Opinion ID: 201858
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 Víctor González-Álvarez (González) and his wife Carmen Echevarría-Vélez (Echevarría) owned a dairy farm in Arecibo, Puerto Rico licensed by the Milk Industry Regulation Office (ORIL, in Spanish) through the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture, pursuant to P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 5, § 1101, et seq. (2005). Luis Alfonso-Delgado (Alfonso) and his wife Lydia Mora-Delgado (Mora) also owned a dairy farm in Hatillo, Puerto Rico subject to the same licensing and regulatory regime. In separate incidents, González and Alfonso were convicted of adulterating the milk they sold in an attempt to increase the volume they produced. 3 After their convictions, appellants González and Alfonso lost their licenses to produce milk after ORIL administrative proceedings. They do not now contest this decision. However, ORIL also cancelled appellants' milk quotas. Under Puerto Rico's regulations of the dairy industry, dairy farmers' milk production is limited to the total quota which they have purchased from ORIL. A quota is the amount of milk quarts that the Administrator of the Milk Industry Regulation Office assigns to be produced every fourteen (14) days by cattlemen, in accordance to the market needs. Milk Industry Quota Transaction Registry, Law Number 301 of Sept. 1, 2000, Art. 1(c) (Law 301). After years of purchasing milk quotas through ORIL, by 2002 González and Echevarría had accumulated quotas authorizing them to produce up to 25,000 liters of milk every two weeks. Likewise, Alfonso and Mora had purchased milk quotas from ORIL authorizing them to produce up to 18,600 liters of milk every two weeks. Appellants contend that these quotas were their personal property and that they could not be taken from them without just compensation. 4 Appellants assert that the milk quotas are currently sold at a rate of at least $32.00 per liter. Therefore, appellants González and Echevarría estimate that they are owed not less than $800,000, which they claim to be the fair market value of their quotas. Similarly, appellants Alfonso and Mora seek compensation of not less than $595,000 for their cancelled quotas.