Araújo v. Heirs of Reglero Rivero
Araújo v. Heirs of Reglero Rivero
Opinion of the Court
In a complaint filed in the district court Josefa Araújo widow of Reglero claimed from the heirs of Ricardo Reglero Rivero, consisting of his children, Ricardo, Olga, and Carmen Reglero and Carmen Rita Cuevas widow of Reglero, the payment of 25 monthly instalments in the sum of $21.56 each, commencing April 1956 up to May 1958, pursuant to the obligation assumed in a public deed by the predecessor of the said defendants. The latter were duly summoned, but they failed to set up any allegations and their default was entered.
On motion of plaintiff, accompanied by an affidavit of the amount due, the clerk of the court entered judgment on September 24, 1958 against defendants for the sum claimed. In view of a motion to secure the effectiveness of the judgment, on September 2, 1959, the court entered the following order:
“In view of the preceding motion, the same is granted and, consequently, the clerk is hereby ordered to issue a writ to the Treasurer of the Inter-American University of San Germán to withhold up to the amount of the judgment the salaries earned or which may be earned by defendant Olga Reglero de Urrutia and transmit the same to the office of the clerk of this court where they shall be deposited subject to further action.”
On October 6, 1959 defendant filed a motion for nullity of judgment and annulment of the attachment. Plaintiff objected alleging that more than six (6) months had elapsed since judgment was rendered, and moved for dismissal of defendant’s motion.
By order of February 29,1960 the district court held: (1) that the judgment entered by the clerk of the court was not void on its face and that, the motion for nullity of judgment having been filed one year and ten days after entry thereof, such motion should be dismissed pursuant to the provisions of Rule 49.2 of the Rules of Civil Procedure; and (2) that the writ of attachment should be modified in the sense that only one-fourth part of defendant’s salary be withheld, and, as thus modified, that it remain in full force and effect.
Defendant appealed to the superior court from such order. Plaintiff-appellee moved for dismissal of the appeal alleging that the order of the district court was not appealable. Appellant objected and on June 13, 1960 the superior court rendered judgment dismissing the appeal as frivolous, inasmuch as the district court was without power to set aside the judgment after six months had elapsed from the entry thereof.
We issued a writ of certiorari to review such judgment.
The superior court erred in dismissing the appeal. Two issues were raised in the petition, to wit: (1) the nullity of the judgment entered by the clerk of the district court, and (2) the nullity of the writ of attachment.
We are agreed that the district court lacked authority to set aside the judgment entered by the clerk on the
Consequently, the judgment of the superior court will be set aside and the case is remanded for further proceedings.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.