Cristían v. Escobar
Cristían v. Escobar
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The complaint concludes with the prayer that judgment be rendered in favor of the plaintiffs annulling the posses-sory title proceedings and the acts and contracts done and entered into thereafter, as set out in the said deeds and instruments, in so far as they affect one-half of the said property, ordering the cancellation in the registry of all the records based on the said instruments and decreeing that without limitation the defendants deliver to the plaintiffs an undivided moiety of the property, together with the mesne profits of the same, and also pay the expenses and costs of the action including $2,000 as fees of the attorney for the plaintiffs.
Defendant Juan Escobar demurred to the complaint on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause qf action, and later filed an answer praying that it be dismissed and that the plaintiffs be adjudged without right to recover from said defendant the possession and ownership of the moiety of the property in litig;ation, alleging, among other grounds of defense, that in case any cause of action had existed in their favor, it had prescribed according to section 1864 of the Civil Code.
The case went to trial without summoning defendants Eduardo Jacobo González and Ramón Aboy Benitez, and the court rendered judgment on June 13, 1913, dismissing the
This is principally an action of ejectment with a supplementary claim for damages for the detention of an undivided moiety of the rural property sought to be recovered, as is acknowledged by defendant Juan Escobar Casado in demurring to the complaint on the ground that the action of ejectment, which is governed by section 1864 of the Civil Code, had prescribed.
The basis of the action of the plaintiffs is that as Pedro Casado and Maria Correa, his wife, were the owners of the property in question, upon their death the ownership thereof passed to their daughters Agustina and Isabel Casado y Correa, and by the death of Isabel the undivided moiety belonging to her descended to her sole and universal heirs, Julia, Félix Valois and Juan Ramón Cristian Casado, and, therefore, they base their rights solely -on the title of inheritance of their deceased mother, Isabel Casado, who jointly inherited with her sister Agustina from their deceased parents, Pedro Casado and Maria Correa. That hereditary title is not sufficient of itself in the present case upon which to recover the property claimed.
In deciding the case of Velilla v. Pizá et al., 17 P. R. R. 1069, we said:
“It is true that articles 657 and 661 of the former Civil Code, .which agree with sections 665 and 669 of the Revised Civil Code, provide that ‘The rights to the succession of a person are transmitted from the moment of his death’ and that ‘Heirs succeed the deceased in all his rights and obligations by the mere fact of his death/ and in accordance with said sections the heir or heirs, if there are more than one, acquire altogether the rights of their predecessor.
“Heirship conveys a joint right to the aggregate heritage, and by virtue thereof, upon the death of their predecessor, all the heirs 'become owners in common. But until proceedings for partition and adjudication, are terminated, and until by virtue thereof this community of ownership does not cease, no one of the heirs may be considered to be the sole and exclusive owner of any particular portion*261 or fixed and specific aliquot part of the property of the heritage, which character it is necessary to prove before an action of ejectment may prosper.
“The aforesaid sections confer a right to each and all of the properties of the heritage but not a specific right to certain properties, which can only be acquired by an adjudication lawfully made in partition proceedings.
“According to the foregoing, upon the death of the ancestor his heirs are the owners of the whole undetermined estate which is to be determined and specified by means of the partition and adjudication of the heritage, which partition and adjudication, according to section 1035 of the Revised Civil Code (1068 of the former), is what confers on each heir the exclusive ownership of the property which may have been adjudicated to him.”
That doctrine must govern in the present case, which is similar to that of Velilla v. Pizá et al. The facts alleged in the complaint show no title of ownership in the plaintiffs to the undivided moiety of the property in question, because the said undivided part was not allotted to their deceased mother, Isabel Casado y Correa, in the proper proceeding for that purpose. In the absence of such allotment the character of heirs of Isabel Casado alone does not give them the right to own and use the half of thé property which belonged to Pedro Casado and Maria Correa.
The complaint is demurred to on the ground that it does not state facts sufficient to support the action of ejectment, and that being so, it is not necessary to enter upon an examination of the plea of prescription on which the judgment appealed from is also based.
Respecting the annulments prayed for in the complaint, as they are not the cause but the effect of the principal action of ejectment, and as the action does not lie, it would be superfluous to consider them. Judgments of the Supreme Court of Spain of October 16, 1873; January 17, 1889; April 6, 1889, and February 13, 1882, and decisions of this court in
In deciding the present case we may well repeat what we said in the case of Trinidad et al. v. Succession of Trinidad et al., 19 P. R. R. 616:
“Perhaps the plaintiffs have not received the property to which they are justly and lawfully entitled, but if this be so, the proceedings chosen by them are not proper to secure a recognition of their rights. ’5
See also the case of Vega et al. v. Rodríguez et al., 21 P. R. R. 318.
For the foregoing reasons the judgment appealed from should be affirmed, without prejudice to the right which the plaintiffs may have to recover the interest claimed in the estate of their grandparents, Pedro Casado and Maria Co-rrea.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.