P.R. Laws tit. 30, § 2733

2019-02-20 00:00:00+00
§ 2733. Summary procedure—Procedures not to be suspended; exceptions

The court shall, in no case, suspend summary mortgage procedures not even because of the death of the debtor or third owner. Nor may it be suspended by motions or by any other procedures, either at the request of the debtor, the third owner or any other interested party or claimant, except in the following cases:

First.— If there is documentary evidence of a criminal proceeding for misrepresentation of mortgage title by virtue of which action was taken, in which probable cause was found for indictment.

Second.— If a third-party claim to ownership is filed, accompanied without fail by deed on the property in question, recorded in the name of the third party with a date prior to the registration of the forecloser’s loan and not cancelled in the Registry.

Third.— If a Registrar’s certification stating that the mortgage in question is cancelled, or a certified copy of the public document cancelling it is submitted with the Registry note of presentation granted by the forecloser or his predecessor or successors and documentary proof of conveyance of title, when applicable.

In the first case, the suspension shall subsist until the criminal case is over and, if no misrepresentation is found, the procedure may be resumed.

In the second case, the suspension shall subsist until the end of the third-party claim action.

And in the third case, it shall summon the parties to appear before the court in no less than five working days from the summons; it shall hear said parties, admit the documents they submit and resolve what it considers in order, within five days after the procedure is held. If it orders suspension, the resolution handed down shall be appealable by ordinary procedure.

All other principal or subsidiary claims which, because of summary mortgage procedures initiated or or after the date this law takes effect, may be formulated either by the debtor and third owners or the rest of the interested parties, including those claims dealing with fraud or nullity of the procedures filed after the first twenty days of the judicial demand for payment, shall be aired in the corresponding plenary suit without ever having the effect of suspending or obstructing the summary procedure but these claims shall necessarily expire three years after the date on which the legal instrument of sale or award is made, and shall be subject to the provisions in § 2355 of this title insofar as third-party acquirers are concerned, if the motives or causes of the action brought are not clearly shown in the Record. The competence to take cognizance of this ordinary procedure shall be determined by the rules governing it.

History —Mortgage Law, 1979, § 233.