Villanueva v. Registrar of Property
Villanueva v. Registrar of Property
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
By a public deed executed in the town of Ciales on July 27, 1904, before Notary Francisco Prado Morales and witnessed by Salvador Ledesma and Ramón Montrjo, a property
■ When this instrument was presented in the Registry of Property of Arecibo for admission to record the registrar refused to record it, and stated his reasons therefor in a note, which, copied literally, reads as follows:
“Admission of this instrument to record is denied for the reasons that it appears that at their request Pedro Hernández signed it for the parties, José Villanueva Bonilla and Petronila Otero Miranda, because neither of them knew how to write. This fact renders the instrument void, because it should have been signed for them by one of the witnesses, who, after signing for himself as such witness, should have signed for these parties at their request inasmuch as they were unable to do so, as provided in article 27 of the Mortgage Law which agrets with article 53 of the Regulations for its enforcement, both of which were in force at the time the instrument was executed; and owing to this incurable defect a cautionary notice effective for 120 days is entered, in compliance with section 7 of the Act of March 1, 1902, page 129 of volume 18 of Ciales, property No. 1004, entry letter B. Arecibo, June 7, 1912. A Malaret, Substitute Registrar.”
Said refusal of the registrar is submitted to our consideration by means of an administrative appeal taken therefrom .by José Villanueva y Bonilla and Petronila Otero.
The question involved in this case has already been decided in our opinion rendered in the case of Rodríguez v. The Registrar of Property of Ponce, 14 P. R. R., 715.
In the case of Rodríguez v. The Registrar of Property of Ponce we held that as section 14 of the Notarial Law, ap
It is true that said document was executed on January 30, 1908, when the Notarial Law of March 8, 1906, was already in force, while the instrument in question in this case was executed on July 27, 1904, and therefore must be governed by the provisions of the Notarial Law and the Regulations for its enforcement of October 29, 1873, which was then in force. But section 14 of the Notarial Law of March 8, 1906, is a reproduction of the provisions contained in section 53 of the Regulations of October 29, 1873. The doctrine laid down in the case cited above is applicable to the present case and need not he modified since there is no reason therefor.
For the reasons stated the decision appealed from should be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.