shall serve notice of its intent to alienate on the person from whom the property was condemned, by registered mail with return receipt requested if his address is known, and if not, or if the notice is returned by the post office undelivered, through an edict to that effect published in a newspaper of general circulation in Puerto Rico.
The preferent right herein established shall lapse if within the term of ninety days reckoned from the mailing of said notice, or the publication of the edict, as the case may be, the person from whom the property was condemned does not bind himself to acquire same and: (1) secures his obligations by simultaneously depositing with the alienating entity 5 percent of the price he shall pay for said property, in cash or by certified or manager’s check; (2) guarantees payment of said price by simultaneously furnishing a mortgage bond or an undertaking by an authorized surety company. The said preferent right shall also lapse and the said bond shall be forfeited if the acquirer does not formalize the alienation within one hundred and eighty (180) days after having been required to do so by the alienating entity.
(o) In case the condemned property belonged to various co-owners, the preference shall be accorded to all of them jointly, in the same proportion of their co-ownerships on the date of the condemnation. In the case that any such co-owner does not wish to or cannot make use of said preference, all or any of the rest may do so for the whole of the property to be alienated.
(p) The preferences for reacquisition established in the preceding subsections shall not apply in the cases where housing or lot cooperatives convey to their members condemned property or part thereof, in order to carry out the aims and purposes for which the said cooperatives have been created.
—June 21, 1966, No. 90, p. 288, § 9.
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