Pérez Cosme v. District Court of San Juan
Pérez Cosme v. District Court of San Juan
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
At the request of Jesús Pérez Cosme and José Cruz, we issued a writ of certiorari and asked the lower court for the record.
In order to collect taxes owed by Juana Beatriz Vázquez, the collector of internal revenue of the town of Toa Baja attached a property of twelve acres and seventy-one hundredths of an acre, assessed at over $500, recorded in the name of Vicente Montañez and located in a ward of that town. The property being sold at auction, it was adjudicated for the purchase price-of $16.17 to Domingo Bios, to whom the collector delivered the certificate of purchase on June 30, 1932. On the 9th day of the following August, a little over a month afterwards, the collector notified said sale to Jesús Pérez Cosme and José Cruz, who had attachments on said property, the first for $1,000 and the second for $500. On July 31, 1933, before a year from the notice to said attaching creditors had elapsed, the latter tendered to the purchaser
After those decisions, the petition in certiorari was presented to us, wherein it is alleged as its basis and in substantial relation to the foregoing facts, that the decisions of the lower court are erroneous because it has jurisdiction over the matter, both by reason of the amount and of the subject matter: because there is no improper joinder of actions, and because the amended complaint sets up the same facts and refers to one of the actions alleged in the original complaint and confers jurisdiction to the court over the parties, over the subject matter, and over the object of the action.
Domingo Bios claims as intervener that the writ of cer-tiorari does not lie because the petition does not set up any error of procedure whatsoever; because the errors it mentions are of law; and because all the decisions complained of are appealable.
We could discharge the writ issued on the ground that it appears from the certified copy of the proceeding sent to us by the lower court that judgment has been rendered ordering the filing away of the case of the petitioners, thereby dis
In the first comp1aint a deposit was made, the approval of which was sought, as well as that the property sold for taxes be considered as redeemed, and two other causes of action on nullity were exercised; but that complaint has been substituted for all purposes, except as to the date of its filing, by the amended one which has been filed, and therefore we shall only refer to the last one in deciding this proceeding. Estate of Chavier v. Estate of Giráldez, 15 P.R.R. 145; Romero et al. v. Romero et al., 33 P.R.R. 105.
According to the facts we have stated with respect to the amended complaint, its object is inasmuch as the registrar of property refused to admit the deposit made to him by the plaintiffs in accordance with Section 349 of the Political Code and the affidavits relating- to the tender of the redemption money made to the purchaser of the property on the ground that such request was made to him on August 5, 1934, that is, after a year from June 30, 1932, when tho certificate of purchase was delivered to the purchaser, that the court declare, in consideration of the deposit made before it in the amount of $47.48, that the property has been redeemed in favor of its former owner. In other words, that the plaintiffs are entitled to the declaration by the court that the property has been redeemed, since they tendered the redemption money prior to August 9,1933, four days before a year elapsed from the time the notice of the sale was given to the plaintiffs for the attachments they had on the property.
A deposit made in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code is not now dealt with, as in the original complaint, but the fact that the special procedure fixed for redemption by the Political Code in such cases as the instant
It does not appear from the amended complaint that the District Court of San Juan lacked jurisdiction in this matter by reason of the subject matter, for it sets forth that the procedure established for redemption by the Political Code was followed, but that the deposit was not aecpted by the registrar, and hence the court has jurisdiction to determine whether the deposit was made in time before the registrar, and consequently, whether the property has been redeemed.
With respect to whether the court has jurisdiction to pass upon the amended complaint by reason of the amount, it has been decided by this Court in Juncos Central Company v. Del Toro, 30 P.R.R. 306, wherein a deposit was made' in the district court of $60 which had been tendered to the creditor and by him refused, that the district court did not have jurisdiction on the matter by reason of the amount, but the municipal court. In another case, García v. Fernández, 8 P.R.R. 102, a deposit was made in the municipal court of $30 owed in consequence of a contract of lease for six years which was over $2,000 worth, and this Court decided the appeal against the judgment which the district court rendered in trying the case anew from a judgment of a municipal court, for which reason the consignation of $47.48 made in the instant case did not confer jurisdiction, according to those decisions, to pass upon the proceeding. It is incumbent on the municipal courts according to law, to try all civil matters instituted in its district up to the amount of $500 including interests. Pujals v. District Court, 40 P.R.R. 87. The petitioners claim that the district court has jurisdiction by the amount, for their deposit is made to redeem or recover a property over $500 worth, and so the
There is another fundamental question in this case with respect to the time from which the year provided for by Section 348 of the Political Code to redeem properties sold for taxes shall be computed.
Our right of redemption is statutory and therefore the person entitled to redeem must comply with the provisions therein required. 61 C.J. 1241.
The Political Code, as approved in 1902, only granted by its Section 348 the right to redeem real property sold for taxes to the owner thereof, his heirs or assigns, or his duly authorized agents, within ninety days after the certificate of sale was issued. By the amendment made to that Section in 1910 (Act No. 46 of 1910, Sess. Laws, p. 145) that right of redemption was extended to .any person having a right or interest in said property and the time for redemption was also extended to a year, to be computed, according to that amendment, from the date of the' certificate of purchase. That shows that the persons who had an interest in the properties sold for taxes as mortgage creditors or by having another lien thereon, did not have the right of redemption which has now been accorded to them, and also, that the period
For the foregoing reasons the writ of certiorari issued in this case must be discharged.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.