Maldonado v. Industrial Comimission
Maldonado v. Industrial Comimission
Opinion of the Court
delivered tlie opinion of the court.
In tlie proceeding for review instituted in this court by the beneficiaries of Agapito Rodríguez, a deceased workman, the Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico and the State Insurance Fund — the latter in its capacity as insurer and intervener — were made parties. On the 4th of last month this court made an order directing the secretary to request from the Industrial Commission the record of the ease No. C.I. 7313, and Monday the 2d instant was set for the hearing of the petition for review. On November 25 the petitioners filed their brief, and on the same day they served notices thereof on the Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico and on the attorney for the Manager of the State Insurance Fund, who, being the insurer of the workman’s employer, would stand for the party aggrieved in case this court should reverse the decision of the Industrial Commission releasing the State Insurance Fund from liability. On the day following the filing of the brief for the petitioners, the Manager of the State Insurance Fund presented a motion to dismiss the petition for review for lack of jurisdiction of this court to entertain the proceeding, as he had not been served with a copy of the petition notwithstanding the fact that he was an adverse party who would be prejudiced in case of a reversal of the decision, of the Industrial Commission. On the 27th of the same month of November, at 10:42 in the morn
As very aptly said by the attorney for the petitioners in his oral argument, in this case there is not involved an appeal whose prosecution is governed by the Code of Civil Procedure, according to which it is indispensably required that within a certain time from the notification of the judgment, the notice of appeal should be filed and the adverse party served with that notice within the same time provided for the taking of the appeal. All that Act No. 45 of T935 (Session Laws, p. 250), which created this remedy, says with respect to the procedure to be followed in instituting a proceeding for review in this court is the following:
“Section 11. — Any interested party may present certified copies of an order or decision of the Industrial Commission, in accordance with this Act, against which a petition for review has been filed and a decision rendered thereon, a review of which before the .Supreme Court of Puerto Rico may be requested within the term of fifteen (15) days after notification thereof, ...”
The law does not require that notice should be served on the parties before a petition for review is filed in the Supreme Court. When said petition is presented, the court studies the same and, if it considers the case to be prima facie reviewable, it issues the corresponding order for the commission to send up the record. The remedy, by its nature, is more like
The case of Montaner v. Industrial Commission, ante, p. 672, is no authority for dismissing the proceeding herein, as in that case an interested party had not been joined in the petition, nor had at any time been served with notice thereof, whilst in the case at bar the person aggrieved was made a party to the petition and notified thereof five days before the day set for the hearing of the motion to dismiss.
In virtue of the foregoing, and it appearing that the petitioners in this case have substantially complied with said rule, the motion to dismiss must be denied and a day set for the hearing of the petition on the merits.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.