B. Márquez & Cía. v. Registrar of Property
B. Márquez & Cía. v. Registrar of Property
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
On December 12, 1937, a deed was presented for record to the Registrar of Property of Utuado. The instrument
Act No. 99, supra (Laws, p. 790, 798), was a statute modifying and extending the inheritance tax. Section 12 thereof reads as follows:
“No court shall approve the partition or distribution of the estate of any decedent or allow any final settlement of the accounts of any executor, administrator, trustee or person administering any estate, unless the proper special tax receipt or receipts of the Treasurer, as provided in Section 11 of this Act, shall be produced and exhibited; and no notary shall issue, authorize or certify any instrument of award, partition, distribution, alienation or hypothecation of property unless such receipt or receipts of the Treasurer are • presented; and no registrar shall record in any registry under his charge any instrument or judicial decision, ruling or judicial warrant authorized, rendered or issued in connection with the partition, distribution or delivery of such property, unless such receipt or receipts of the Treasurer are presented; and persons violating the provisions of this section shall be liable for all taxes uncollected because of such violation, with interest thereon, as provided in Section 9 of this Act, and such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than one hundred (100) dollars nor more than one thousand (1,000) dollars, or by imprisonment from three months to one year, or by both penalties, in the discretion of the court.”
The argument of the petitioner is based primarily on the alleged fact that the transferors, who were the legitimate children and legally acknowledged heirs of the mortgage debtors, received no benefit or monetary advantage by the inheritance of the mortgaged properties, and that they executed the deed in question merely as successors to the debtors and in their stead.
We are of the opinion that the case before us falls within the purview of Section 12 of Act No. 99 of 1925, supra, and hence that the refusal of the registrar was justified. Given the fact that this transfer of property was made by the alleged heirs, the deed could only be effective if the alleged heirs were in fact, for the purpose of the transfer, accepting the inheritance and taking title to the property. We feel that the spirit of the law on inheritance tax requires that the registrar, before he proceed to record any property of a deceased person in the name of any one else, demand the presentation of either the inheritance tax receipt provided by law or of a certificate from the Treasurer expressive of the fact that no such tax is due.
The note of the Registrar is therefore affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.