Hernández Morales v. Caraballo
Hernández Morales v. Caraballo
Opinion of the Court
delivered, the opinion of the Court.
In an action of revendication and for damages brought before the former District Court of Humacao, plaintiffs Gabriel, Pura, Ursula, José Luis and Federico Hernández Morales, alleged to be the; owners in joint ownership of an undivided, one-fourth interest in á house located at Lago Street of Gurabo, on a lot of the municipality of Gurabo, and which
Defendant accepted that he held possession of the property sued on since June 1937, but he denied the other averments of the complaint, raising the following special defenses:
(а) That the action is barred pursuant to § 1857 of the Civil Code (1930 ed.) inasmuch as defendant has possessed the property with a just title, as owner, publicly, peacefully and uninterruptedly for over 10 years;
(б) That defendant is a third party mortgagee; and
(c) That the house sued on, according to the records in the Registry of Property' of Humacao, (sic) was built by
After filing the answer, the lower court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment. On appeal we reversed said judgment and remanded the case to the court a quo for a trial on the merits. Hernández v. Caraballo, 72 P.R.R. 628.
After the corresponding trial on the merits was held, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of defendant dismissing the complaint and imposing on plaintiffs the payment of costs and the sum of $250 for attorney’s fees. Plaintiffs took the present appeal from said judgment assigning the following errors:
(1) In concluding as a question of fact and of law by taking into consideration the personal testimony of defendant only, that plaintiffs’ action was barred;
(2) In concluding as a question of law that even assuming that plaintiffs’ testimony to the effect that defendant acquired {sic) in bad faith, were believed, such testimony would be insufficient to establish that fact; and
(3) In holding that plaintiffs had acted with obstinacy in filing and prosecuting this suit and consequently in ordering them to pay attorney’s fees.
The court a quo concluded that Ursula Hernández died intestate on December 21, 1918, leaving as her only heirs her two brothers Gabriel and Isidoro Hernández and her widower Santiago Morales in the usufructuary quota corresponding to each of her brothers Gabriel and Isidoro, as such heirs, a joint ownership of an. undivided one-fourth
“2. Isidoro Hernández sold his hereditary share in the house described in the preceding paragraph (and another) to his “brother-in-law Santiago Morales by deed No. 118 executed in September 1926, I mean September 25, 1926, before Notary Miguel Rodríguez Alberty, but not Gabriel Hernández Rivera who died on January 4, 1923 without disposing of his hereditary share and instituting as his only and universal heirs his children who are plaintiffs herein.
“3. The widower Santiago Morales Dávila contracted a second marriage with Matilde, I mean, Isabel Matilde Llorens. While married to her, he died on October 12, 1935, under a will executed on September 5, 1935 before notary Antonio L. López, having instituted his said wife Isabel Matilde Llorens as his sole and universal heir.
“4. On June 23, 1936, Isabel Matilde Llorens recorded, by testate inheritance, one half of the property previously described at folio 128, over, of volume 45 of Gurabo.
“5. On that same date, and at the first entry, at folio 191 of volume 45 of Gurabo, the aforesaid Matilde Llorens recorded the other half of the house in her name as half of the conjugal property belonging to her from her marriage to Santiago Morales; in said entry it was set forth that the house had been built by said spouses.
“6. Juan Jiménez García filed suit against Isabel Llorens before the Municipal Court of Caguas for the recovery of the amount of pour hundred seventy-two dollars ($472) and obtained judgment after default was entered on defendant, and after following the proper proceeding for the execution of judgment, the Marshal of the court adjudicated the house object of this action to said Juan Jiménez García for the amount of TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS ($200), to be credited to his claim. On June 23, 1936, Juan Jiménez García recorded his property right on the aforesaid house at folio 192 of volume 45 of Gurabo, Tree of liens.
“7. By deed No. 141 of June 8, 1937, executed before Notary Antonio L. López, Juan Jiménez García and his wife sold the afore-mentioned house, free of liens, to Wenceslao Caraballo for the amount of three hundred dollars ($300). Said sale was recorded on June 17, 1937 at folio 193 of volume 45 of Gurabo, this being the last record connected with said property.
“9. In the opinion of the court the only knowledge that defendant Wenceslao Caraballo had when he acquired the house was what appeared from the Registry; the court gives no credit to plaintiff’s evidence to the effect that defendant had knowledge that a .part of the house belonged to the heirs of Gabriel Hernández and not to Isabel Llorens.
“10. From plaintiffs’’ evidence it appears that the house sued on was acquired by Santiago Morales in his marriage to his first wife Ursula Hernández Rivera by construction at their expense, the house never having belonged to the conjugal partnership which was later constituted by said Santiago Morales in his second marriage to Isabel Llorens. It thus appears from deed No. 118 of September 25, 1926 executed before Notary Miguel Rodríguez Alberty in which Isabel Llorens herself admits this fact. However, the evidence believed by the court is to the effect that defendant never had knowledge of that fact nor of the afore-mentioned deed, having acquired the property in good faith.
“11. Defendant has possessed the property sued on, as owner, publicly, peacefully, and uninterruptedly from the time of its acquisition until the date of the complaint, its previous owners having possessed it in like manner, and among all possessing it for over a period of 10 years.
“12. Plaintiffs have acted with obstinacy in filing and prosecuting this action.”
We have examined the transcript of evidence and undoubtedly the previous findings of fact are amply supported by the evidence.
Discussing the first error appellants urge: (a) that their action has not prescribed as the lower court held because defendant has not possessed the property in litigation for over 10 years prior to the filing of the complaint and (b) that appellee has not possessed said property in good
The appellants also insist that appellee has not pos
On the other hand, although the court a quo did not make any specific pronouncement whatsoever regarding the third-party defense raised by defendant, the record shows •that said defendant bought from a person who, according to the Registry of Property, was entitled to sell to him
The first error assigned was not committed. Neither was the second. Certain commentaries and reasonings of the trial judge are discussed therein regarding the evidence of plaintiffs to the effect that even in the assumption that he believed said evidence he would have doubts whether the same was sufficient to establish the bad faith in defendant. Actually that was not necessary inasmuch as said judge did not give credit to plaintiffs’ evidence. However, this does not mean that he has committed an error. On the assumption that the reasonings set forth to that effect by the trial judge were erroneous, the appeal is taken from the judgment and not from its reasonings or grounds. Bird v. Bird, 69 P.R.R. 342; Ex parte Montalvo, 70 P.R.R. 437; Rivera v. Hernández, 70 P.R.R. 521; Varela v. Fuentes, 70 P.R.R. 838; Rodríguez v. Suárez, 71 P.R.R. 681; Santiago v. González, 71 P.R.R. 882.
The third error attacks the pronouncement as to the payment of attorney’s fees by plaintiffs. The court a quo held that “plaintiffs have acted with obstinacy in filing and prosecuting this action.” We have not been shown that in so doing an error was committed. On previous occasions we have stated that “trial courts are bound to grant attorney’s fees when in their opinion the party against whom judgment is entered shall have acted rashly.” Font v. Pastrana, 73 P.R.R. 238.
Since the errors assigned by appellants have not been committed, the judgment appealed from will be affirmed.
Plaintiff intended to prove by the testimony of two witnesses, that they possessed jointly with Juan Jiménez García the house sued for but the court a quo did not give credit to said testimonies. The record does not show that in so acting it committed manifest error.
Said Section reads as follows:
“Ownership and other property rights in real property shall prescribe by possession for ten years as to persons present, and for twenty years with regard to those absent, with good faith and with a proper title.”
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.