Negroni v. Lucchetti
Negroni v. Lucchetti
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a suit brought by Pablo Negroni Lluberas as judicial administrator of the estate of Antonio Negroni and of Francisca Lluberas. Antonio Negroni and Francisca Llu-beras were husband and wife at the commencement of the acquisitions and transfer of propertj'- to which this suit relates.
While Francisca Lluberas was married she acquired a part of an estate from her mother. She was one of four heirs
Francisca Lluberas, a short time after her acquisition by inheritance of the one-fourth [Dart of her mother’s estate, purchased two one-fourth parts of the same estáte from other members of her family. She was still married to Antonio Negroni. We agree with the appellant that by reason of such marriage these acquisitions would be presumed to be ganancial and that none of the recitals in the deeds of purchase, to which the husband apparently acquiesced, would change their ganancial character. The authorities are clear that declarations made by the husband at such a time are not proof of the separate character of the property acquired,
Subsequently, however, Francisca Lluberas transferred to Francisco Antonio Negroni Lluberas in payment of the mortgage the said two one-fourth parts which the said Francisco Negroni in turn sold to Francisco Lluch Negroni. All the transfers to which we refer and to which we shall refer were recorded in the registry of property.
The husband of Francisca Lluberas appeared in the deed of transfer made by the wife to Francisco Negroni Llube-ras and gave his consent to the transfer.
In various other documents made about the same time the said husband consented to his said wife contracting in her own name to effect the mortgage on said land. It is true, as the appellant alleges, that in all these transactions it was assumed that the property was the separate property of the wife, but we think .that the husband was absolutely bound by them. Whether his act of consenting to these transfers was a ratification of the act of his wife, or whether he was estopped to set up any title by reason of his acts, the result is exactly the same. Even if the property were ganan-cial and he was consenting to its transfer in the erroneous belief that it was the separate property of the wife, it could make no difference. He was presumed to know the law. It is a very frequent practice for a married pair to
After the death of her husband the said Francisca Llu-beras sold her original one-fourth part to the said Lluch who by that means became possessed of three-fourths of the said property. He acquired the other one-fourth part from the other heir by direct purchase and transferred the whole to Mateo Lucchetti, the defendant and appellee here. If the appellant had been rig’ht in his theory that Lluch did not acquire the property of the married pair, presumed- to be ganancial, we agree with him that Mateo Lucchetti could not be considered a third person by reason of the statements made in the deeds by which Francisca Lluberas acquired her title. We are, however, inclined to think that when the husband appeared and consented to the transfer of said property by his wife, Mateo Lucchetti could be considered such third person. The question of whether Mateo Lucchetti, in this regard, was a third person or not is relatively unimportant because the title of his predecessor in interest was valid for the same class of reasons that would make Mateo, be considered a third person.
We agree, however, with the appellee that Mateo Luc-chetti, in case of any doubt as to the ganancial character of any part of the property acquired by him, had a title by ordinary prescription of ten years. All of the property in dispute was acquired by Lluch in or about the year 1885. The transfers from the wife gave the transferee a colorable or just title.
The court below laid some stress on the fact that the administrator had no right to bring an action of revindication because neither of the estates of Francisca Lluberas or Anto
The judgment must be
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.