Succession of Suro v. Succession of Prado
Succession of Suro v. Succession of Prado
Opinion of the Court
In the month of March of the year 1913 the Succession of Jnan Suro brought an action in the District Court' of San Juan, Section 1, against the Successions of Encarnación Prado, Alonso del Eío, and Joaquina Juliá, praying that judgment be rendered decreeing the nullity per se or the non-existence of a deed acknowledging a debt and creating a mortgage executed by Encarnación Prado in favor of Joaquina Juliá on November 29, 1879, before Notary Demetrio Jiménez y Moreno, in so far as it may affect the rights of the plaintiff succession; that the decree of nullity prayed for be extended to the proceedings for the collection of said mortgage credit including the adjudication of the mortgaged property to Joa-quina Juliá, its record in the Eegistry of Property of Arecibo and the sale of the said property by Joaquina Juliá to Alonso del Eío; that the court order a division of the "community interests held in the said property by the Succession of Alonso del Eío with the plaintiff succession and delivery by the Succession of Alonso del Eío to the latter of the part belonging to it; that the defendants be adjudged to pay to the plaintiffs the sum of $200,000 as the estimated profits from its said interest in the common property, together with the costs, expenses, and disbursements, including a fee of $5,000 for the professional services rendered by the plaintiff’s attorney.
First. Jfian Suro, plaintiff’s ancestor, was married to En-carnación Prado and died intestate about the year 1870.
Second. During the wedlock of Juan Suro and Encarna-ción Prado, Gabriel and Joaquín Suro were born to them and are their sole and universal heirs. Joaquin died about the year 1911 leaving his wife, Antonia Monserrat, and his daughter, Pilar Suro Monserrat, as his instituted heirs and they, together with Gabriel Suro, are the plaintiffs herein.
Third. Encarnación Prado died about the year 1911, leaving as her heirs, in addition to the plaintiffs, her son, Alfonso Prado, known as Alfonso Suro, as known heir, and John Doe and Eichard Eoe as unknown heirs. These last two names are fictitious and the plaintiffs promise to substitute the true names therefor should they appear.
Fourth. The Succession of Alonso del Eio is composed of his widow, Hortensia de León; his minor children, Maria and Juan del Eio, represented by their mother with patria potestas; his adult children, José, Josefa Belén, and Maxi-mina del Eio León, and Margarita and Eosa del Eio y Buscal and Angel de Angel, as heirs of Carmen del Eio y León.
Fifth. Joaquina Julia having died and her heirs being unknown, they are designated by the fictitious names of John Doe and Eichard Eoe.
Sixth. Juan Suro, plaintiff’s ancestor, was the owner in fee simple, with titles recorded in the Eegistry of Property of Arecibo, of two rural properties — one in the ward of San Lorenzo, municipal district of Morovis, composed of 469 cuer-das, and another of 600 cuerdas in the ward of North Moro-vis, divided into two tracts of 500 and 100 cuerdas■ — which two properties of 469 and 600 cuerdas respectively are described in the complaint.
Seventh. At the suggestion of Alonso del Eio, on-November 29, 1879, Encarnación Prado, wife of Juan Suro y Juliá, falsely representing herself to be the executrix and guardian
Eiglith. About the year 1887 or 1888, Joaquina Juliá instituted foreclosure proceedings against Encarnación Prado, widow of Suro, for the recovery of the acknowledged credit of $25,473.84, and with the exception of certain parcels of land alleged to have been sold for the payment of taxes the mortgaged property was adjudicated to Joaquina Juliá without summoning the heirs of Juan Suro Juliá or giving them an opportunity to be heard.
■Ninth. Alonso del Rio, who had been delegated by Joa-quina Juliá to prosecute the foreclosure proceedings, took possession in her name of the two properties which had been adjudicated to her.
Eleventh. The partition of the'property belonging to the •conjugal partnership of Jnan Suro and Encarnación Prado was made in the very same year, 1879, when the mortgage was created, as was clearly shown in the registry of property, and Alonso del Rio knew it, bnt, nevertheless, he prevailed upon Encarnación Prado by deceitful advice and machinations to execute the acknowledgment of the mortgage credit in favor of Joaquina Julia with the intention of purchasing later the same properties for $6,000, which represented less than one-fourth of their value, by resorting to fraud and artifice and violating a contract. Moreover, the acknowledged credit was not owing to Joaquina Julia, for the acknowl- ' edgment was made for the sole purpose of protecting Encar-nación Prado against the action of certain creditors whose rights had been acknowledged by a contract.
Twelfth. The plaintiffs have not sold to Alonso del Rio, to his succession, or to any person whatsoever, the interest belonging to them in the said properties which they inherited from Juan Suro..
Thirteenth. The estimated profits from half of the said properties during the 25 years which they have been unlawfully in the possession of Alonso del Río and his succession may fairly be stated at $200,000, of which sum the plaintiffs have been deprived.
Fourteenth. The steps taken by the plaintiffs to secure from Alonso del Rio and his succession a partition of the community property in question as ganancial property of the conjugal partnership of Juan Suro and Encarnación Prado, half of which belongs to the plaintiffs by inheritance from their father, Juan Suro, have been fruitless.
The complaint concludes with the prayer that judgment be rendered containing the pronouncements already indicated.
(a) That it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action;
(b) That it is uncertain;
(c) Misjoinder of causes of action;
(d) Prescription of the principal cause of action for nullity of the mortgage credit under the provisions of sections 1301 and 1963 of the Spanish Civil Code, which are identical to sections 1268 and 1864 of the Revised Civil Code, and consequently the prescription of the cause of action to annul the foreclosure proceedings.
' After argument on the said demurrer the court rendered judgment on August 1, 1913, dismissing the complaint with the costs against the plaintiffs on the ground that the cause of action to annul, the acknowledgment of the mortgage credit, and consequently all causes of action derived therefrom, had prescribed, without considering the other grounds of the demurrer. Prom that judgment the attorney for the plaintiffs appealed to this court.
As will be seen from an examination of the allegations and the prayer of the complaint, several causes of action are joined by the plaintiffs, namely: 1. The annulment of the public deed of acknowledgment of debt and mortgage executed by Encarnación Prado in favor of Joaquina Juliá on November 29, 1879; 2. The annulment of the foreclosure proceedings for the recovery of said mortgage credit, including the adjudication to Joaquina Juliá of the mortgaged property and the sale thereof by said Joaquina to Alonso del Río; 3. The partition of the interests held in the said community property by the.Succession of Alonso del Río and the plaintiff succession and the delivery to the latter of the part belonging to it; 4. The payment by the defendants to the plaintiffs of an indemnity for the estimated mesne profits from the part belonging to them.
We will consider, then, the ground of prescription of the demurrer pleaded exclusively in connection with the first two causes of action.
Prescription is alleged under sections 1301 and 1963 of the Spanish Civil Code, which are similar to sections 1268 and 1864 of the Revised Civil Code.
Section 1268 of the Revised Civil Code reads as follows:
“The action for nullity shall last four years.
“This term shall commence to run:
“In cases of intimidation or violence, from the day on which it has ceased;
“In those of error or deceit or falsity of consideration, from the date of the consummation of the contract;
“"When the purpose of the action is to invalidate contracts made by a married woman, without consent or competent authority, from the date of the dissolution of the marriage;
“And when it refers to contracts executed by minors or incapacitated persons, from the date they were released from guardianship.”
According to section 1267, the duration of the- action of nullity referred to in the section.quoted applies only to contracts having the requisites mentioned in section 1228 whenever they contain any of the defects which invalidate them according to law, which requisites are' the consent of the contracting parties, a definite object which is the subject-matter of the contract, and a valuable consideration stated.
The fact that section’ 1268 of the Civil Code fixes the date on which the period of four years shall begin to run when consent is obtained by violence, intimidation, error, deceit, or falsity of consideration, and when the contract is made by a married woman without consent or competent authority or by minors or incapacitated persons, and fails to fix such date for a case of nullity like the present, clearly demonstrates that the term of four years provided in the said section is not applicable to the present action to annul a deed of acknowledgment of a mortgage credit. Hence the said section does not govern the action for nullity of the deed of acknowledgment of a mortgage credit made by Encarnación Prado in favor of Joaquina Suro, and therefore the lower court erred'in applying the same.
Nor does the said section govern the action to annul the foreclosure, proceedings to recover the said mortgage credit based on the fact that the minor children of Juan Suro were not heard in such proceedings.
The action referred to in section 1477 of the old Law of Civil Procedure was reserved to those who had been parties to the executory action, but as the plaintiffs allege that they were not summoned to appear in the proceedings instituted for the recovery of the mortgage credit acknowledged by En-carnación Prado, which is one of the grounds on which they base their action for the nullity of said proceedings, it follows that whatever may be the legal period for the prescription of that action, it cannot be the four years provided for by section 1268 of the Civil Code, as is shown by its text and borne out by the reasonings adduced to show the inapplicability of that same section- to the action for the annulment of the deed of acknowledgment executed by Encarnación Prado in favor of Joaquina Julia on November 29, 1879.
Section 1864, which has been cited also by the defendants in support of their demurrer on the ground of prescription, reads as follows:
“Real actions with regard to real property prescribe after thirty years. *
“This provision is understood without prejudice to the prescriptions relating to the acquisition of ownership or of property rights by prescription. ’ ’
Judging from the facts alleged in the complaint that the object of the plaintiffs is to recover an ownership interest in the two properties in controversy by means of an action
Nor is the second paragraph of section 1864 applicable on the ground that the defendants acquired the exclusive ownership of the property in question by prescription. It is alleged that the possession was acquired by fraud or bad faith, and when the requisite of good faith is lacking, the period of prescription by which ownership may be acquired is not the ordinary one of 10 or 20 years, but the extraordinary period of 30 years, and this, as we have shown, has not elapsed. Therefore, the legal provisoins on which the defendants base the alleged prescription are inapplicable to the case.
As the other grounds of demurrer were not considered and ruled on by the lower court, we prefer that they be so considered and decided by it before they are submitted to us for examination and decision.
The judgment appealed from should be reversed and the case proceeded with in accordance with this opinion.
Judgment reversed and the case remanded for further procedure in accordance with this opinion.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.