López Maldonado v. Muñoz Marín
López Maldonado v. Muñoz Marín
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The plaintiff Samuel López Maldonado was physically disabled while rendering service to the Police of Puerto Rico. He requested the pension for disability for work provided in Act No. 189 of May 2, 1951 (Sess. Laws, p. 476), which was denied to him by the Police Superintendent. He then resorted to the Superior Court claiming payment thereof. According to the facts, accepted by the parties, on May 21, 1954 at 9:30 p.m., López Maldonado tried to arrest a certain Efrain Quintana Feliciano, who was charged by some persons with having threatened them with a pistol shortly before. When the plaintiff appeared at the place of events Feliciano took flight, pistol in hand, and upon pursuing him, the plaintiff fell receiving contusions on the knee and on the head which totally and permanently disabled him from serving in the Police of Puerto Rico, being separated therefrom on October 5, 1955. Relying on these facts over which there was no controversy, the Superior Court entered judgment on the pleadings ordering that plaintiff be paid the pension determined by Act No. 189 of May 2, 1951, as of the date when he was separated from service.
In the petition for review the defendants-petitioners allege that the Superior Court, (Tilén, Judge) erred in concluding that according to these facts the injury which caused the plaintiff’s disability entitles him to receive the pension provided for in said Act No. 189. They alleged further, that in the case of José R. Rentas v. Hon. Luis Muñoz Marín et al., No. 57-5800, there was actually a similar situation in which
The petitioners maintain that it was not the legislative intent to include in this Act No. 189 all the hazards that could be met in the course of their work by policemen and other servants of the public security embraced by such Act, but the extraordinary hazards particularly inherent in their duties and employments; that in the case of a policeman, Act No. 189 covers only “those damages caused as a direct, violent, and extraordinary result of the act of arresting a delinquent or attempting to prevent the commission of an offense”; and that in this case it was a mere labor accident having no connection with the circumstances provided by Act No. 189, and therefore, it is governed by the provisions of Act No. 447 of May 15, 1951 (Sess. Laws, p. 1298). Let us look into the matter:
In the Regular Session of 1951 the Legislature considered and enacted a general retirement system for public employees, including the Police of Puerto Rico, under the provisions of Act No. 447 of May 15 of that year — 3 L.P.R.A. §761. In § § 9 and 12 of this Act — 3 L.P.R.A. § § 769, 772 —as originally enacted,
“(a) In case of a member of the Insular Police, when preventing or attempting to prevent the commission of an offense, or when arresting or trying to arrest a person who*332 can be reasonably presumed to be connected with the commission of an offense.”3
The point at issue is which of the two statutes should apply for the purpose of determining the pension that corresponds to the respondent, whether Act No. 447, as alleged by the petitioners, or Act No. 189 of 1951. Ordinarily, a policeman or other servant of the public security is exposed to greater risks and dangers against his person than any other servants of the government, but not every task undertaken by a policeman exposes him to the same degree and extent of risk and danger, nor requires him to exert the same zeal and courage. We agree with the petitioners in that it was not the legislative intent to embrace in Act No. 189 the disability and death that might result out of all the accidents and damages that could occur to a policeman or other servant of the public security while performing his duty. That such was not its intention arises from the very text of the Act, and clearly from the fact that while adopting this special legislation of pensions for servants of the public security only, the Legislature at the same time included the policemen and firemen within the general retirement system in case of physical disability or death within the course of the employment provided by Act No. 447, equally applicable to any other public employee. Hence, with the occurrence a few months previously of bloodshed and violence still fresh in
In reality the petitioners do not question that the respondent was disabled when attempting to arrest a delinquent. But, invoking what according to them was the legislative intent, they maintain that in order to apply the provisions of Act No. 189 it is necessary that the disability be produced as a result of some direct, violent, and extraordinary damage from the act of arresting. Their argument is that here it concerns a natural accident that could have happened to any person running “to catch a bus”; that there was no “extraneous” force or violence and even less on the part of the person that the plaintiff was trying to arrest; and that a contrary conclusion would lead to extreme results because a policeman who “slipped” in the bath at héadquar-ters “when being called to stifle an uprising” could claim this pension.
Of course, in the act of arresting or trying to arrest a person there can be violence or the need of a tenacious pursuit regardless of the hazards thereof, or perhaps no violence whatever, depending on the circumstances and how the events, unpredictable in each case, develop. A pursuit under such circumstances constitutes a risky and violent act in itself. But in any event, the lawmaker did not wish to go beyond the text of the Act in separating the functions, nor impose other circumstances and requirements for the enjoyment of this pension than those determined in a specific manner. Once the policeman or other servant of the public security is in the discharge of the duty included in the specified circumstance, the Act does not indicate that it mattered to the Legislature how the injury causing the disability was in
However, the petitioners invoke the “legislative intent” to support their interpretation that “insofar as policemen are concerned, the risks covered by the Act are those damages caused as a direct, violent, and extraordinary result of the act of arresting a delinquent or attempting to prevent the commission of an offense.” They infer that that was the purpose of the lawmaker. They adduce two arguments: (1) that in the case of firemen specifically the ordinary risk of an automobile accident when going to any place to fight a fire was covered, and (2) that the Act was enacted right after the nationalist revolt in which the policemen had to face extraordinary risks. It is curious that both arguments forcibly strengthen our interpretation of the Act.
The implied premise of the first argument is the legal aphorism that if the Act refers to a given case, all the rest are considered excluded (inclusio unius est exclusio alterius). But this maxim of restrictive interpretation is inapplicable for the simple reason that the meaning of the Act does not admit exceptions in the case of policemen. In effect, in gen
The fact that Act No. 189 of 1951 was enacted right after the nationalist revolt, does not warrant a restrictive interpretation based on the “legislative intent.” On the contrary, this circumstance indicates rationally that the lawmaker intended to cover all the cases and consequences of danger faced by policemen when arresting or trying to arrest delinquents. The purpose of the Act was undoubtedly to grant a sweeping protection to these officers. It was so required by the social interests and needs at that moment. Therefore, if the lawmaker would have wanted to admit exceptions, he would have made the pertinent exceptions instead of expressing himself in general terms. The only plausible conclusion is that the motives and purposes pursued by the Act of 1951, according to the view or concept accepted by the lawmaker, preclude any distinction between “common risks” and “extraordinary risks,” when disability or death arises “in preventing or attempting to prevent the commission of an offense, or when arresting or trying to arrest a
As we have seen, our interpretation of the statute reconciles the literal meaning of the text with the motives and purposes of the Act. Actually the petitioners ask us to disregard both elements of the interpretative process in this case. They also forget that when the lawmaker has expressed himself in clear and unambiguous language the text of the Act is the perfect expression of the legislative intent. Civil Code (1930 ed.), § 14, 31 L.P.R.A. § 14; 2 Sutherland Statutory Construction (3d ed.), § 4701 et seq.; Endlich, Interpretation Statute, ch. I, § 1 et seq.; Sutherland, Statutes and Statutory Construction, ch. XIII, § 234 et seq.; Black, Construction and Interpretation of the Laws, ch. 3 at 51.
“But those are cases which deal with internal contradictions in the statute itself, where it is the duty of the courts to resolve those contradictions with a view to determining the legislature’s genuine intent. That purpose belongs not to the judge but to the legislature, as it may arise from the statute itself. The*338 judge is an interpreter and not a creator. His power of construction acquires relevance when several probable meanings arise from the statute which furnish an adequate margin for judicial selection, but if the language is so unequivocal as to suggest only one meaning, a full sense of judicial humility and self-discipline requires the application of the legislative will. Frankfurter, ‘Some Reflections on the Reading of Statutes,’ 47 Col. L. Rev. 527; 1 Mertens 59. That is a rule of judicial honor. . . .”
See: De la Haba v. Tax Court; Treas., Int., 76 P.R.R. 865, 887. Where the language of a [tax] statute is clear, it must be applied as the Legislature wrote it, not as this Court or the Secretary [of the Treasury] might wish to read it; Community of the Heirs of Fajardo v. Tax Court, 73 P.R.R. 499, 505. In this case we said upon reversing the Superior Court which denied the right to deduct certain interests for the purposes of income tax, that the courts have no authority to write into the unambiguous language of a statute what the Legislature, whether deliberately or not, chose to omit, even recognizing that the application of the Act as it was made by the lower court obeyed a general legislative policy against the deduction of such interests in certain specified cases.
There is no reason for us to interpolate in the statute, what might constitute an impingement on the legislative function, the additional fact that disability must arise as a direct result of damage directly inflicted by the person who is arrested or was sought to be arrested, assaulting the policeman or by any other means of external violence. As we set forth in Caguas Bus Line, Inc. v. Comm’r of Labor, 73 P.R.R. 690, 697, the Legislature in this case was fully aware of the problem, especially when in the same Session it enacted both pension statutes, foresaw the economic impact of this special pension providing for its payment from the Public Treasury without being subject to the solvency of a particular fund, and there is no reason for imposing restrictions that are
The petitioners’ last argument is that when Act No. 127 of June 27, 1958 (Sess. Laws, p. 300), which substituted Act No. 189 of 1951 was enacted, the requirement of assault upon the policeman was provided for these cases which proves, coupled with the repeal of Act No. 189, that such has always
In both cases the injury occurred in practically identical circumstances. Policeman José R. Rentas caught several individuals playing dice. In trying to arrest them they took flight and while pursuing them Rentas fell down suffering an injury on the right knee which left him totally disabled for police service.
Amended by Acts Nos. 73 of 1954 (Sess. Laws, p. 374), 40 of 1955 (Sess. Laws, p. 136), and 39 of 1957 (Sess. Laws, p. 92).
The same provision was made in the case of a member of the National Guard. As to a member of the Fire Service Force “when engaged in extinguishing a fire or when going to any place to fight a fire.” Other sections of the Act provided, among other things, that such pensions would be exempt from attachment or execution and from the payment of income tax; they would be made in addition to any compensation granted by the State Insurance Fund, which did not occur with the pension under Act No. 447; they would be paid from general funds from the Treasury for which they would be appropriated in the General Budget for each year; and that in order to enforce the Act the Department of Justice would prosecute the necessary judicial proceedings free from fees and the other offices and judicial centers would render their services free from fees.
In the case of Francisco Rentas Salgado v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico et al., No. 11,903, decided on December 7, 1956, we affirmed without opinion the judgment entered by the Superior Court denying to said plaintiff the pension of this Act. According to the facts, Rentas Salgado became disabled by injuries suffered when falling from his motorcycle while going to a place a little over a kilometer away where, by information that he received from a road laborer, two workmen were breaking the highway without any permission whatever. We concluded with the Superior Court that at that moment the policeman was going to investigate a case and was not preventing or attempting to prevent the commission of an offense or arresting or trying to arrest a person.
Irizarry v. Registrar, 61 P.R.R. 70, 73; Sobrino de Izquierdo, Inc. v. Treas., 55 P.R.R. 127, 132; Durand v. Treasurer, 50 P.R.R. 897, 900; De la Rosa v. Winship, 47 P.R.R. 312, 313; Martínez v. Insular Board of Elections, 43 P.R.R. 395, 403; Roig v. Bustelo et al., 40 P.R.R. 580, 585; Aponte, Jr. v. Atlas Commercial Co. et al., 27 P.R.R. 228, 230.
In the above-cited cases the courts granted pensions to policemen and firemen under special statutes similar to ours, rejecting, in some of them, the argument that is adduced here of the necessity of an external act of violence, even in situations in which it was required that the person die or be killed in the performance of the specific function and it was proved that the death was natural or by aggravation of an existing illness.
Journal of Proceedings, vol. X No. 74 (Senate), p. 1264; No. 92 (House), p. 1973.
Wh.en an amendment was proposed to make the provisions of Act No. 127 retroactive to 1951 as perceived from the discussion, with a view
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.