Cementerio Buxeda v. People of Puerto Rico

• Decision Date: 28 April 1952
• Docket Number: No. 4599.,4599.
• Citation: Cementerio Buxeda v. People of Puerto Rico, 196 F.2d 177 (1st Cir. 1952)
• Parties: CEMENTERIO BUXEDA, Inc. v. PEOPLE OF PUERTO RICO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

196 F.2d 177 (1952)

CEMENTERIO BUXEDA, Inc. v. PEOPLE OF PUERTO RICO.

No. 4599.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

April 28, 1952.

Pablo Defendini, San Juan, P. R., for appellant.

Jaime J. Saldana, Asst. Atty. Gen., of Puerto Rico (Victor Gutierrez Franqui, Atty. Gen. of Puerto Rico, on brief), for appellee.

Before MAGRUDER, Chief Judge, and WOODBURY and HARTIGAN, Circuit Judges.

HARTIGAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, dated March 21, 1951, the reconsideration of which was denied on April 27, 1951. That judgment affirmed a judgment of the Court of Eminent Domain of Puerto Rico, which awarded the defendant-appellant, Cementerio Buxeda, Inc., $4,311.49 for a parcel of land which it claims has a fair and reasonable value of $49,846.50. The jurisdiction of this court is invoked under Title 28 U.S.C. § 1293.

On March 3, 1949, the plaintiff, The People of Puerto Rico, filed a petition for condemnation in the Court of Eminent Domain to acquire several lots or parcels of land located at Isla Verde, Puerto Rico, for the purpose of building the International Airport in Carolina and deviating Insular Road No. 57, in order that said road might not constitute an obstacle to the airport. Among the condemned parcels of land is Lot No. 14, which belonged to the defendant and contained about 1,642 square meters. The plaintiff upon its filing of the Declaration of Taking deposited in the Court of Eminent Domain the sum of $3,284.82 as the estimated just compensation for this parcel. The parties stipulated as to the value of certain improvements with which we are not concerned here. The condemned parcel was severed from a larger tract and bounds northerly on Insular Road No. 57. Said parcel was part of a tract of land which was being operated as a cemetery. The whole tract contained 18,000 square meters which the defendant purchased in 1945 for $10,000. The Court of Eminent Domain decreed that the plaintiff pay to the defendant the sum of $4,311.49 as just and reasonable compensation for the land condemned instead of $3,284.82, the amount originally deposited. The defendant appealed to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico which affirmed the judgment of the Court of Eminent Domain.

In its brief the defendant argues the following points:

"The land was actually dedicated to cemetery purposes prior to and at the time of the taking.

"The land taken had, and could possibly have, no value in the market other than as land for cemetery purposes.

"The evidence offered to show the actual market value of individual plots for grave sites was not speculative.

"The court below did not permit evidence to show the market value of the condemned land for cemetery purposes.

"The doctrine applied in the case of Laureldale Cemetery Co. v. Reading Co. 303 Pa. 315, 154 A. 372 (Pa., 1931) was erroneously applied in the case at bar.

"The judgment of the lower court was not supported by the evidence on the record."

The defendant's main contention is that the Court of Eminent Domain erroneously excluded evidence tending to establish that the valuation or compensation for the condemned parcel should be determined on the basis of what the parcel was worth on the market as land actually devoted to burial sites, to be demonstrated by evidence of contemporaneous sales of burial sites made by the defendant in its cemetery unit and also by contemporaneous sales of burial sites by other cemetery enterprises, including the municipal government of San Juan, in similar cemetery units and conditions. It argues that a valuation was applied which disregarded entirely the use to which the land was dedicated and could possibly be dedicated, that is, a valuation applicable to land not developed and not dedicated to said specific use, but merely adaptable to said use.

The record is highly confusing and is interspersed with a variety of interruptions and colloquies between counsel and the court. However, we are convinced that the defendant was prejudiced by certain rulings, which were in effect affirmed by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, especially those relating to the exclusion of evidence and the application of the Laureldale case.

As to the Laureldale case, the Court of Eminent Domain stated that:

"The defendant corporation tried to prove the market value of the parcel condemned by testimony as to the price it (and other cemeteries) were receiving for space required for the construction of graves and then applying that price to the number of graves it could construct on the condemned tract, less the expenses of construction and other disbursements, the defendant estimated that the remainder represented the market value of the tract.

"The Court held that said estimate of $41,000 reached by the witness was based on speculative factors and considerations and hence his testimony was clearly inadmissible (Laureldale Cemetery Co. v. Reading Co., 303 Pa. 315, 154 A. 372)."

The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico in affirming said:

"In these assignments of error the defendant complains of the refusal of the lower court to permit it to prove the market value of the parcel condemned by testimony as to the price it (and other cemeteries) was receiving for space required for the construction of graves and then applying that price to the number of graves it could construct on the tract, less the expenses of construction and other expenses. Relying on Laureldale Cemetery Co. v. Reading Co., 154 A. 372 (Pa., 1931), the lower court excluded such testimony on the ground that it was based on speculative considerations.

"We agree with the lower court on this point. The defendant was entitled to adduce proof as to the market value of the parcel for cemetery purposes, even though it had not yet been utilized for that purpose. People v. Garcia, 66 P.R.R. 478, 483, and cases cited; People v. Carmona, 70 P.R.R. 292. And the lower court permitted this evidence. But under the circumstances such testimony must be confined to what the entire condemned parcel would bring on the market. To permit discussion of the prices which might be charged for grave sites if they had actually been laid out enters the area of speculation and conjecture with which the courts are not concerned when seeking to determine the market value of a tract not yet being utilized for cemetery purposes. Laureldale Cemetery Co. v. Reading, Supra; * * *."

This application of the Laureldale case is in our opinion inescapably wrong and patently erroneous. It is distinguishable and in any event is not controlling. In that case the condemned parcel contained "8¼ unused acres of a total cemetery plot of 117 acres * * *. No interments had been made nearer than 600 feet to the land appropriated." 154 A. 372. At page 375 the court stated: "When this case * * * was before this court in 1927 * * * it was held, * * * that the proceedings could not be resisted * * * `* * as it appears the land appropriated * * has not at the present time been devoted to such purposes, nor does its appropriation interfere with the use of the remainder of the cemetery property for the purpose intended.'" In the instant case, the condemned parcel was at the frontal part of the cemetery property, its most valuable part as appears from the record. It was an integral part of the whole and was dedicated to cemetery purposes and was restricted exclusively to that use and no other use. The entire tract of 18,000 square meters, around which a wall had been built, was "totally" dedicated to cemetery purposes. The record contains no basis for any other reasonable conclusion. It also appears that the defendant spent about 18 months in getting governmental permission to dedicate this land to cemetery purposes. It was a unitary whole. The condemnation of this parcel did affect the tract in that it expropriated about 9% of its area. The fact that there were no burials in the condemned parcel is the very reason that it has value to the defendant or any prospective purchaser for cemetery purposes. We are of the opinion that the Supreme Court's application of the Laureldale case was patently erroneous in this regard. The court actually rejected the test of judging market value by the property's "highest and most profitable use," People v. Carmona, 70 P.R.R. 292, 295; People v. Garcia, 66 P.R.R. 478, 483; cf. National Brick Co. v. United States, 76 U.S.App.D.C. 329, 131 F.2d 30. Furthermore, evidence tending to show its value for the use to which it was actually adapted was not allowed. Any testimony that did get...