Successors of Abarca v. Nones
Successors of Abarca v. Nones
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Successors of Abarca brougiit an action in the Second District Court of San Juan against Adolfo Nones and Luis L'orenzi to recover on a promissory note signed by the former and endorsed by the latter.
In the promissory note copied into the complaint Nones acknowledged that he owed to Successors of Abarca the sum of. $3,747.37, the total of three different items which he promised to pay on different dates with interest at the rate of 12 per cent annally after maturity and also the costs, expenses and attorney fees in case of suit, and the following was also stated in the note: “I expressly submit to the jurisdiction of the insular courts of San Juan, P. ft.” The other defendant
Both defendants, by an attorney, filed motions in due time and proper form in the court in which the action was brought for a change of venue to the District Court of Ponce on the ground that that was where they resided and the action was a personal one, and on February 6, 1922, the Second District Court of San Juan made the following order: “Only the attorney for the plaintiffs, Henry Gr. Molina, appears and after argument by him the court holds that the plaintiffs have abandoned their action as against defendant Luis Lo-renzi, the action to be prosecuted against the other defendant, Adolfo Nones. The motion of the defendants for a change of venue is overruled as to the said Adolfo Nones and the plaintiffs are allowed five days within which to amend the complaint. ’ ’
The attorney for the defendants having been notified of that order and of the amended complaint, which did not contain the allegations of the original complaint referring to-Luis Lorenzi who was excluded as a defendant, the defendants appealed from the said order and Adolfo Nones filed a demurrer to the amended complaint.
While that appeal was pending in this court the appellees moved for its dismissal on the, ground that Nones had answered the amended complaint, as shown by an exhibited certificate issued by the clerk of the lower court, and the appellees contend that by answering as well as by demurring to the amended complaint, he submitted to the jurisdiction of the lower court and waived any right that he may have had to a change of venue. This motion and the appeal were heard together and both questions have been submitted to this court.
Inasmuch as section 298 of the Code of Civil Procedure
As regards the appeal, the defendants allege the following as the only ground on which it is based: ‘ ‘ The court erred in permitting the complaint to be amended for the purpose of defeating the change of venue, and in overruling the motion for a change of venue.” The assignment of error includes in jact two propositions: First, that the trial court could not allow the amendment to the complaint; second, that it should have sustained the motion for a change of venue.
A motion for a chango of venue presents to the court the question that it has no jurisdiction of the action because another court has such jurisdiction, and for this reason the court in which such a motion is made is without power to decide any other question until the motion for a change has been ruled on, for if the defendants have a right to a change of venue, it is also their right that any motion or proceeding in the action shall be ruled upon by the court of their residence; therefore the order appealed from was erroneous in holding that the plaintiffs had abandoned their action against Luis Lorenzi -without having first ruled on the motion of the defendants for a change of venue. In the case of
The order of the lower court being erroneous in so far as it held that the plaintiffs had withdrawn the action against one of the defendants while the motion for a change of venue made by the defendants was pending, in order to dispose of the appeal taken by them we should consider the action as if the court had not ruled on the motion withdrawing the action against Lorenzi.
In this case both defendants moved for a change of venue and although Adolfo Nones is not entitled to it because he voluntarily submitted to the lower court, according to the terms of the promissory note signed by him (Gómez v. Toro, 23 P. R. R. 596, and Korber & Co. Inc., v. Colón et al., ante, page 718), Luis Lorenzi has a, clear right that the action be tried at the place of his residence, for in saying in the obligation contracted by him that he guaranteed the payment of the note “under the conditions therein set forth” he
For the foregoing reasons the appeal will not be dismissed and the order appealed from is reversed and it is ordered that the case be transferred to the District Court of Ponce.
Reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.