Luengo v. Fernández
Luengo v. Fernández
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this action of debt, the Superior Court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. Defendant appeals before us and assigns seven errors. He has no ground for his assignments. We shall see:
1. He maintains there was error in dismissing a motion for nonsuit filed by him. Defendant offered evidence after said motion had been dismissed and, therefore, we understand that he waived the motion and cannot raise the question on appeal. Rule 41(6) of Civil Procedure, 1943 (32 L.P.R.A., App. p. 632) is applicable to this case; Castro v. Payco, Inc., 75 P.R.R. 59, 63-64 (1953).
3. Appellant also maintains that there was error in not declaring the action barred. He states that the loan should be considered commercial because the contracting parties were merchants (Code of Commerce § 229, 10 L.P.R.A. § 1651) and being thus it prescribed three years after its expiration. However said section provides that “A loan shall be considered commercial when the following conditions are present: 1. That one of the contracting parties
4. The next assignment challenges the weighing of the evidence made by the trial judge. It is based on the erroneous admission of evidence and the dismissal of the motion for nonsuit we have already discussed, and on the fact that the trial judge did not give credit to defendant when the latter asserted he had paid the loan to José Fernández Rodríguez. We have carefully examined the evidence and we believe that the judge was wholly justified in not giving credit to defendant’s testimony on this matter. His attitude in denying the existence of the loan in order to admit it later and then allege he had paid it, in addition to his hesitancy and contradictions when explaining the manner and date of the payment, necessarily had to discredit his testimony. There is no reason whatsoever for disturbing the trial court’s decision.
5. Finally, defendant complains that the trial court passed no ruling as to his motion “requesting reopening of the case for presentation of new evidence”. The judgment was rendered on February 8, 1957 and the notice was filed on the following 19th, defendant filed a petition for reconsideration on the 21st and a hearing was held in March 8.
In the first place, the allegation that the court should have passed judgment on said petition within a term of five days, is erroneous. That term applied to the motions for reconsideration under the authority of § 292 of the Code of Civil Procedure then in effect (32 L.P.R.A. § 1251) and not to the motions for a new trial like the one filed by defendant.
In the second place, the Rule 59 referred to, provided that the motion for new trial shall be served to the opposing party “not later than ten days after the entry of the judgment, except that a motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence may be made after the expiration of such period and before the expiration of the time for appeal, with leave of court obtained on notice and hearing and on a showing of due diligence”. 32 L.P.R.A., App. p. 652. Those terms were taken literally from Federal Rule 59(b).
As we have already seen, in the case at bar the motion for new trial was filed some seventeen days after the entry of the judgment, without the record showing that leave of the court had been obtained “on notice and hearing and on a, showing of due diligence.” Therefore, for all legal purposes, that motion was not filed.
Furthermore, as well pointed out by defendants in their able argument when on May 8, the court “denied” the motion for reconsideration after a hearing, that judgment having been notified on that same date to the parties, defendant had a period of thirty days to file his notice of appeal. Marcano v. Marcano, 60 P.R.R. 344, 345 (1942); Pérez v. Fernández, 72 P.R.R. 247, 251-252 (1951). During that time he could have requested the leave of court required by Rule 59(b). Nevertheless, he preferred to make use of his right to appeal and did it six days after the motion for reconsideration had been decided. Once the time for appeal had expired, the trial court lost its jurisdiction to decide a motion for new trial. Chicago & W.I.R. Co. v. Chicago & E.R. Co., 140 F.2d 130, 131 (Cir. 7, 1944), cert. denied, 322 U.S.
The judgment appealed from will be affirmed.
Although defendant did not give his petition the title of motion for new trial, obviously it was nothing else, since it requested the reopening of the action to present new oral and documentary evidence.
Said Rule and our corresponding one have suffered drastic changes. See 6 Moore, Federal Practice 370B-8706 (2d ed.) ; 10 Cyclopedia of Federal Procedure 103 (1952); Rules 48 and 49 of Civil Procedure, 1958, 32 L.P.R.A., Supp. 1960, pp. 152-155.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.