Lluberas Pasarell v. Mercado e Hijos
Lluberas Pasarell v. Mercado e Hijos
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The history of this litigation will be found in Lluberas v. Mario Mercado e Hijos, 55 P.R.R. 39; Mario Mercado e Hijos v. Olivieri, 60 P.R.R. 855, affirmed in Mercado v. Commins, 322 U. S. 465; and Lluberas v. Mario Mercado e Hijos, 75 P.R.R. 7. In the latter ease we affirmed the judgment of the trial court insofar as it held that the possession and use of the tracts of land involved herein by the defendant from June 2, 1937 to November 3, 1945 was in bad faith and. that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover from the defendant for the fruits the said land yielded or might have yielded during that period. However, we reversed the judgment granting $41,345.56 for such fruits because the trial court took into consideration in determining the fruits statistics and a Table in a book entitled “La Industria del Azúcar de Gaña en Puerto Rico”, published by the Minimum Wage Board, which had not been admitted in evidence. We therefore reversed the judgment and remanded the case to the trial', court pointing out that “.. .it was the duty of the lower-court to base its judgment on the evidence submitted by both parties, settling the conflict therein, believing that which in its judgment was worthy of belief and arriving at the-conclusions which in its opinion were proper.”
When our mandate reached the Superior Court, it called on the parties to inform it as to what steps should be taken in the case. Neither party requested the taking of additional testimony; both parties in effect took the position that the trial court should decide the case on the testimony adduced at the previous trial. Subsequently, the trial court entered an order in which it stated (1) that in examining a witness; counsel for the defendant had referred to the book entitled “La Industria del Azúcar de Caña en Puerto Rico”, and'. (2) that the trial court believed it appropriate to consult;
In its “Conclusions and Opinion” disposing of the case for the second time the trial court included an extensive footnote in which it insisted, with all due respect and deference to this Court, that it had not erred in its previous decision in taking into consideration the book published by the Minimum Wage Board and the Table and statistics contained therein. It also asserted that it could now take the said material into consideration in view of the fact that it'had .given the parties an opportunity to explain it, citing the ■opinion of Mr. Justice de Jesús in Rosado v. Rosario, 69 P.R.R. 158, 162, footnote l.
The first assignment of the defendant-appellant is that the trial court failed to comply with our mandate not to
The second assignment is related to the first. Here the defendant-appellant asserts that, in using the table in the book published by the Minimum Wage Board, the trial court failed to give any weight to the fact that one-third or more of the revenue produced by a ton of cane belongs to the mill which grinds it. As already noted, the trial court did not rely on the table in finally deciding the case. Moreover, the other testimony on which it did rely clearly refers to the net profits of the farmer.
The third assignment is that the lower court erred in weighing the evidence. We see no purpose in setting forth all the testimony in this case. It is enough to say that we find sufficient evidence in the record to sustain the judgment.
As to the plaintiffs’ appeal, we cannot agree that the record requires us to grant them fruits for coconut and corn crops. Likewise, they are not entitled to the interest on the amounts awarded as fruits until after judgment. See Graniela v. Yolande, Inc., 65 P.R.R. 663, and cases cited. There is nothing in Costas v. G. Llinás & Co., 66 P.R.R. 688, 707, footnote 15, to the contrary.
The judgment of the Superior Court will be affirmed.
There was no majority opinion in the Rosado case. This is made clear in the Spanish version, 69 D.P.R. 169, 170. In addition, the charts in that case concerned a somewhat different problem than the book involved herein as applied to the facts of this case.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.