Riera Bengoechea v. Vega
Riera Bengoechea v. Vega
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a petition in injunction to restrain the making of repairs on a certain house that was decided against the defendant by the District Court of San Juan by judgment rendered on March 27, 1935.
The said defendant appealed and his first move before this Supreme Court was on February 8,1937, when he prayed for a new term in which to file in the office of the clerk of the district court “the statement of the case and assignment of errors” in order to perfect the appeal.
On March 10, 1937, this court decided the petition. The appellant moved for a reconsideration, and after having heard both parties on the following April 19, the court, eight-days later, vacated its prior order and granted a new term of five days to file the said documents.
After the transcript was filed in the office of the clerk of this Supreme Court on May 29, 1937, and the briefs of the appellant and appellees on July 12, 1937 and May 13, 1938, respectively, the plaintiffs and appellees filed a motion alleging that a certain error existed in the statement of the case and requesting this court to render an order- granting to the defendant appellant a reasonable term in which to correct.it. The defendant appellant consented, and the court, on May 13, 1938, postponed the hearing set for that day and ordered the remittance of the statement of the case to the trial court for correction.
The plaintiffs and appellees Avere present at the hearing. The defendant appellant failed to appear.
In our opinion, the want of diligence of the appellant in the prosecution of the appeal is evident. If the very party appellant consented to the remittance of the statement of the case to the district court for correction and did nothing about it, he was wrong in not putting this Supreme Court in a position to decide the appeal on its merits, within a reasonable time, and he must suffer the consequences of his own acts.
On that account, since it is not necessary to consider the second ground for the dismissal since the first one is sufficient, the motion to dismiss should be sustained and the appeal dismissed, with costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.