Rodríguez Collado v. Registrar of Property of San German
Rodríguez Collado v. Registrar of Property of San German
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Josefa Rodríguez Collado, widow of Eugenio Muñoz Rodríguez, who died in 1911, in her own right and as the representative of her two minor grandchildren Gilberto and Carmen Muñoz y Muñoz, 14 and 12 years old, respectively, who are the children of Ofelia Muñoz Rodríguez, instituted a proceeding in the municipal court to establish a possessory title in their favor to a property of 4y2 acres valued at $240, on which the petitioners are paying $4.32 in taxes to
The registrar of property of San Germán refused to record the possessory title to the property setting- forth the grounds for his refusal in1 a lengthy decision, which may he summarized thus:
First: Because where a possessor dies without recording his property, his heirs must first record the said property in the name of the decedent and then in their own name if is appears from the evidence that decedent has been paying taxes on the property, which is the subject of a possessory title proceeding;
Second: Because the grandmother, petitioner herein, has assumed to act on behalf of her grandchildren without having first submitted any evidence to the court, or any supplementary documents in the registry, to show either the death of the parents of the said minors or of their paternal grandfather, since the death of these relatives, as a certain and juridical fact, can not be established by the mere statement of the petitioner grandmother for herself and on behalf of the minors as heirs of the deceased predecessor in interest, that they are the heirs of the decedent, and the witnesses who testified in the said proceeding confined their testimony to the fact of possession and the length thereof;
Third: Because no certificate has been produced to show that the petitioners are paying taxes as owners upon the property in question, citing subdivision third of section 391 of the Mortgage Law.
The present administrative appeal is directed against that refusal.
According to the decision of the municipal court, the two witnesses who testified in the case confined their statements to the fact of the possession of the petitioners as owners and
It is stated in the decision of the court that the petitioners are paying the sum of $4.32 annually as taxes on the property involved in the possessory title proceeding herein, according to a certificate issued by the Treasurer of Porto Rico which was introduced in evidence and incorporated into the record of the case, although the said certificate is in the name of the predecessor in interest Eugenio Muñoz.
As we have seen, the petitioners herein are the widow and two grandchildren of Eugenio Muñoz, and in the case of Rodríguez v. Registrar, supra, this court decided the question now raised by the registrar, by declaring that where an estate is assessed for taxes in the name of the predecessor in interest, it can not be said that such taxes are being paid by a person other than those who have instituted the possessory title proceeding. Besides, it was also held in that case that, even if such a defect existed, it was curable and would not preclude the record.
The refusal of the registrar contains also the mention of a curable defect which is not disputed by the appellants.
The decision appealed from must be reversed and the record sought ordered with the curable defect mentioned by the registrar but not argued, and also with the similar defect of the failure to show the legal capacity of the said grandmother to represent her grandchildren .in the present ease.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.