Becerra v. Cobián Rivera
Becerra v. Cobián Rivera
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
To the complaint filed in an action for the specific performance of a contract brought, by José Rafael Becerra against Narciso Cobián Rivera and his wife, a “Contract of Promise to Sell”, was attached, the essential provisions of which may be summarized thus: Narciso Cobián Rivera owns a one-seventh undivided interest and one-fourth of another one-seventh undivided interest in a rural property consisting of 356.90 acres (cuerdas) situated in the Ward of Juan Sánchez, Bayamón. He acquired said undivided interests while he was unmarried. They appear to be subject to an easement for the establishment and maintenance of 5 towers for supporting electric wires; to a contract of lease for eight years, counted from August 1, 1938; to a mortgage for $24,500 and to a contract of antichresis as accessory security to the mortgage; Cobián Rivera, with the express consent of his wife, agreed with Dr. José Rafael Becerra to execute a contract of promise to sell said undivided interests and in pursuance of said agreements he bound himself to sell to Dr..
The foregoing contract of promise to sell was signed before a notary on April 11, 1942. However, at the end of the-document, on that same day and before the same notary the parties stated and subscribed what we copy below: “Now the parties state that if at the expiration of this contract Dr. Becerra should fail to exercise the option to purchase acquired under this contract he may so inform Don Narciso-Cobián Rivera, his heirs or successors in interest and Don Narciso Cobián Rivera or his successors in interest shall be bound to immediately refund to Dr. José R. Becerra the amounts received on account of this purchase, with interest thereon and any further interest which may accrue at the agreed rate, up to the time of the total payment of the debt.”'
At this stage, on July 14, 1948, the lower court rendered judgment ordering Narciso Cobián Rivera and his wife Carmela Nieves Colón to execute a deed of sale in favor of José Rafael Becerra covering the one-seventh undivided interest and the one-fourth of the other one-seventh undivided interest of the property of 356.90 acres described in the complaint, for the price of $11,500, from which “the amount of the liens encumbering said interests” were to be deducted and “should the defendants refuse to execute the aforesaid deed, the marshal shall execute the same in their behalf, and shall receive the proceeds of the sale which shall be deposited by him in the office of the clerk of this court to be delivered to the defendants.” The defendants were further adjudged to pay costs and the sum of $200 as attorney’s fees, but nothing was said in the judgment therein regarding the amount of the liens. The present appeal has been taken from the said judgment.
According to the verbal stipulation submitted by the parties at the trial, the undivided interest involved in the
Moreover, after the undivided interests were sold to the third person, the plaintiff moved the court to order the delivery to him of the sum of $1,288 which the defendants had deposited in court, as we have already stated, when the action was brought against him. The court so decreed. In that manner the contract of loan which incident to that of promise arose between the parties, became extinguished.
Since the undivided interests were sold in the above-noted manner, and since the contract of loan was extinguished, the obstinacy of the plaintiff in failing to desist from his action and in permitting the same to be prosecuted until its termination was evident. As this Court must now render the judgment which the lower court should have entered, an award of attorney’s fees is imperative. Section 327 of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended by Act No. 94 of May 11, 1937; Colón v. Asociación Cooperativa Lafayette, 67 P.R.R. 250.
See § 1340 of the Civil Code, 1930 ed.; Manresa, Comentarios al Có-digo Civil Español, 1931 ed., Vol. X, p. 60.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.