Díaz Caneja v. Del Valle
Díaz Caneja v. Del Valle
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The judgment in this case as pronounced on the 18th of February, 1907, and an appeal noted on the 11th of March of the same year. Consequently the case in this respect must follow the decision and opinion of this court in the case of Sucesores de Olivas & Co. v. J. Matienzo & Co., which was fully considered by this court again, on a motion for reconsideration recently decided, and there are a number of cases in this court to the same effect. Therefore we cannot inquire into the proof presented at the trial. It only remains for us to esamine the complaint to see if a cause of action was stated
This complaint is rather vague and confused. It does •not clearly set out the nature of the chaplaincy or show in direct words what the intention of the founder was. We are unable to classify with certainty the chaplaincy of which reference is made. We do not know whether a royal license was granted or not. The answer and the brief of the appellants set up that they were relieved by the death of Father Delgado from any further obligation to pay as the chaplaincy only ran for the life of said father.
However the complaint in its fourth paragraph does set up that the chaplaincy to which Father Delgado was named 'was the same that had been previously occupied by the presbyter Don Angel de la Concepción. In this somewhat indi
The appellant urges in his brief that the complainant has no right to demand that the respondent should redeem the censo, and he cites in support of his contention section 1511 of the Bevised Statutes and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Spain of the 11th of November, 1864. This court has had occasion to consider this question in the case of El Convento de las R. R. M. M. Carmelitas, represented by Don Manuel Díaz Caneja v. Julián Silva, where the court set forth that the parties may make any contract which they please, which is not contrary to laws, morals or public policy. In the case at bar, the parties agreed that the censo might be redeemed if the installments were not paid for three years, and it makes no difference what reasons the appellants had for not making the payments.
The eminent comentator José María Manresa y Navarro in his commentaries on the Spanish Civil Code concerning section 1255 of that Code which is 1222 of the revised one says the following:
“The most important but at the same time the most exact and clear of the restrictions is the one relating to the conflict between the thing or things agreed upon and the law. Upon this point one distinction gives us a sure guide. Most of the legal provisions with respect to contracts are supplementary rules expressing the natural effects of every agreement and make a kind of a model which may be waived with respect to certain parts thereby affected, substituting others for them or suppressing them; they are, in short, the useful suggestions which forestall the consideration of all the consequences, of all extended making of rules for each and every'obligation which a contract may cause. But as such models or guides do not constitute binding rules (a character obtaining to most of the provisions about contracts), it is allowable to vary them. Therefore the laws to which this section refers are those which either declare of themselves their binding nature or are shown to be prohibitory or are, without such requisites, express fundamental principles of justice which the contracting parties cannot ignore, or again, they determine essential requirements without which the contract may not exist. ’ ’
■ The essential elements of the censos are contained in sections 1507, 1508, 1509 and 1510 of the Revised Civil Code and section 1511 makes a rule not affecting the essence of the contract, but only some of its effects, which rule the parties may waive if they so contract because that section is not included in any of the cases mentioned by the commentator. And it is evident in the present 'case that no practical purpose is subserved by a discussion of article 1511 of the Revised Civil Code for we cannot look into the proof; and looking at the facts of the complaint which is a little vague and confused and may be treating of the principal of a chaplaincy of a censo or of a mortgage debt, so that in whatever way it is regarded the complaint shows an obligation to pay, the nature of which was to be inquired into by the court below taking into consideration the proof given at the trial.
We cannot examine the other points touched upon in the briefs of the parties, because they presuppose the necessity of an examination of the proof which we cannot make by reason of the time at which the appeal was taken.
Whatever defects of intelligibility the complaint contained, there is enough in the appellee’s pleading to give the defendant notice of the character of the claim. There was no demurrer or objection taken to the complaint and under these
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.