Bianchi v. Bianchi Rosafa
Bianchi v. Bianchi Rosafa
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Juan, Francisco, and Rosario Bianchi Rosafa, owners of certain rural properties situated in the jurisdictions of
The defendant took an appeal from the order rendered by the District Court of Mayagüez, which was affirmed by this court on February 5, 1931 (41 P.R.R. 793). The unlawful detainer suits were finally decided after a trial de novo by the District Court of Mayagüez on July 16, 1931. In both suits the dispossession of the defendant Estela Bianchi was
In passing upon this motion of the plaintiffs, the district court rendered the following decision:
“Upon reading the motion filed by plaintiffs in the instant case and the motion filed on the same date in civil case No. 15312, whereby plaintiffs abandon their motion for a reconsideration of the judgment rendered in that case; and considering' that as a result thereof the unlawful detainer suits filed by plaintiffs are finally determined by definitive (firmes) judgments in cases Nos. 15416 and 15312, and that in accordance with the terms of the order of October 8, 1930, granting the injunction in. this case which was subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, the same is left without effect, therefore it is ordered that this ease be dismissed, with costs and attorney’s fees against defendant.”
Kstela Bianchi took an appeal from this pronouncement of costs and attorney’s fees against her. Plaintiffs also appealed from an order of the court striking out a memorandum of costs on the ground that it had been prematurely filed; but, as admitted in their brief, they have practically abandoned this appeal, as they have not taken any steps to perfect the same. There is only one appeal before us and that is the one taken by the defendant. It is urged that the court erred in holding that the judgment rendered in one of the eases of unlawful detainer became definitive {firme) upon the abandonment by plaintiffs of their motion for reconsideration as to the refusal of costs, and it is added that the lower court also erred in failing to hold that after the actions of unlawful detainer were decided, this injunction proceeding became ineffective, academic and without any legal purpose.
It is clear that the order of injunction could not have any further legal effect, once the plaintiffs were in position.to execute the judgments rendered in the actions of unlawful detainer. The order was issued by the district court to prevent the defendant in the municipal court from interfering with certain acts of the plaintiffs. This is not the case of an injunction pendente lite, decreed within the same action, to be effective until a decision on the merits .is made, but of a writ issued by the district court to be effective pending the final determination of two actions of unlawful detainer brought in different municipal courts. Plaintiffs obtained from the district court all that they had demanded. They did
Having reached the above conclusions, we must concede that at the time the district court dismissed the injunction proceedings, and imposed costs on the defendant, the writ, which was ipso facto extinguished when the judgments in the unlawful detainer suits became definitive, had ceased to serve any purpose or to have any legal effect.
It is maintained that the court erred in dismissing the case and in imposing costs on the .defendant without giving-her an opportunity to be heard. It must be acknowledged that the arguments submitted in support.of this contention are not without merit. If the court acted within its powers in imposing the costs and attorney’s fees on the defendant, one year after the only controverted question in the injunction proceeding had been finally determined, it should not have rendered its decision, without first hearing the interested party. We believe, however, that the lower court went too far when granting the plaintiffs’ motion. It seems that in deciding this question we must bear in mind the purpose sought by plaintiffs when requesting the writ of injunction, the scope of the order authorizing its issuance, and the matter actually in dispute in the proceeding before the district court. The plaintiffs had only one purpose: to obtain possession of the properties during the pendency of the actions-
In the case of Luce & Co., S. en C. v. Cintrón, ante, page 1, this court said:
“A judgment, as defined by section 188 of the Code of Civil Procedure, is ‘a final determination of the rights of the parties in an action or proceedingAn order refusing to grant an injunction pendente lite is, of course, an interlocutory order in the main action. It is not an interlocutory order in the proceeding for a temporary injunction. As to that proceeding it is in its nature and essence a judgment. It is ‘a final determination of the rights of the parties’ in that proceeding. It is so recognized, in effiéct by section 295 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which places it for purposes of appeal ón the same footing with ‘a final judgment in an action or special proceeding.” .
In the instant case, the order granting the writ of injunction pendente lite was by its nature a final judgment. It was undoubtedly so for plaintiffs in the district court where their interest had ceased, as the order was to be effective pending a final decision of the unlawful detainer proceeding in the municipal courts. The defendant, who was not then adjudged to pay costs, was justified in assuming that it had been absolved from such payment. It does not appear that the court reconsidered the order originally rendered; the record does not show any motion seasonably made requesting this reconsideration, on the ground that some pronouncement had been inadvertently omitted when the decision was rendered.
The order appealed from must be reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.