Nieves v. Mullenhoff
Nieves v. Mullenhoff
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Pedro J. Nieves, as assignee of the interests of Julio Maysonet Rivera, filed a complaint in the District Court of San Juan, Section 1, against William E. Mullenhoff, William Ludwig Mullenhoff and Francisco Cadilla, in which he alleged substantially that his assignor had sold to William E. Mullenhoff a property for $2,000, of which the purchaser retained $1,000 to be delivered to the vendor when the latter should have performed a certain act to which he bound himself; that when the purchaser recorded his title in the registry of property the liability for the $1,000 of the purchase price was noted in the record; that when William Ludwig Mullenhoff, the mortgagee- of- the property, recorded his
The complaint was demurred to by defendants William Ludwig Mullenhoff and Francisco M. Cadilla on the ground, among others, that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and after a hearing thereon the court.' sustained the demurrer and dismissed the complaint with costs. From that judgment Pedro J. Nieves took che present appeal and he as -well as William Ludwig Mullenhoff and Francisco M. Cadilla appeared before this court each in support of his respective claim.
The complaint does not pray for the rescission or termination of the contract of bargain and sale between William E. Mullenhoff and Julio Maysonet, the plaintiff’s assignor, for the failure of the former to pay to the latter the sum of $1,000, the balance due on the purchase price of the property, therefore the question of whether the termination of the contract would affect the rights of defendants William Ludwig Mullenhoff and Francisco M. Cadilla is not a matter for consideration. The complaint only seeks to recover the said amount from William E. Mullenhoff and it does not appear therefrom that the said amount is .secured by a mortgage duly recorded in the registry of property, but only that it is mentioned in the record.
In considering the case we observe that by the terms of the judgment appealed from it discharges all the defendants from liability for the claims set up in the complaint, inas
On this point the appellant alleges in his brief that the said -defendant is a necessary party to the suit, that he was summoned by publication and that he was not served with notice of the appeal, but nothing is said as to whether he is a necessary party to the appeal.
As we have stated before, defendant William E. Mullen-hoff is a necessary party to this appeal and should have been served with notice thereof. Failure to comply with this requirement of section 296 of the Code of Civil Procedure is ground for dismissal of the appeal in conformity with section 303 of the same code. Candelas v. Ramírez, 20 P. R. R., 31, and Martínez v. Succession of Laurido, 21 P. R. R., 29.
The appeal should be
Dismissed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.