Vega Segarra v. Puerto Rico Railroad & Transport Co.
Vega Segarra v. Puerto Rico Railroad & Transport Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question presented is whether the San Juan Part of the Superior Court .erred in rendering summary judgment against Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company, appellant herein, ordering it to pay certain pensions claimed ■by the appellees.
In August 1947, the United States District Court, for Puerto Rico, hereafter called the District Court, granted the petitions of the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico and the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico to reorganize themselves pursuant to Ch. X of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 501 et seq., and appointed a trustee to take charge of the properties of the debtor corporations. Notice was given to the creditors to present their claims on or before January 8, 1948. Plaintiffs in the case at bar, ex-employees of the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico, hereafter called American Railroad, filed their claims on October 81, 1951, claiming pensions under the retirement system established by that enterprise for the benefit of its laborers. The claims were disallowed on September 16, 1953, by order of the District Court, on the ground that, since the reorganization plan had been consummated on October 27, 1951, and the final decree of that court approving the plan had gone into effect on that date, the court lacked jurisdiction to take cognizance of new claims. However, it was stated in the order that it was not deciding whether “the petitioners have or do not have valid claims enforceable by any independent action or actions against the reorganized company, Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company, under the contracts and the amended joint plan •of reorganization mentioned in the final decree. . . .” Plaintiffs thereafter brought this action against the reorganized •company.
They alleged in the complaint that American Railroad had established a pension system in the collective bargaining agreement made on November 16, 1945, with the United
Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company denied all the allegations of the complaint. Plaintiffs then moved for summary judgment, alleging that “there was no genuine issue as to any material fact.” Their motion was based on an opinion rendered by the District Court on March 20, 1952, in the reorganization proceedings, with respect to certain pension claims made by other ex-employees of American Railroad, and on a stipulation made on September 2, 1953, in those proceedings regarding the claims of plaintiffs herein, which were dismissed, as already stated, for lack of jurisdiction. The defendant objected to such judgment because: (A) the claims had been untimely made in those proceedings; (B) a copy of the final decree of the District Court approving the reorganization plan had not been presented; (C) it did not appear from the documents attached to the motion that the claims had been allowed by the District Court, but, on the contrary, that they had been dismissed; (D) the lower court lacked jurisdiction to render judgment, since the claims had their origin in proceedings brought “under . . . the Federal Bankruptcy Act, over which the District Court had exclusive jurisdiction.”
Appellant challenges the judgment and assigns two errors in urging reversal. It maintains in the first assignment that the lower court erred in holding that there was proof of the absence of “a genuine controversy of fact to be decided . . . and that . . . summary judgment should be rendered . . . .” We proceed to consider this assignment. After calling our attention to certain principles concerning the interpretation of Rule 56(a) (c) of the Rules of
If the question raised by appellant for the first time on appeal were given merit, in view of the surrounding circumstances, we would establish a precedent obviously injurious to the success of the summary judgment proceed
Another argument advanced by Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company to challenge the judgment is that the appellees did not establish that the collective bargaining agreement establishing the pension system was in force when that company, “by virtue of the final decree entered on June 15, 1950, assumed the executory contracts made by the trustee and the debtor corporations when the reorganization plan was consummated on October 27, 1951.” That the collective bargaining agreement in question was in force when appellant contracted the obligation to comply with those contracts is a fact which was duly established by the documents attached to the motion for summary judgment. One of them was, as has been seen, the stipulation made on September 2, 1953, in the reorganization proceedings — approximately two years after the final decree went into effect — in connection with the claim made therein by the appellees for the recovery of the same pensions which are the object of the controversy in this litigation. In that stipulation the reorganized company, Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company, admitted that the collective bargaining agreement was in force,
According to the opinion of the District Court of March 20, 1952, the collective bargaining agreement was never rejected by the court, nor by the reorganization plan of which the pertinent part is transcribed in the opinion, according to its own terms. By virtue of the final decree, appellant was bound to assume all executory contracts, among which was the collective bargaining agreement. Under Ch. X of the Bankruptcy Act, contracts of that nature may be rejected by the court taking cognizance of the reorganization proceedings, § 116 (1) of that Act, or by the reorganization plan, § 216 (4). As has been seen, neither one thing nor the other occurred in the reorganization proceeding of the debtor corporations.
The Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company maintains that the appellees did' not present the final decree or
Appellant maintains that “as respects pensions, the only obligation which it expressly assumed . . . was the obligation to assume any final judgment that may be entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, or by the Supreme Court of the United States,” as the case may be, pursuant to the appeal taken by other ex-employees
The Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company also attacks the judgment on the ground that, “since the Federal Court reserved jurisdiction to enforce the terms of its final decree . . . ,” the lower court lacked “jurisdiction to entertain the claim the object of this action.” In our opinion, that court had authority and power to take cognizance of this litigation. The District Court did not recognize the scope attributed by appellant to the reservation it mentions. In its order of September 16, 1953, it correctly decided that as of October 27, 1953, when the reorganization plan was consummated, the court lost jurisdiction to entertain new claims, Continental Bank & Trust Co. v. Presbyterian Church, 57 N.Y.S. 2d 128; Clinton Trust Co. v. John H. Elliot Leather Co., 132 F. 2d 299; In re Sherland Bldg. Corporation, 29 F. Supp. 985; In re Corona Radio & Television Corporation, 102 F. 2d 959, wherefore it could not consider the claims made thereafter by the appellees, although without deciding, as already stated, whether they had or did not have valid claims “enforceable by any independent action or actions against the reorganized company Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company. . . .”
We need not discuss the second assignment charging that the trial court erred in ordering appellant to pay the sums claimed in the complaint.
The following is part of the contents of the stipulation of September 2, 1953:
“Under date of October 31, 1951, the petitioners filed their claim in these proceedings to obtain payment of a pension to which they allege they are entitled under the retirement plan provided by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the debtor American Railroad Company and its employees, which provides as follows:
“ ‘. . . The Company will maintain a system of retirement with pension for all its employees who eittered its service at the age of forty-five or less, in the following form and under the following conditions: It being understood, that any employee who shall have complied with the requirements for retirement with a pension, may continue to work for the Company should he so elect and the Company deem it convenient:
*386 “ ‘1. — All employees of any category who, having been in the service of the Company for not less than twenty (20) consecutive years attain the age of 65.
“ ‘2. — All employees of any category who may have been in the service of the Company for a period of twenty-five (25) consecutive years and whose age he fifty (50) years or more.
“ ‘3. — All employees of any category who having been in the service of the Company for not less than twenty (20) consecutive years or more are found to be physically incapacitated to continue working by reason of illness, upon presenting a medical certificate based on a complete physical examination and he shall continue to enjoy said retirement with pension for the duration of said incapacity.
“ ‘Retired employees, after such retirement, shall receive, as a pension, 1 per cent of the average of their monthly pay received during the ten years preceding their retirement multiplied by the number of years of continuous service in the company; but the sum resulting from this computation shall never be less than $15 monthly, nor shall it exceed 40 per cent of the salary said employee was drawing on the date of his retirement.’ [These are the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement which are copied in the complaint.]
*387 “That if the claim of the petitioners constitutes a valid claim each and every one of the petitioners must be considered as to their age and years of service, qualified and entitled to a pension as follows:
Name Monthly Pension Due from
Nieolás Vega Segarra $88.14 Nov. 18, 1849
José Luis Más 63. 60 Nov. 14, 1949
Juan Eodriguez Miranda 44. 77 Nov. 12, 1949
Gabriel Suau 40. 86 Dec. 27, 1949
[The same amounts claimed in the complaint.]
“The Trustee and the reorganized company contend that the claim of the petitioners is not a valid claim because it was filed late; and because, since the final decree makes no provision for the payment thereof, it has been discharged under the terms of the same Final Decree. Also that under the terms of the said Final Decree he has been discharged, his trusteeship terminated and the debtor estate closed.”
In Sánchez v. De Choudens, supra, we held that “where summary judgment supported by affidavits or documents admissible in evidence is sought, and the opposite party does nothing and takes no action to defeat that motion, the latter should be granted provided the affidavits or other papers filed show that there is no genuine issue whatever on any material fact.”
Daniel Vallejo and other American Railroad ex-employees filed the claims in question which were disallowed in the first instance by the District Court. The United States Court of Appeals for the first Circuit reversed in Vallejo et al. v. American R. Co. of Porto Rico, 188 F. 2d 513, holding that the retirement system was compulsory for American Railroad, and that all the employees covered by that system were entitled to pension after satisfying the requirements as to age and service. It was the judgment which might be rendered in that appeal to which reference was made in that part of the final decree on which appellant’s contention was grounded. Upon receipt of the mandate of the Court of Appeals, the District Court proceeded to render opinion on March 20, 1952. In that opinion it allowed the claims of those ex-employees and rendered judgment ordering the Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company to pay the pensions claimed by them. That judgment was affirmed in American Railroad Company of Porto Rico et al. v. Daniel Vallejo et al.,
“This case is now before the Court on the mandate of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit involving an appeal of certain claimants from a judgment of this Court disallowing appellant’s claims for pensions from the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico. The Trustee contends that judgment should be entered only for pensions due as of June 15, 1950, the date of the final decree. The claimants contend that they are entitled to life pensions, payable monthly, in amounts stipulated by the parties.
“The collective bargaining agreements obligating the Company to maintain a retirement system and which apply to the claimants, Vallejo et al. v. American Railroad Company of Porto Rico et al., 188 F. 2d 518 (C.A.I., April 26, 1951), was an executory contract, never rejected by the Court (sec. 116(1)), Chapter X, Bankruptcy Act, nor by the reorganization plan itself (§ 216(4)).
“The Plan of Reorganization states as follows: ‘Unless specifically disaffirmed or rejected by the District Court of Puerto Rico, the reorganized Company will assume all executory contracts heretofore entered into by the Trustee, or by the debtor corporation.’ The Final Decree provides that ‘The Puerto Rico Railroad & Transport Company shall then be considered to be the reorganized company under the*390 Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization confirmed herein and said company shall then and there assume all executory contracts heretofore entered into by the Trustee or by the debtor corporations. The reorganized company shall also assume any final judgment that may be entered by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, or by the Supreme Court of the United States, as the case may be, pursuant to the appeal which has now been taken from the judgment of this Court in the matter of certain pension claimants whose claims were disallowed by this Court.’
“In the light of the foregoing provisions of the final decree, the Court cannot agree with the contention that the rights of these claimants died with the decree of June 15, 1,950. Nor can the Court hold that claimants’ pensions made their exit with the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico. It is true that the termination of the affairs of the said company was complete and its Trustee as such no longer controls either its assets or the operations of the Company. But its successor company, the Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company, has assumed the obligations involved in the final judgment in this case. And those obligations are not simply for pensions until June 15, 1950, the date of the final decree, but rather are obligations to pay pensions for life in the amounts stipulated.
“The Court of Appeals has held that claimants were covered by the pension plan, and that it was obligatory; it was not rejected, either by the Court or by the plan; and, as an executory contract, it was specifically assumed by the reorganized company. Claimant’s petitions are therefore granted and judgment will be entered against*391 the successor company, the Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company. . . .”
For the reasons stated by the lower court, the fact that the appellees filed their claims in the District Court after the expiration of the term allowed by the latter for the presentation of claims, a question which appellant raised in the lower court but has not pressed in this Court, is unimportant.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.