Sánchez v. Hartzell
Sánchez v. Hartzell
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an action to recover real property and damages. The plaintiff alleged that he was the owner in fee of a property of 100 acres of land situated in the municipal districts of Ciales and Manatí; that he had been in quiet possession of the property since August 21, 1911, the date on which he purchased the same from Cristóbal Frau, when in January, 1913, he was unlawfully and forcibly evicted at the instance of the defendants, who took possession of the property and sjtill hold it; that while the plaintiff had possession of his property he cultivated it and planted about fifteen acres with tobacco and several acres with bananas and other crops, and that he has suffered damages in the sum of $1,000. This is a synopsis of the allegations of the plaintiff.
The defendants filed a demurrer, which was finally overruled, whereupon they answered, denying the facts set up in the complaint and alleging as new matter of defense that as a result of a certain suit brought in the federal court Enrique Pousa Parés became the owner of the property in ques tion and conveyed to the defendants, his attorneys, a condominium o.f one-half of the said property; that they undertook to take possession of their estate and meeting with serious opposition, they obtained from the federal court on September
Issue being thus joined, the district court sustained the complaint as to the recovery of the property and dismissed it as to damages. Both parties have appealed to this courr.
The question of jurisdiction is not important. As held by the district court, an action of ejectment brought by a person who was not a party to the action begun and disposed of in the federal court is not subject to the jurisdiction of the said court because the eviction was effected by an order of that, court. The evicted owner properly sought relief in the court of general jurisdiction of the district in which his property is situated.
An examination of the evidence shows that there is no doubt regarding the identity of the property and the title of ownership held by the plaintiff. The plaintiff acquired the property on August 21,1911, by purchase from Cristóbal Frau and his title was recorded in the registry on September 12, 1911. Frau, in turn, had acquired the property by purchase from Ramón Castillo on March 11, 1911; Castillo by purchase from Francisco Sánchez Cines on September 3, 1910; Cines, by purchase from Ramón Castillo on July 23, 1909; Castillo by purchase from the firm of Frau & Company, and, finally, Frau & Company by purchase at public sale on February 20, 1907, as the result of an action against Enrique Pousa Pares, from whom the defendants also claim to have taken title. All of the foregoing transfers appear of record in the registry of property.
As to the fact that when the property was recorded in the name of Frau & Company a notice was entered on the registry to the effect that the sale was made without prejudice to such rights as Hartzell & Rodríguez Serra might have to one-half of the property, without specifying their rights or stating whether they referred to ownership or to any other real right, it is obvious, as held by the district court in its opinion, that this cannot be considered as constituting a legal notice. If the defendants really had any right, it is certain that they never s[ought to record it in a specific manner in the registry as required by law. It is not necessary to discuss the case of Jordán v. Gómez, 18 P. R. R. 149.
The judgment, then, should be affirmed as to the recovery of the property. We will now take up the question of profits.
The trial court holds in its opinion that the evidence on this point is deficient and confused. Nevertheless, we have examined it and while we agree that it might have been more specific, still it contains elements which permit of the fixing
Witnessj Lorenzo Casanovas testified that at the time of the eviction the plaintiff had from ten to twelve acres planted with tobacco which might be valued at $80 to $90 each; that, besides, he had some plantains, bananas and beans planted, and that .the property could produce a net profit of from $500 to $600 a year. Another witness, Eulogio Perales, testified that when the plaintiff was dispossessed he had some small crops and from nine to ten acres of tobacco planted. And the plaintiff himself testified that he actually had twelve or thirteen acres planted with tobacco worth $80 each; that six acres belonged to him while of the remainder, which was planted by his tenants, one-half belonged'to him; that the value of the small crops would be from $200 to $300, and that the property produced a net profit of from $400 to $500 annually.
This) evidence was not rebutted. By reason of the acts of the defendants the plaintiff has been deprived for years of the possession of a property which lawfully belonged to him. At the time of his eviction he had growing on the property crops which he could not harvest. Without calculating what the property could produce, but confining ourselves to the loss from the crops planted, and taking for this an amount which may necessarily be within the evidence, we are of the opinion that the least that justice demands is that the defendants reimburse the plaintiff in the sum of $500.
In view of the foregoing, the judgment appealed from should be reversed as to its pronouncement regarding profits, substituting the same by another allowing damages in the sum indicated.
Affirmed in part.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.