A. Alvarez & Bros. v. District Court of San Juan
A. Alvarez & Bros. v. District Court of San Juan
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The record of action No. 241 brought in the District Court of San Juan by A. Alvarez & Brothers against Isidoro Mitchel for recovery of money and performance of contract was brought up to this court by virtue of a writ of certiorari issued at the request of A. Alvarez & Brothers and shows that on June 5, 1924, a judgment was rendered “ordering the
The petitioners contend that the district court’s judgment is erroneous because payment of the costs claimed by them was agreed to by contract, for which reason they were not bound to follow the procedure prescribed by law for cases wherein the payment of costs arises exclusively from the judgment.
Section 339 of the Code of Civil Procedure as amended in 1908 reads that “Costs shall be claimed by the party to whom the same have been allowed, by filing with the clerk of the court, within ten days after the final judgment or decision, a memorandum of his costs and necessary disbursements in the action and of the amount of the fees of his attorney. Said memorandum must be verified by the oath of the party or his attorney. . .”
The section then prescribes the procedure that must be followed for hearing the other party and finally ruling, and provides that an appeal may be taken from the ruling of the court. Nothing therein reveals that it is not a procedure applicable to all the cases in which the amount of the costs should be taxed after a judgment has been rendered, and in fact, as the trial judge says in his opinion, it is being applied to all eases in Porto Rico.
The fact that the payment of costs and attorney’s fees was previously agreed upon bji the parties in the contract does not mean that the question should not be submitted to the decision of the court. In conformity with the contract ihe costs and fees were claimed in the complaint in general terms, and as the violation of the contract was shown at the trial, one of the pronouncements of the judgment was that
The procedure to be followed was prescribed by law and if the plaintiffs did not avail themselves of it they have nothing to complain of, for the opportunity was full and complete.
The decisions of this court cited by the petitioners do not decide this case definitely. It is established therein that when the payment of costs and fees is previously agreed upon by the parties the court must recognize the agreement, but that d_oes not mean that the fixing of the amount when it is not ■determined by the judgment should not be made according to the procedure prescribed by law.
Outside of the decisions of this court the petitioners cite no jurisprudence. This matter of costs is very extensive. ■Corpus Juris, for instance, devotes more than three hundred pages to the subject in volume 15, where thousands of cases ure cited. We quote therefrom the following:
“One entitled to costs may waive bis right thereto, and the waiver may be either express or implied.
“The right to costs may be waived by failure to file application for costs within the time required by statute.” 15 C.J. 106.
In the absence of pertinent citations in support of the contention of the petitioners we believe that the opinion of the trial court should be sustained.
The writ is discharged and the case remanded to- the court below.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.