Arias Ríos v. Díaz Brink
Arias Ríos v. Díaz Brink
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Plaintiff Eduardo Diaz Brink and his wife foreclosed a mortgage executed in their favor upon a house belonging to the plaintiff. Upon adjudication of the house to the defendants and a writ having been issued to the marshal to deliver possession thereof to them and to eject the plaintiff from the house, the latter applied to the District Court of Ponce and alleged her homestead right upon the house which had been foreclosed. She alleged that she and her family-had occupied the house ever since they bought it on December 21, 1921; that she had never waived her homestead right, nor had the same been paid to her by either of the
An order was issued to the defendants to show cause why the preliminary writ of injunction sought should not he issued, but they failed to appear. After a hearing at which the plaintiff only appeared, the district court entered judgment against the defendants, without special pronouncement as to costs and attorney’s fees. The plaintiff has brought the present appeal in which she alleges that the court abused its discretion in refusing to issue the preliminary injunction; that it committed serious error in deciding the case on its merits without hearing the parties; that it erroneously applied section 175 of the Mortgage Law in holding that the injunction petition operated as a stay of the summary foreclosure proceeding.
On November 28, 1939, after the filing of the transcript of the record in the office of the secretary of this court, the appellant filed a motion in which it was alleged that subsequent to the filing of the notice of appeal the lower court made an order giving the execution creditors possession of the house, which order was executed and the plaintiff ejected; that as the acts sought to be enjoined had been committed pendente lite the defendants should be adjudged to pay damages to the plaintiff and $500 as the value of her homestead right; and that as the house in question had been destroyed no mandatory injunction would lie to restore the status quo.
In opposition to the above motion the defendants and appellants allege that nowhere in the record does it appear that any evidence was heard in the lower court for the restoration of the homestead right as claimed; that, as appears from a certificate attached to the.writing in opposi
Without expressing at all any opinion as to the merits of the judgment appealed from, we are inclined to hold that the appeal before us should be denied on the following grounds:
Once the acts sought to be enjoined by the plaintiff had been committed, an appeal from the judgment refusing the writ becomes academic, for it would not he possible to prevent the commission of an act already consummated, nor to order by injunction the reconstruction of a house which no longer exists. The plaintiff and appellant might have applied to this court, before filing the notice of appeal, for an injunction in support of h-w appeal. Having failed to do so, the lower court was at liberty to enforce its order giving possession to the defendants, notwithstanding the appeal brought by the plaintiff, as such appeal does not operate to restrain, pending the disposal of the appeal, the commission of the act sought to be prevented by the injunction that has been denied. Succession of Padró v. Lloreda, 24 P.R.R. 715; Viñas v. Lloreda, 25 P.R.R. 32.
As no evidence whatever was introduced in the lower court tending to establish the homestead right claimed by the plaintiff, this court can not, in the absence of such evidence, grant the $500 as the compensation claimed. Cur powers are defined in section 306 of the Code of Civil Procedure (1933 ed.) as follows:
“When the judgment, order or decree of the court below shall be reversed, the court shall proceed to render such judgment, order or decree as the court should have rendered, except when it is necessary that some matters of fact be ascertained, or the damages to be assessed or the matter to be decreed is uncertain, in any of which cases the cause shall be remanded for a new trial in the court below.
The appeal must be dismissed and the judgment appealed from affirmed, without prejudice to any right of the plaintiff to prosecute her action in the Municipal Court of Ponce.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.