Buxó v. District Court of Humacao
Buxó v. District Court of Humacao
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Santos Buxó, Jr., claims that the respondent judge herein has nullified his right to execute a judgment rendered in his favor by the District Ooui't of Humacao on March 13, 1934, and he prays the issuance by this court of a writ of prohibition commanding the respondent to refrain from any proceeding to that effect. An alternative writ was issued, aud besides the petitioner, there appeared at the hearing of the proceeding, as interested parties therein, Emigdio Osvaldo Sellés Roldán and Pedro Villafañe Cuevas, who have filed a motion to discharge and set aside the writ issued.
The petitioner alleges that on March 13, 1934, he obtained a judgment rendered by the District Court of Humacao against Emigdio Osvaldo Sellés Roldán, Pedro Villafañe Cue-vas, and the latter’s wife, Maria Collazo, in an action of debt, No. 17415; that the defendants therein appealed from the judgment and moved for a new trial, which was granted by an order of June 29, 1934, which order was subsequently reversed by this Supreme Court (see Buxó v. Sellés, 48 P.R.R. 808, and 49 P.R.R. 211); that on June 26, 1936, this court
“In view of the motion of the plaintiffs, Emigdio Osvaldo Sellés Roldan and Pedro Villafañe Cuevas, to secure the effectiveness of the judgment which they have demanded to obtain against Santos Buxó, Jr., . . .; and the original and the supplemental complaints having been examined, ... it is ordered that the judgment the object of the petition of the plaintiffs be secured . . . and as a prerequisite for the enforcement of this order . . . there shall be furnished a cash bond in favor of the said defendant . . . for the sum of $900.
“As a measure to secure the effectiveness of the judgment, the •defendant is enjoined from taking any steps to execute the judgment rendered by this District Court of Humacao, on March 13, 1934, in civil suit No. 17415 brought for the collection of those rentals, and it is further ordered that all proceedings for the execution of the .same shall be stayed, and the defendant Santos Buxó, Jr., is warned that he will be subject to punishment as for contempt of court and .to other civil liabilities in ease of disobedience.” (Italics ours.)
The petitioner further alleges that the plaintiffs in suit No. 17056 attached to the motion praying for the security ■of any judgment that might be rendered, a supplemental -complaint against Santos Buxó, Jr., “which has not been .allowed by the lower court”; that the respondent judge lacked jurisdiction to decree the attachment requested from him, as Santos Buxó, Jr., is not a party to suit No. 17056, ■and this suit is pending decision before this Supreme Court, to-which the defendant Santos Buxó has taken an appeal .from an - adverse decision in an incident thereof; that the
In their written opposition to the petition which, unlike-the latter, was not verified, Emigdio Osvaldo Selles and Pedro-Villafañe Cuevas state that the writ issued should be quashed and set aside:
“1. Because the writ of prohibition being an extraordinary remedy of a preventive and not of a remedial nature, it can not be used, as the petitioner seeks, by way of a proceeding for review, writ of error, certiorari, or appeal.
“2. Because the writ of prohibition can only be used to prevent or restrain a lower court from the commission of acts or facts in excess of its jurisdiction or to avoid and restrain such actions of an inferior court as would tend to defeat a legal right of a party, and its issuance never lies to undo or reverse actions already effected and completed.
“3. Because the writ of prohibition does not lie, as it comes too late, and the conduct of the petitioner amounts to laches.
“4. Because the petitioner has not shown in his petition that the action of the respondent court causes him extraordinary damages,, and, therefore, its issuance does not lie.
“5. Because the writ of prohibition being an extraordinary remedy, it does not lie where the petitioner does not show in his petition that he has no adequate and effective remedy in the ordinary course of law; and because the petitioner has available an adequate and effective remedy in the ordinary course of law.”
The question to be determined is whether Santos Bux6, Jr., has satisfactorily shown that he is not one of the defendants in suit No. 17056, brought by Osvaldo Selles Roldan- and Pedro Villafañe Cuevas in the District Court of Pluma-cao, for if he has failed to make that showing, then the petition herein should be denied and the alternative writ issued' should be discharged. ; - ,i
The petitioner in the sixth paragraph of the petition says that with the “motion to secure the effectiveness-of the judgment, there was filed á' supplemental- complaint
Section 3 of the Act to Secure the Effectiveness of Judgments provides, among other things, that “none of the preceding remedies shall be decreed, unless an action is entered, and a petition praying such remedy is made.” The supplemental complaint was filed in suit No. 17056, and was directed against Santos Buxó, Jr. As we have seen, the petitioner has failed to show that the respondent judge refused leave to file the same. Consequently, it was proper to order a stay in the execution of the judgment which Santos Buxó, Jr., had obtained in suit No. 17415, in view of the holding of this court in Goffinet et al. v. Polanco, 30 P.R.R. 768, thus:
“The other aspect of the question presented by the petitioners is that if the respondent should execute the judgment for $9,923 without awaiting the decision of the principal action wherein this injunction is asked for, the petitioners would have no way of deducting the respondent’s claim of $9,923 from their larger claim. We think, however, that an injunction is not the appropriate remedy in this case. The petitioners could have found an adequate remedy under the Act to secure the effectiveness of judgments of March 1, 1902. Section 2 of the said Act prescribes the rules to which an attachment must conform. Some of these rules produce the same effect and fulfill the same purposes as an injunction, and besides specifying the cases to which they are applicable, subdivision (h) of the Act establishes a general rule covering all cases not provided for by the preceding rules and gives the lower court equitable discretion to adopt the proper measures to secure the effectiveness of the judgment in case the action should prevail. ”
For the reasons stated, and without considering those adduced by Emigdio Osva^o Sellés ítoldán and Pedro Villa-fañe Cuevas, the petition filed must be denied, and the alternative writ issued on February 23, 1937, must be annulled.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.