P.R. Laws tit. 31, § 331
A divorce can be granted only in an action instituted in the ordinary manner, and by judgment rendered therein by the Court of First Instance. In no case shall a divorce be granted on any of the grounds provided in subsections (1) through (10) of § 321 of this title, when the grounds upon which it is sought is the consequence of an agreement or understanding between the husband and wife.
No person can secure a divorce under this Code who has not been a resident of the Commonwealth for one full year immediately preceding the action, unless the grounds on which the suit is based on have been committed in Puerto Rico, or while one of the parties to the marriage resided here.
Where the action of divorce is based on “cruel treatment or grave injury” or on “abandonment of the wife by the husband or of the husband by the wife, for a longer period of time than one year” and there are minor children had in the marriage sought to be dissolved by said divorce action, it shall be the duty of the court, before fixing a date for the holding of the trial, to subpoena the parties, if they are Puerto Rico residents, for a preliminary hearing or act of conciliation, over which the judge of the court shall preside in his/her chambers and the trial shall be held within the ten (10) days following the aforementioned summons; provided, that if in the act of conciliation, either of the spouses shows his/her firm and irrevocable purpose not to resume marital relations, the presiding judge shall order the clerk to include the case in the special calendar.
History —Civil Code, 1930, § 97; May 7, 1942, No. 118, p. 698; Aug. 18, 2011, No. 192, § 2.