Díaz Miró v. García
Díaz Miró v. García
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Francisco Garcia, defendant in an action for damages, appeals from an adverse judgment. He says that the District Court erred in not sustaining a demurrer for want of facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. Plaintiff, Diaz Miró, alleged: that he had brought an action, number 11,342 in the District Court of San Juan, against José Reyes Garcia for $652.55, interest and costs; that the marshal attached certain personal property valued at $233.87, in the possession of Francisco Garcia, defendant herein, at his place of business in Santurce, January 20,1930, and deposited it with him; that Francisco Garcia signed a receipt whereby he assumed the responsibility of a depositary with all the obligations incident to that relationship under the law; that plaintiff herein, after judgment in his favor and against Reyes García in the District Court of San Juan, obtained a writ of execufc’on and the marshal prepared to sell the attached property at ten o’clock in the morning of February 24, 1930, at the place of
The argument is that plaintiff was not the owner of the attached property and -that .defendant’s contract of deposit was with the marshal, not with plaintiff. It was not necessary that plaintiff should he the owner of the attached property in order to bring an action for the loss of benefits which he would have received as a result of his lien, but for the act of the defendant. If the demurrer had been brought to the attention of the District Judge and disposed of by him before the close of the trial, there would be more merit in the suggestion that defendant’s agreement was with the marshal, not with plaintiff, No- authority is cited, however, in support of the argument that for this reason the complaint did not state a cause of action and we shall not at this time attempt a review of the decided cases. Ordinarily, it seems, in other jurisdictions, an action on the receipt should be brought by the marshal for the benefit of the attaching creditor (see 6 C. J. 322, Sec. 645), but Clark v. Clough, 3 Me. 357, is cited in note 74, at page 317 of the same volume, in support of the statement that “if 'the officer places such receipt in the hands of the creditor’s attorney to be prosecuted for his benefit, it is an equitable assignment of the contract for which his liability to the creditor forms a sufficient consideration.” See also Moore v. Fargo, 112 Mass. 254; Section 1209 of the Civil Code (Edition of 1930), and Section 51 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Comp-. Statutes of 1911, Sec. 5035). Without foreclosure of further discus
The evidence introduced, without objection on the part of defendant, showed that the marshal, at the time of making the levy, was accompanied by the plaintiff, who pointed out the property to be attached and proposed or agreed to the naming of defendant as depositary. The receipt signed by Francisco Garcia states that the attached property was received by him as a judicial depositary named by the marshal and as such depositary he agreed to keep the attached property until further order of the court. This receipt was attached by the marshal to his writ, made a part thereof and filed together therewith as a part of the record. Thus it sufficiently appears, we think, that the levy and deposit were made in substantial compliance with Section 10 of the Law to Secure the Effectiveness of Judgments (Comp. Statutes of 1911, Sec. 5242) and appellant does not question the responsibility of a custodian so named for the safekeeping and delivery of the attached property on demand of the marshal for the purpose of selling the same under a writ of execution issued after judgment for plaintiff. In the
The second assignment is that the judgment is contrary to law. Here appellant relies on Section 1658 of the Civil Code (Edition of 1930) which provides that “A depositum is constituted from the time a person receives a thing belonging to another with the obligation of keeping and returning it.” The argument is that a presumption of ownership arises out of the possession of personal property and that the facts stated in the complaint do not show a deposit. It would suffice to say that the assignment itself is too general or that the question herein sought to be raised does not demand serious consideration. The complaint as a whole, however, sufficiently negatives any presumption of ownership in García, and the evidence in support of and supplementing the averments as to levy, deposit .and signature of a receipt by the depositary was sufficient to show a judicial deposit.
The third assignment is that the District Court erred in determining the amount of damages. One of the items alleged in the complaint, established by the evidence and allowed by the court was $100 disbursed by plaintiff as attorney’s fees and expenses in his efforts as intervenor in the Municipal Court and on appeal to the District Court in the action brought by Francisco Garcia against Reyes Garcia. The premise is that no attorney’s fees were awarded as costs in that action and that none could have' been awarded under our statute governing the matter of .costs, because the amount involved was less than $500. The conclusion is that a party who has obtained no award of costs, including attorney’s fees, and who has presented no memorandum of costs in one action can not recover attorney’s fees in an independent action. The answer to this argument, is that plaintiff herein was not seeking to recover attorney's fees as a part of the costs which might or might not have been awarded as such in the other action, but as damages caused by the act of
The judgment appealed from must be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.