Ferreira v. López
Ferreira v. López
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Pedro Pagan sued Cervoni Diaz in the Municipal Court of Guayama for $260.82. To secure his judgment he obtained an attachment against the alleged property of the debtor. Angel Ferreira claimed that some of the property so attached belonged to him and intervened in the suit, valuing
The municipal court dismissed the memorandum of costs, saying that the court was incompetent to render judgment on the memorandum. This order of the municipal court was appealed to the District Court of Guayama. When the case was heard in the district court the petitioner opposed the award of fees on the additional ground that the claim for fees was not presented within ten days from the rendition of judgment of the district court as the law requires. The District Court of Guayama filed a lengthy decision or order in which it held that it had jurisdiction to hear the' case, and set another day for the discussion of whether the attorney’s fees were excessive.
One point is immediately obvious, and that is that the-Municipal Court of Guayama had no jurisdiction to tax fees on a judgment rendered by the District Court of Guayama. It was, however, by virtue of the order refusing to entertain jurisdiction of the memorandum of costs that the matter of such memorandum was presented to the District Court.
We shall not, although we have some doubts, discuss with the district court the question of whether such a court may now render judgment for fees in any case, no matter what the amount involved, the court in part basing its conclusion on section 327 of the Code of Civil Procedure as amended by Law No. 38 of April 12, 1917. It may he true that in a case properly before it the court may render judgment in appeals from municipal courts and impose fees against the losing party. We think that the petitioner is right in maintaining that the complainant should have filed his memorandum of costs within ten days after the judgment rendered by the District Court of Guayama as required by the law. It is not necessary to decide this question absolutely, because, as we have said, the municipal court wás without jurisdiction to pass on the memorandum of costs and the District Court of Guayama acquired no jurisdiction by the appeal.
The orders of September 27, 1920, entertaining jurisdiction of the case and the order of October 8, 1920, fixing the memorandum of costs at $82 must be annulled and the case 'sent back to the District Court of Guayama with instructions to dismiss the appeal.'
Orders set aside and case remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.