People v. Torres
People v. Torres
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
A complaint was filed in the Municipal Court of San Lorenzo against “Selles y Pablos”; Juan A. Selles, Manuel Pa-blos, and Antonio Torres for a violation of Act No. 31 of 1943, in that on August 12, 1946, in the establishment of Se-
Appellant maintains that the lower court erred in overruling the demurrer for insufficiency. He urges that, since the complaint was filed against “Sellés y Pablos”, Juan A. Sellés, Manuel Pablos, and Antonio Torres, without specifying “what or who is ‘Selles y Pablos’ although it is stated that the facts occurred in the establishment of Sellés y Pablos,” the complaint does not adduce sufficient facts, inasmuch as if said firm were a partnership it should have been specified that the other defendants were managing partners, employees, or agents thereof, for otherwise the prosecution could not be brought against the defendants individually. Appellant invokes People v. Cacho, 46 P.R.R. 193, and People v. Barquet, 19 P.R.R. 753, in support of his contention.
In our opinion appellant is wrong. Precisely in People v. Barquet, supra, we held that “In regard to the appellants, as they and not the mercantile firm of Barquet Hermanos were the accused, the former were subject to the jurisdiction of the said district court as presumed offenders.” And in People v. Cacho, supra, we held that the fact that a person trades under a partnership name is not conclusive proof of the existence of such partnership.
In the case at bar the complaint does not contain any allegation against “Sellés y Pablos” as a partnership. It is
In the second assignment, appellant urges that the lower court erred in overruling the demurrer for lack of jurisdiction, as Act No. 31 of 1943 is unconstitutional.
Appellant admits that many of his arguments have already been decided against him in Irizarry v. District Court, 64 P.R.R. 90, but he contends that there is one that has not been decided by this Court, that is, that Act No. 31 of 1943 is unconstitutional inasmuch as its title does not set forth all the matters contained in the Act. In support of this assignment appellant merely copies the title of Act No. 31 of 1943 and states that “A mere examination of the title of this Act under the light of the provisions of § 34 of the Organic Act and under the light of the decision of this Court in Rodríguez v. District Court, 60 P.R.R. 894, seems sufficient to support the error assigned.”
Appellant has not argued, as he was bound to do,
The third error assigned is to the effect that the conviction is not supported by the evidence. The latter was eon-
Lastly, appellant maintains that the sentence of one month in jail and a fine of $200 herein is excessive, and he cites People v. Ramos, ante, p. 66.
In said case we stated that, taking into consideration the special circumstances involved, the sentence of two months’ imprisonment was excessive, and we modified it by sentencing the defendant to pay a fine of $50. The present ease does not show such special circumstances as would warrant the modification sought. On the contrary, this is a sale of a staple commodity at a price higher than that fixed by the Office of Price Administration, and we do not think that the court abused its discretion in imposing said penalty.
The judgment is affirmed.
It was proved at the trial that he was a salesman in the establishment.
Rule 11 of our Rules.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.