Martínez y Pecunia v. Registrar of Property of Mayagüez
Martínez y Pecunia v. Registrar of Property of Mayagüez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The six joint owners of a rural property executed a public deed to dissolve the community with one of them and to
Act No. 32 of November 30,1917, amending an Act assigning salaries to the registrars of property,’ provides in No. 5 of the schedule of fees that for each record or entry and corresponding marginal notes not embraced in the preceding numbers there shall be charged the fixed amount established therein, it appearing that for long records or entries $2 shall be collected for each property or right of a value between $100 and $200. It is said at the end of this schedule that when the value of the property or right does not exceed $1,000 and was acquired by several persons pro indiviso the recording fee shall not be collected from each person, but on the total sum of the value of the interests and in such proportion as may correspond to each person.
According to that schedule each joint owner must pay in proportion to the value of his joint interest, unless the total value of the property to be recorded pro indiviso does not
It is true that the value of the original property is $1,610 and undoubtedly it was in accordance with that value that the fees under the schedule were collected when the property was recorded in favor of the six joint owners; but now it is not sought to record that property but a portion of it as a new property in favor of the five appellants, wherefore the total value of the portion sought to be recorded is what must be taken into account for collecting the fees, and as that value is $690, the recording fees can not be collected from each joint owner, but on the total value of the property or right sought to be recorded. The opinion of the Attorney G-enerai. relied on by the registrar (Opinions of the Attorney General of Porto Eico, Yol. IX of 1920, p. 83) is not applicable to this case, because that case referred to the sale of a property valued at $1,100 to four persons as joint owners.
The decision appealed from must be reversed and the registrar should proceed in accordance with this opinion.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.