Ortiz López v. Insular Racing Commission
Ortiz López v. Insular Racing Commission
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the conrt.
A race-track jury canceled one of a series of seven races and suspended payment of the pool. Within forty-eight hours the racing comission affirmed the decision. The district conrt, after hearing the parties, refused to issue a writ of certiorari.
Petitioner alleges in substance that she had picked the
The first paragraph of section 19 of the Racing Act, Laws of 1927, 206, which is one of several sections grouped under the sub-head “Race-Track Jury,” provides that “corporations or persons speculating in the race-track business, as well as horse owners, jockeys, stablemen, trainers, or others concerned, shall be subject to” the decision of such jury. Petitioner, if not a person speculating in the race-track business, was at least one of the “others concerned.”
Another feature of the petition is the averment that the commission acted without just cause and without any showing of grave irregularities, deficiencies and mismanagement of a serious nature, and that fraud was not proven. The language used follows in part that of a proviso attached to section 19, supra, to the effect that “when in the opinion of the jury there have been during any race grave irregularities, deficiencies or mismanagement of a serious nature, showing prima facie that the race has been conducted and carried out in an illegal and malicious manner, it may suspend its effects as regards the payment at the pools and harneas, but immediately reporting to the Insular Racing Commission its decision and the grounds therefor, and said Insular Racing Commission, within a term of not to exceed forty-eight hours from and after the race, and after a public hearing of the interested
If the commission were authorized to render its decision only upon a showing of just cause in support of the conclusion already reached by the jury, the petition would remain, as it is in substance, a thinly veiled attempt to have the district court review the merits of a decision which involves only questions of fact. Upon the facts stated petitioner was not entitled to relief by certiorari and the judgment appealed from will be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.