Portilla v. Porto Rico Iron Works
Portilla v. Porto Rico Iron Works
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Rule 3 of the Rules for the District Courts reads as follows:
“At the calling of the calendar at each regular term, the court, moiu proprio and by previously notifying the parties at least five days before, may order the dismissal of any pending action, suit or proceeding wherein no progress has been made in their prosecution and entry thereof made in the record, for one year or more, due to the negligence of the parties, unless such delay is opportunely justified to the satisfaction of the court.”
Appellant says that the District Court of Ponce abused its discretion in dismissing an action for damages for want of prosecution and in overruling a motion for rehearing. A statement of all the facts would serve no very useful purpose. The brief for appellant fails to show any abuse of discretion.
Section 317 of the Code of Civil Procedure reads in part as follows:
“When a written notice of a motion is required by this Code, it must be given, unless a different kind is prescribed, if the hearing had in the same district in which the action is pending, or the proceeding had, five days before the time appointed for the hearing; otherwise ten days. When the notice is served by mail the number of days before the hearing must be increased one day for every twenty-five miles of distance between the place of deposit and the place of service; such increase, however, not to exceed in all thirty days; but the court or judge may prescribe a shorter time.”
On September 18, 1935, the secretary of the district court informed the district judge in writing that no stép had been
Plaintiff moved October 23 to set aside the judgment of October 7. In this motion plaintiff called the attention of the district judge to the fact that only five days had elapsed between the date of the order setting the two motions for rehearing and the date of the hearing, but failed to show that he had been prejudiced in any way by the failure to fix a later date for the hearing or that a different result might have been reached- if a later date had been fixed. We find no reversible error in the order of the district court fixing October 7 as the date for a hearing of the two motions.
The judgment and order appealed from must be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.