Escalera Falú v. West India Oil Co.
Escalera Falú v. West India Oil Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered tbe opinion of tbe Court.
Octaviano J. Herrera owned two lots recorded in bis name in tbe registry of property and located at a place called Sebo-ruco in tbe ward of Santuree of this city. He sold them by
On the day set for the trial, the parties stipulated to submit the case to the decision of the court upon an agreed statement of facts. One of the facts submitted as proved by the defendant is: “That at no time prior to being served with the summons in this action, did the defendant have notice of the existence of the deed No. 82, dated May 27, 1924, nor of the fact that the plaintiff claimed to be the owner of the property the object of this suit.” The parties exhibited with said stipulation their respective title papers and the tax receipts paid by the plaintiff.
The appellee maintains that the appellant is not a bona fide purchaser, because it appears from the fact which it admitted as proved, and which we have already quoted, that when it made the purchase it had notice of the prior conveyance to Cristina. Escalera Falú; however, the stipulated fact above transcribed does not admit that interpretation, but the opposite one, to the effect that until defendant Was summoned in the action, it had no notice of the purchase made by the appellee, nor of her claim that she was the owner of the property. Therefore, as the appellant purchased without notice of the previous sale to the appellee and without there being any record of such sale in the registry, it was a bona fide purchaser; and it can not be said, as the lower court did, that it was not a bona fide purchaser because it had or should have had notice of the fact that the lot did not belong to its debtor when the appellee purchased it, since there is no evidence showing that it had such notice or should have had it, as it was ignorant of that sale, of which the registry of property did not give any notice either. The case of Blanco v. Hernández et al., 18 P.R.R. 686, cited by the appellee, does not support the judgment appealed from because the decision in that ease rests on the theory that the defendant in the action was not a bona fide purchaser, inasmuch as prior to his purchase he knew that the condominium involved had already been sold, which does not occur in the case at bar.
The appellee further maintains that the appellant is not a bona fide purchaser, because its title originated in an award made in an execution sale in partial satisfaction of its judgment credit, without any delivery of the purchase money.
The instant ease deals with conflicting sales of the same real property to different vendees, the first sale having been made by the owner himself and the second one by a marshal on behalf of said owner, which latter sale must be regarded as if the owner himself had made it voluntarily, in accordance
Since early times the law has anticipated that a sale of the same thing to different vendees is apt to occur, for Par-tida V, tit. 5, law 50, regulated the matter. Section 1473 of the Spanish Code, equivalent to section 1376 of our Code (sec. 1362, 1930 ed.), provides for cases of duplicate sales, distinguishing between personal property and real property and, as regards the latter, the cases where the same has been recorded from those where no record has been made. Said section reads as follows:
“If the same thing should have been sold to different vendees, the ownership shall be transferred to the person who may have first taken possession thereof in good faith, if it should be personal property.
“Should it be real property, it shall belong to the person acquiring it who first recorded it in the registry.
“Should there be no entry, the property shall belong to the person who first took possession of it in good faith, and, in the absence thereof, to the person who presents the oldest title, provided there is good faith.”
The Mortgage Law provides in section 36 that rescissory and resolutory actions shall not lie against third persons who have recorded the deeds of their respective interests, and in subdivision 4 of section 38, that no instrument or contract shall be annulled to the prejudice of a third person who shall have recorded his interests, on account of a duplicate sale of the same thing when one of the sales has not been recorded. Both the Civil Code and the Mortgage Law, by reason of such record, give preference to the purchaser who records. Therefore, as the first purchaser did not record title but the second one did, the lot belongs to the latter and its title and record can not be annulled even though the appellee has been in possession of the lot as owner thereof, for where one of two conflicting sales of realty has been recorded the existence of such record is the only circumstance that the law
The lower court said, and the appellee urges, that when the second alienation took place the vendor had already divested himself -of his title, by reason of the first sale. Such a consideration has been taken into account by the legislator, who knows that when a second sale is made the vendor is no longer the owner of the property so sold; nevertheless, provision has been made for adjusting the conflict between the purchasers by prescribing the rules set forth in section 1376, supra. In the case of Gutiérrez Hermanos v. Ramírez, already cited, the same question was raised but -the court adjudged the ownership in favor of the second purchaser, because his title had been recorded.
The judgment appealed from must be reversed and another rendered instead dismissing the complaint, without special imposition of costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.