Luperena v. Puerto Rico Transportation Authority
Luperena v. Puerto Rico Transportation Authority
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The temporary permit issued by the 'Public Service Commission of Puerto Rico to a considerable number of independent public carriers — Hipólito Luperena, plaintiff herein, among them — to render transportation service to passengers along the same routes as the Puerto Rico Transportation Authority, expired on August 25, 1946. Upon failure to renew the temporary authorization, the public carriers af
Luperena was the owner of four buses
From the date of delivery until the date of purchase, the .Authority used plaintiff’s buses in rendering its own service to the public, and during that period, because of the demand of transportation, they always operated at full capacity.
With those findings of fact, the trial court rendered judgment against defendant for the net proceeds of the operation ■of such vehicles which amounted to $3,801 after deducting all the expenses incidental thereto from the date of their delivery until the date the Authority purchased them, plus interest, costs and $300 for attorney’s fees.
On appeal, the defendant contends that the trial court erred: (1) in finding that plaintiff at no time consented to the operation of the vehicles by the defendant; (2) in concluding that the facts in this case revealed a constructive
Appellant bases its first assignment of error — in finding that the plaintiff did not give his consent to the operation of the vehicles by the defendant — on the averments contained in paragraph 4 of the complaint, to the effect that the plaintiff delivered his buses to the Authority “under the agreement that the defendant would deliver plaintiff either the proceeds from the use of his vehicles after deducting the operation expenses, or a reasonable amount of money for their daily use.”
Its argument that those averments “completely belie the conclusion of the lower court because since they were not contradicted by any evidence whatever at the trial, they constitute a judicial admission,” lacks legal basis, for the defendant not only denied those averments in its answer but by its own evidence on that particular it established that there had been no contract or agreement whatever between the plaintiff and the Administrator of the Authority authorizing the use or operation by the latter of the buses of the former. The absence of specific proof on the part of the plaintiff as to the existence of the alleged agreement does not defeat his right — if he has it independently of the existence of the
In its second assignment the appellant challenges the legal basis of the judgment: the application of the doctrine of constructive trust. ' Since the appellant bases its argument on facts which it deems the trial court should have found proved, and in separate assignments challenges the findings of fact and the conclusions of law set forth by that court, we shall first examine assignments Nos. 3, 4, and 7 and return later to the second assignment.
The lower court did not commit the third error in concluding that the defendant did not acquire a property right to plaintiff’s vehicles until the latter and the Administrator of the Authority agreed on a price, and that while the buses were operated by the defendant prior to such agreement they were owned by the plaintiff. The evidence of both parties •established that it was not until September 30, 1946, that the sale of those vehicles was perfected, since it was on that date that the plaintiff had an interview where he discussed the terms of sale with the Administrator, and when they agreed on a certain price. “By a contract of purchase and sale — provides § 1334 of the Civil Code, 1930 ed. — one of the contracting parties binds himself to deliver a specified thing and the other to pay a certain price therefor in money or in something representing the same”; and § 1339 “The sale shall be perfected between vendor and vendee and shall be binding on both of them, if they have agreed upon the thing which is the object of the contract and upon the price, even when neither has been delivered.” There is no contract unless the requisites of consent, object and cause exist — § 1213 — consent being shown “. . . by the concurrence of the offer and acceptance of the thing and the cause which are to constitute the contract” —§ 1214. Under the facts in this case, the lower court correctly held that the defendant did not acquire
The fourth error, insofar as it challenges the finding of fact to the effect that the plaintiff did not waive his claim against the Authority, was not committed, although — as we shall see in considering the second assignment — his right does not include the profits but the compensation for the use of the buses. Appellant’s theory is that the payment of the sum agreed as the price of the vehicles was in satisfaction of any other bona fide claim that plaintiff might have; and that his conduct “hardly equitable” in not disclosing his intention to claim the profits of the operation of the vehicles is sufficient to consider him barred from doing so. Had he “made a timely claim instead of keeping silent,” it argues, “the defendant would have included the claim in the price, as it actually understood it had done.” Although in a part of his testimony — defendant’s sole evidence to that effect— the Administrator affirmed that what the Authority paid to plaintiff included any other claim that he might have against the Authority until that moment,
Nor may it be inferred that plaintiff waived payment for the use of his vehicles because of the fact that when he discussed their sale with the Administrator he did nut, make any claim for such use. In the absence of an express agreement to the effect that the agreed price included the payment for their use, such price, according to our law, was for the intrinsic value of the vehicles in their condition at the time of the completion of the contract of sale on September 30. Section 1357 of the Civil Code, 1930 ed. Their previous use by the Authority, as to which no agreement had been made, was not compensated by such payment.
As to the seventh assignment it may be readily dismissed by merely stating that the finding of the trial court to the effect that the Authority used plaintiff’s vehicles daily from August 26 until September 30 finds support in plaintiff’s evidence, which was not contradicted by the defendant.
Let us now turn to the second assignment. The trial court based its judgment on the following conclusion of law supported by our own cases in McCormick v. González,, 49 P.R.R. 460; Fernández v. Laloma, 56 P.R.R. 348; Porrata v. Fajardo Sugar Co. of P. R., 57 P.R.R. 615; Ruiz v. Ruiz, 61 P.R.R. 794; Cardona v. District Court, 62 P.R.R. 59; Compañía Popular v. District Court, 63 P.R.R. 116 and Freyre v. Blasini, 68 P.R.R. 198: “The obligation of that delivery [of the net proceeds of the operation of the vehicles] clearly arises from the relation established between the parties. The defendant was not at all entitled to operate in its service the plaintiff’s property, to his prejudice and for its own benefit. In so doing, it implicitly became the trustee of that property to operate it giving an account to the owner of the profits obtained from its use. To uphold the contrary would be to favor defendant’s unjust enrichment at the expense of the plaintiff. The defendant should have so recognized it avoiding the present action.”
We agree with the appellant that the circumstances of this case do not show that there exists a constructive trust by virtue of which the defendant is bound to restore to plaintiff the net profits obtained from the operation of his vehicles, in order to prevent an unjust enrichment. It is a well-settled rule, in case of a constructive trust, that its express creation is not allowed nor its implied creation produced, if the constructive trust is against the law or against public policy. American Law Institute, Restatement of Trust, Vol. 1, §§ 60 and 62; Vol. 2, § 444; 54 Am. Jur. Trusts, § 192. Plaintiff’s temporary authorization to render transportation service on the same routes as the Transportation Authority having expired, he could not lawfully and directly operate his vehicles on those routes as a private enterprise and for his own benefit, and consequently, neither could he do so indirectly through the defendant; nor could the latter become plaintiff’s trustee — either with or without an express agreement — in an enterprise which the plaintiff, by himself, could not legally operate.
This notwithstanding, plaintiff’s claim is not defeated. This case does not hinge on the doctrine of constructive trust. Although this Court has been willing to “import” that doctrine into our civil law —Cardona v. District Court, supra— to prevent unjust enrichment,
In order to determine plaintiff’s right — which does not depend on the existence or nonexistence of profits from the operation by defendant of his vehicles, since plaintiff would still have that right regardless of any losses on the part of the Authority — we cannot avoid pointing out the juridical figure cut out by the facts in this case. The doetrinary function of our jurisprudence demands the determination of the source of origin of this right. Defendant is bound to pay plaintiff a reasonable sum for the daily use of his buses — as he alleged and claimed in his complaint alternatively to the restitution of profits — that obligation being one of a quasi-contractual nature of the innominate kind
The quasi-contract
The plaintiff and his witness, Mateo Hernández, testified in detail as to the cost of operation of the vehicles, including all the factors to be considered in that business, according to their experience, and they estimated the profits that the daily operation of the vehicles should have yielded the Authority during the period in issue.
Apart from the fact that the defendant cross-examined at length on those particulars, it offered, and the court admitted in evidence, the sheets prepared by its employees— collectors — containing their reports on the transportation of passengers in plaintiff’s vehicles during the period in question ; but after they were introduced and admitted, it withdrew them relying for its case on the testimony of its Administrator, who was its sole witness. It cannot complain now of its own action, which in itself entails the presumption that such evidence would have been adverse.
The sixth assignment challenges the amount of the judgment — $3,801.00—rendered against it. In view of our conclusion that plaintiff’s right does not extend to the net profits produced by the operation of his vehicles, but to a reasonable sum for their use, we need not consider that assignment. However, instead we will reduce the amount of the judgment —on the basis of the evidence in the record — to the sum of $2,800 considering $20 daily as a fair compensation for the
The judgment will be modified to that effect, and as thus modified, it will be affirmed.
Reference is made to 140 vehicles in the evidence.
One of the buses had a capacity of 29 passengers, two of 31 each, and the other of 33.
Bloise’s testimony on this particular was as follows:
“Q. — When you ordered that Mr. Luperena be paid for the four buses, did you know whether the Transportation Authority had been operating those buses?
“A. — I could not certify to that because that comes-under the Transit Chief.”
Another part of his testimony to that effect was as follows:
“Q. — Did he deliver the four buses to the Authority?
“A. — Yes, he delivered them at the shop.
“Q. — Did you know that?
“A. — No, the day he took them there he didn’t even speak to me.
“Q. — Don’t you know who ordered him to take them there; did you?
“A. — -No, sir.
“Q. — Did he personally deliver them?
“A. — He took them there.
“Q. — Do you remember the day when he delivered the buses?
“A. — No, sir.
*442 “Q. — Did you leave shortly thereafter for the United States?
“A. — Yes, sir.
“Q. — And when you returned from the United States you found that Mr. Luperena’s buses were broken?
“A.- — I could not say it exactly.
“Q. — That they were in the garage?
“A. — Nor could I answer that.
“Q. — Did you find that the buses were useless?
“A. — I could not answer that either.
“Q. — That They Were in Circulation?
“A. — I could not say.
“Q. — Did you know that the buses were being operated?
“A. — I could not tell you either.
“Q. — You do not know?
“A. — There is a Transportation Chief who knows it. I know that they were in the Authority when I returned.”
The Administrator stated:
“Mr. Luperena alleged several other things but when we closed the deal as to the price it was clearly stipulated that it was the price of everything that the Transportation Authority owed him.
“Q. — Including the use?
“A.- — Absolutely; otherwise he would have taken the buses with him and we would have had to pay for the use.”
In addition to the cases cited by the trial court, see: García, v. Rexach, 66 P.R.R. 493; Ramírez v. Ramírez, 65 P.R.R. 510; Santiago v. Rodríguez, 72 P.R.R. 253 and Heirs of Marrero v. Santiago, 74 P.R.R. 763.
1 Castán, Derecho Civil, Común y Foral, 7th Ed., p. 716; Núñez Lagos, El Enriquecimiento sin Causa en el Derecho Español, p. 10 et seq.; Garcia Morencos, Enriquecimiento Injusto, in the Diccionario de Derecho Privado, Vol. 1 pp. 1794—95; Guaroa Velázquez, El Derecho Puertorriqueño de las Obligaciones durante la Primera Mitad del Siglo XX, 23 Revista Jurídica de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, p. 301.
1 Castán, Derecho Civil Español, Común y Foral, 7th Ed., p. 713 et seq.; Puig Peña Tratado de Derecho Civil Español, Tome IV, Vol. II,, p. 559 et seq.; Núñez Lagos, El Enriquecimiento sin Causa en el Derecho Español (Madrid 1934) ; Díaz Pairó, Introducción al Derecho de Obliga-ciones, Vol. 2, p. 13 et seq.; García Morencos, Enriquecimiento Injusto, in the Diccionario de Derecho Privado, Vol. 1, p. 1793 et seq.; 3 Colín and Capitant, Derecho Civil (Spanish translation, 2d Ed.) p. 923 et seq.; Allen, Law in the Making (Unjust Enrichment) pp. 318 and 329; Dawson, Unjust Enrichment (1951).
The Spanish Law has admitted the existence of innominate quasi contracts. 3 Castán, Derecho Civil Común y Foral, 6th Ed., p. 413. Judgments of the Supreme Court of Spain of January 8, 1909, and June 21, 1945.
Section 1787. — “Quasi contracts are licit and purely voluntary acts by which the author thereof becomes obligated with regard to a third person, and, sometimes, by which there results a reciprocal obligation between the parties concerned.”
Clemente de Diego, El Silencio en el Derecho (1925); 1 Castán, op. cit. p. 679.
4 Puig Peña (Vol. 2) Tratado de Derecho Civil Español, p. 537 et seq.; 2 Clemente de Diego, Instituciones de Derecho Civil Español, p. 322 et seq.; 3 Valverde, Tratado de Derecho Civil Español, 4th Ed., p. 764 et seq.; 4 Sánchez Román, Derecho Civil, p. 992 et seq.; 12 Manresa, Comentarios al Código Civil, 5th Ed., p. 576 et seq.; 2 Díaz Pairó, Introducción al Derecho de Obligaciones, p. 4 et seq.
4 Castán, Derecho Civil, Común y Foral, 7th Ed., p. 757.
Por that same criterion in the English Law see Allen, Law in the Making, p. 329.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.