Calenti v. Registrar of Property
Calenti v. Registrar of Property
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an appeal taken by Attorney Emilio García Cuervo on behalf of Claudio Calenti y Pórtela, as manager of the commercial firm of Sucesores de C. Fariña & Co., a special partnership, from a decision of the Registrar of Property of Caguas refusing to admit to record an instrument constituting a special' commercial partnership.
By public instrument executed in the town of Juncos, before Notary José Abelardo Cajas y Machado, on May 6, 1898, Cándido Fariña y Ruibal and Claudio Calenti y Pórtela, the only partners in a general partnership doing busines in said town under the firm name of C. Fariña & Co., declared that the-term of the duration of said partnership contract being about to expire, and it being to their interest to continue it for a longer period, they had agreed to extend it, as they did extend it, for a period of three years, to expire on May 6,1901, under the same stipulations and conditions contained in the aforementioned partnership contract, and agreeing furthermore that if upon the expiration of the term fixed for this extension, thirty days should expire without either of the partners making any opposition or requesting the dissolution of the partnership, it would be understood as extended for an
Subsequently — that is to say, by instrument executed in Caguas on June 15, 1901, before the same notary- — José Abe-lardo Caja y Machado, Cándido Calenti y Pórtela, Manuel Cobas y Fariña and Ricardo Jiménez Hernández, the first two in their own right and the last as the attorney in fact of Cándido Fariña y Ruibal, according to the power of attorney executed in his favor in the city of Vigo, Province of Galicia, in Spain, before Casimiro Velo de la Viña, a notary of the territorial association of Coruña, on May 9 of the same year, for the special purpose, of executing in the name and on behalf of the principal, the proper instrument for the establishment of a new partnership to do business in the town of Juncos, in this Island of Porto Rico, -under the firm name of Sucesores de C. Fariña & Co., of establishing in said instrument whatever conditions might be agreed on between the partners, drawing it with the legal clauses and requisites and performing all other acts which the principal himself would perform if he were personally present, to the termination of said contract, without any limitation whatsoever and the full power required by Hernández for all the purposes mentioned, was thereby conferred upon him by his principal, who of course approved all his acts, all of which appears in said power of attorney which is inserted in full in said instrument, in which the notary further certifies that it was a true copy of the copy thereof, issued by the notary who had formerly authenticated and legalized it, and which had been presented to him for the execution of said instrument, in which instrument, after the parties had set forth that the partnership contract which Claudio Calenti and Fariña had entered into on January 27, 1894, had expired, as well as the extension thereof which they had agreed upon on May 6, 1898, to engage in trade in the town of Juncos under the firm name of C. Fariña & Co., the three parties agreed in their aforementioned capacities to
By another instrument executed in this city before Thomas D. Mott, a notary public of the same, on January 24, 1905, Claudio Calenti y Pórtela, with the consent of his wife, Ana
This instrument of the dissolution and liquidation of the firm of C. Fariña & Go. was ratified by another of January 24, 1905, executed in this city before the same notary, Thomas 1). Mott, by Clemente Fariña y Sepúlveda, personally, as one of the heirs of his deceased father, Cándido Fariña y Ruibal,, approving in every respect the agreement made on his behalf by his brother Cándido, in the said instrument of dissolution and liquidation of the said firm of Successors of C. Fariña & Co., of January 24, 1905; and by a subsequent instrument of January 20, 1906, also executed in this capital, before Francisco de la Torre y Garrido, an attorney and notary of the same, Cándido Fariña y Sepúlveda and Manuel Cobas, the former in his own right and as the attorney in fact of his sister Maria of the same surnames, from whom he alleged he had a power of attorney with sufficient instruction for said-act, executed in the city of Vigo, Spain, before Notary Eva-risto Vero, and furchermpre as the tutor of his minor brothers-
The instrument by which the firm of Sucesores de C. Fa-riña & Co. was constituted on June 15, 1901, having been presented in the Registry of Property of Caguas for the record in favor thereof of the properties contributed to said firm and described in said instrument, the registrar denied the record on the ground stated in the decision placed at the end of said instrument, which reads as follows:
“The foregoing document is not admitted to record, with regard to the 10 properties comprised therein, on account of the incurable defect that the firm of 0. Farina & Co. was dissolved upon the expiration of the period fixed in the partnership agreement, prior to the date upon which the new partnership was entered into, and that Ricardo Jiménez y Hernández, as the attorney in fact of Cándido Fariña y Ruibal, does not have power to liquidate the said extinguished partnership in conjunction with the other partner, Claudio Calenti y Pórtela, and consequently, to convey the property thereof to the new partnership established under the firm name of Sucesores de C. Fariña & Co., and furthermore on account of the incurable defect with regard to the urban properties described under numbers 2 and 3 of said document, that they are not recorded in the name of the firm of C. Fariña & Co. nor of any other person; and with respect to the rural properties of 115 cuerdas, 21.125 cuerdas and 11.45 cuerdas on account of being recorded in the name of persons other than the firm of C. Fariña & Co.; and in lieu of such record a cautionary notice has been entered, effective for one hundred and twenty days, in view of another instrument and a petition, at folios 179, 234, 65, reverse .side, 165, 62, reverse side, 219, reverse side, 188, reverse side, 58 and 119 of volumes 4, 10, 10, 8, 5, 3, 3, 3, 5 and,6, of the Ayuntamiento*16 of Juncos, estates numbers 204, 477, 478, 201 duplicate, 253, 119, 158, 152, 230 and 298, records letters A. — Caguas, August 27, 1906.”
From this decision of the registrar Attorney Emilio Garcia Cuervo took an appeal to this Supreme Court on behalf of Claudio Calenti y Pórtela, as the manag'er of the firm of Su-cesores de C. Farina & Co., a special partnership, attaching to his petition the documents mentioned, seeking the reversal of said decision with reference to the incurable defect upon which the registrar bases his decision, and consequently praying that it be held:
1. That the power of attorney conferred by Cándido Farina y Euibal to Ricardo Jiménez y Hernández must be considered sufficient to execute in the name'and on behalf of the former the instruments of the constitution of the firm of Sucesores de C. Fariña & Co., with all the clauses which it contains, including the contribution thereto of the partnership assets due the former in the other firm of C. Fariña & Co.
2. That in the event such power of attorney be not considered sufficient, said instrument establishing the firm of Sucesores de C. Fariña & Co. must be understood to have been ratified and approved in every respect by the heirs of said Cándido Fariña y Ruibal, by virtue of the instruments attached, and described in the third and fourth statements of fact.
And that the decision of the registrar be finally reversed with reference to the first defect, holding that the record sought is proper as to the properties which are not subject to the other defects described in the decision, and that the record thereof be ordered.
The special power of attorney conferred by Cándido Fa-riña y Ruibal upon Ricardo Jiménez y Hernández, in Vigo, before Notary Casimiro Velo de la Viña, on May 9, 1901, oi which Ricardo made use for the execution on behalf of his principal, Cándido Fariña, of the instrument of June 15, 1901 by which, together with Claudio Calenti y Pórtela and Manuel
With regard to the ratification alleged by the appellant to have been made by the Estate of Cándido Fariña y Ruibal of said instrument, establishing the firm of Sucesores de C. Fariña & Co., of June 15, 1901, by the other instruments of dissolution and liquidation of said firm of January 24, 1905, and the subsquent instrument of March 22, of the same year and January 20, of the following year, which have been described in the findings of fact, as it has not been established in any manner that said instruments were presented to the registrar and classified by him, with the exception of the first one, that is to say, that extending the original contract of the partnership of C. Fariña & Co., which bears no relation to the
In view of the articles and sections cited of the former and new Civil Code, articles 18, 65 and 66 of the Mortgage Law of this Island, and the decisions of the Director G-eneral of Registries of Property and Notarial Offices, especially that of August 9, 1895, the decision of the Registrar of Property of Caguas appearing at the end of the instrument in question is affirmed as to the point objected to in this appeal, and it is ordered that the documents presented be returned to said registrar of property, with a certified copy of this decision for his information and the other purposes which may be proper in law.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.