Ex parte Suárez
Ex parte Suárez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This proceeding was begun by a petition presented to the Judge of the District Court of San Juan, Section 1, by the Attorney General of Porto Rico and the Fiscal at Large for the Island in the names of Dario Suárez and Juan Gutiérrez, who, according to the record, were at that time police detectives in the employ of the Insular Government and were imprisoned in the custody of the keeper of the municipal jail <of San Juan under a sentence imposed by the municipal judge
The writ was issued and the proceeding decided favorably to the petition of the Attorney General and the Fiscal at Large, the court ordering the discharge of the prisoners. Notwithstanding this, the assistant fiscal for the district of San Juan, who does not appear from the transcript of the record to have taken any part or to have represented any one in the case and who does not state in whose name he takes this appeal, filed the following notice of appeal:
“In The District Court for The Judicial District Oe San Juan, Section 1.
“Ex parte Darío Suárez Nos. 2 and 3. and Juan Gutiérrez. J Habeas corpus.
“To the Secretary of the District Court of San Juan, Section 1.
“Now comes the Assistant Fiscal for the District of San Juan and says:
“That desiring that the decision rendered on January 17. 1914, by the Judge of the District Court of San Juan, Section 1, in the above-entitled case be reviewed by the Supreme Court, he appeals from the said decision to the said! Supreme Court.
“San Juan, January 21, 1914.
(Signed) “J. Sierb,
“Assistant Fiscal for the District.
“Copy served this 21st day of January, 1914.
(Signed) “W. H. Pitkin,
“Attorney General of Porto Rico.
“Salvador Mestre,
“Fiscal at Large for Porto Rico.”
In support of the appeal the fiscal of the Supreme Court filed a brief in which, after setting out the facts, he alleges
A decision by a district court in habeas corpus proceedings may he appealed from to this court by any aggrieved party and as the aggrieved party in the present case is the keeper of the municipal jail of San Juan, in that he was deprived of the custody of the petitioners, he had the 'right of appeal but has not availed himself of it, for from the terms in which the notice of appeal is drawn up we cannot conclude that the assistant fiscal of San Juan brought the appeal in his name.
It is true that when a person imprisoned under a criminal charge is released by an order of court or on bail The People of Porto Eico may appeal through the district fiscal, the fiscal of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, or a duly authorized attorney; therefore we may assume that in the present case the assistant fiscal for the district of San Juan took the appeal in the name of The People of Porto Eico. However, as a matter of fact, we are confronted with the situation that the highest judicial representative of The People of Porto Eico undertook the defense of the petitioners in order to secure their discharge in the belief that they were imprisoned unlawfully and we cannot understand how a fiscal, who is a subordinate of the Attorney General and also a representative of The People, can appeal in the name of The People and ask for a reversal of the decision, which was rendered at the instance of the representative of The People. This is
Por the foregoing reasons we are of the opinion that, we have not before us an appeal so brought as to merit our decision and that it should be dismissed, notwithstanding the admission of an amicus curiae who in that capacity is not an appellant.
Dismissed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.