O'Rourke v. Pacheco
O'Rourke v. Pacheco
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
An action of unlawful detainer was prosecuted in the District Court of Gruayama by Mike O’Rourke against Eugenio Pacheco wherein the demurrer filed by the defendant was overruled and the complaint sustained. Eugenio Pacheco was adjudged to vacate the premises involved in the suit within the period of 20 days or be forcibly ejected and, further, to pay to the plaintiff $300 for the damages claimed and the costs.
Prom this judgment an appeal was taken by the defendant and a transcript of the record filed wherein we find no allegations other than the complaint and the demurrer filed by the defendant, for which reason we shall consider only the question of whether the complaint contains the defects alleged in the demurrer. Consequently, we shall state substantially the facts alleged in the complaint which was filed on May 8 of this year.
Mike O’Rourke, the plaintiff, alleged that by a public deed of April 20 last, he bought of Carmen López Navarro and her husband the country property described which, at the time of the sale, was subject to a private contract of lease made between the vendor and the defendant Eugenio Pacheco, clause 9 of which contract stipulated that in case of sale the lessee would be preferred to any other buyer at a like price, but that if Pacheco should not have the means to
The demurrer filed by the defendant was based on the following grounds: 1. That the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action of unlawful detainer. 2. That the court had no jurisdiction over the subject matter. 3. That the complaint is ambiguous, unintelligible and uncertain. The reasons for the last two grounds given by the defendant in support of his demurrer were also stated.
There is no question that under section 1474 of the Civil
However the difficulty in this case consists in determining -whether the complaint of unlawful detainer is based on tenancy by sufferance, which is derived from the right which the law confers on the purchaser to terminate the lease in tforce at the time of his purchase, or whether it is based on the nonpayment of the rent stipulated in the lease prior to the bargain and sale.
Although the action seems to be founded on tenancy by sufferánce, yet the plaintiff in the sixth allegation of his complaint made the following statement* * notwithstanding which he continued in possession of the estate; and although the 4th of the present month, when under the terms of the lease existing at the time of the sale he should have made payment has passed, he has made to the plaintiff no payment whatever.”
This allegation is unnecessary if the complaint is based on tenancy by sufferance and, having been made, raises, a doubt as to whether the action was not instituted because the defendant had hot paid to the plaintiff the amount which he
Furthermore, in this action of unlawful detainer an action to recover $300 damages is also exercised, which is not proper in special proceedings established by law solely for the purpose of providing for the action of unlawful detainer, the only object of which is to recover possession held by any person either by sufferance or after having violated his obligations as lessee.—Puig v. Soto, March 13, 1912.
For the reasons stated the judgment appealed from should be reversed and the demurrer, on the ground that the com-' plaint is uncertain, sustained, permission being given to the plaintiff to amend the same.
Reversed and the trial court directed to allow the plaintiff to amend the complaint.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.