People of Porto Rico v. Livingston

• Decision Date: 19 February 1931
• Docket Number: No. 2473.,2473.
• Citation: 47 F.2d 712
• Parties: PEOPLE OF PORTO RICO v. LIVINGSTON.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

47 F.2d 712 (1931)

PEOPLE OF PORTO RICO v. LIVINGSTON.

No. 2473.

Circuit Court of Appeals. First Circuit.

February 19, 1931.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

William C. Rigby, of Washington, D. C. (James R. Beverley, Atty. Gen., of Porto Rico, Grant T. Trent and Edward A. Kreger, both of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for the People of Porto Rico.

Carroll G. Walter, of New York City, and Henri Brown, of San Juan, Porto Rico, for appellee.

Before BINGHAM, ANDERSON, and WILSON, Circuit Judges.

WILSON, Circuit Judge.

This action was begun in the insular court of Porto Rico as an action of revindication or ejectment to recover land alleged to belong to the people of Porto Rico. The defendant filed a motion to transfer the action to the federal District Court on the ground of diversity of citizenship, which was granted. It was opposed by the plaintiff, who contended that the District Court had no jurisdiction when the people of Porto Rico was one of the parties, and also contended that Clara Livingston was a citizen and resident of Porto Rico. After removal, the plaintiff filed a motion to remand the case to the insular court based on the above grounds, which was denied.

The motion to remand was properly denied. The evidence warranted, and the court found, that Miss Livingston was domiciled in New York; and this court has previously held in Porto Rico v. Fortuna Estates, 279 F. 500, 503, 504, that, where Porto Rico is a party, and the other party is a citizen and domiciled in a state or territory of the United States, a case may be transferred from the insular court to the federal court.

Upon the denial of the motion to remand, the defendant filed her answer, and, under section 274b of the Judicial Code (28 USCA § 398), set up as an equitable defense to the action that her predecessors in title were in open and uninterrupted possession of the lands in dispute for more than ten years prior to 1902 under a just or proper title, acquired by purchase, in good faith, and without any notice in the registry of property of any defects or claims against the property by any other person; that her father, by purchase in 1904, and she by inheritance in 1923-24, acquired a dominion title to said lands; that since 1902 she and her predecessors in title have continued in full and uninterrupted possession of said lands; that they have paid taxes thereon and spent large sums of money in improving the property; that in 1924 the Commissioner of the Interior, in behalf of the plaintiff, caused to be inscribed in the registry of property a claim of possessory title to said lands based upon the false statement that the plaintiff had been in open and uninterrupted possession thereof since 1902; that the plaintiff has repeatedly set up a claim to the portion of her land described in the complaint, and has attempted to get possession by threats and stealth, wherefore she prayed that the inscription by the plaintiff of an alleged possessory title be declared null and void and be canceled; and, further, that the plaintiff be enjoined from asserting any title to the land described in its complaint, and be further enjoined from interfering with the possession of the defendant.

To this answer the plaintiff filed a replication, and went to trial on the equitable issues raised; but, when evidence of title was offered, it contended that the court sitting in equity could not try the title to the land, and that the plaintiff on this issue was entitled to a trial by jury. The District Court refused to so rule, and, after the close of the evidence, without making any special findings of fact, found generally that the defendant had proven all the facts essential to sustain her plea for affirmative relief, as well as all the other equitable defenses pleaded, which must be held to include the following facts: That in 1881 one Jacinto Lopez registered a possessory title to a large tract of land described as the Hacienda San Antonio, which included the lands now in dispute; that, upon the partition of his estate in 1886, following his death, a part of the Hacienda San Antonio situated in the municipality of Dorado, consisting of 2,760.41 cuerdas, was adjudicated to his widow, to whom, or to her husband's estate, it was thereafter taxed by the municipality of Dorado; that, by reason of a failure to pay the taxes assessed thereon, one Pablo Ubarri in February, 1888, and March, 1889, purchased in good faith at public sales from the municipality of Dorado, and in part required by judicial proceedings, the entire 2,760.41 cuerdas set off to the widow, which included the lands in dispute; and that he and his successors in title, including the defendant, were in open and continuous possession from March, 1889, under a claim of right, to the date of the writ, and thereupon the District Court held that the defendant had a good dominion title to the lands, and ordered the possessory inscription of the plaintiff canceled as null and void, and enjoined the plaintiff from further interfering with the defendant's possession.

We think the decision of the District Court must be affirmed.

Before proceeding to consider the questions of pleading and procedure under section 274b of the Judicial Code, it may be well to first review the evidence as to the title to the lands, as we think on the record, under the Mortgage Law of Porto Rico as construed by the Supreme Court of Porto Rico in Porto Rico v. Riera, 27 P. R. R. 1, and Teillard v. Teillard, 18 P. R. R. 546, a dominion title to the lands in dispute is made out by the defendant, and her right in equity to have her title quieted and any cloud thereon removed is clear.

According to the record, some time prior to 1864 one Jacinto Lopez acquired a large tract of land on the Island of Porto Rico situated partly in what is now the town or municipality of Dorado, and partly in the municipality of Vega Alta, adjoining Dorado on the west. One hundred acres of this land, including part of a small lagoon, known as Mata Redonda, was purchased by Lopez of one Manuel Canino in 1848, who had it by a concession from the Spanish government in 1847.

Jacinto Lopez, Sr., died about 1864, and his son, Jacinto Lopez, acquired the land owned by his father by inheritance, and additional adjoining lands by purchase, all of which, following the extension of the Mortgage Law of Spain to Porto Rico in 1880, he caused in 1881 to be recorded in registry of property at San Juan as finca, or parcel of land, No. 27, of which 4,237 cuerdas were in the jurisdiction of Dorado, and was known as the Hacienda San Antonio, and which was bounded on the west by the dividing line between the municipality of Dorado and Vega Alta, and on the north by the sea. This land clearly included the 355 cuerdas in dispute in this action, which are situated in the northwest corner of the municipality of Dorado, and are bounded on the north by the sea and on the west by the dividing line between Dorado and Vega Alta.

This inscription, however, was of a possessory title only, as it is termed under the Mortgage Law of Porto Rico, to obtain which the law required the abutting owners to appear before a local official and acknowledge that the party seeking to inscribe such a title was then in possession of the land described claiming as owner. Maldonado v. Ramos, 24 Porto Rico R. 278, 280; Ochoa v. Hernandez, 230 U. S. 139-148, 33 S. Ct. 1033, 1036, 57 L. Ed. 1427. In the latter case the court said: "The entry of a possessory title in his name was in effect a judicial certificate declaring him to be entitled to the possession, but without prejudice to third parties who might show a better right to it. It gave him no title as against them, but conferred a prima facie legitimacy upon his profession, being `provisional and presumptive evidence of ownership.'"

Following the death of Jacinto Lopez, Jr., some time prior to 1886, these lands were divided among his heirs and his widow, his widow receiving on a partition of his estate 2,760.41 cuerdas of the Hacienda San Antonio, and registered as finca 99, which thereafter was taxed to her or to the estate of Jacinto Lopez, and in 1888 and 1889 was segregated into eight parcels, six of which were sold by the municipality of Dorado for failure to pay the taxes, and were bought by Pablo Ubarri at a public sale, and by the terms of the orders of sale possession was directed to be delivered to him; the other two parcels being acquired by Ubarri as the result of judicial proceedings. In 1891 Ubarri caused the several parcels thus acquired, together with the remainder of the Hacienda San Antonio, which he acquired of the children of Lopez, to be grouped together and again registered in the registry of property as a single finca, numbered 172, which was located in the municipality of Dorado, and is described as bounded on the north by the sea, and on the west by the Hacienda San Vicente, the Hacienda San Vicente being located in the adjoining municipality of Vega Alta, and had for its easterly boundary the dividing line between Vega Alta and Dorado, and originally extended from the sea on the north to the Hacienda Ceiba, which joined the Hacienda San Vicente on the south and below the lands here in dispute.

The first and northerly parcel segregated from finca 99, when sold for taxes, was described in the order of sale and deed to Ubarri as bounded on the north by the sea and on the west by the Hacienda San Vicente; and each of the other seven parcels segregated from finca 99 and acquired by Ubarri is bounded on the west by the Hacienda San Vicente, and on the east by land described in the adjudication to the widow as her eastern boundary. Since the total cuerdas of the eight parcels acquired by Ubarri by these tax deeds and judicial proceedings exactly make up the total 2,760.41 cuerdas contained in finca 99, adjudicated to the widow, the clear inference is that Ubarri thus acquired the entire parcel set off to her, which is...