P.R. Laws tit. 20, § 752
The Puerto Rico Architects Association shall be authorized:
(a) To subsist perpetually under that name.
(b) To sue and be sued as a juridical person.
(c) To have and use a seal which it may alter at will.
(d) To acquire rights and personal property as well as real property, by donation, legacy, contribution from its own members, purchase or otherwise, and to own, mortgage, lease and dispose of them in any way.
(e) To designate its directors, officers, or officials.
(f) To adopt its regulations which shall be binding on all its members, and to amend them in the manner and according to the requirements therein prescribed.
(g) To adopt or establish a code of professional ethics which shall be approved and published by the Board of Examiners of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors of Puerto Rico, to govern the professional activity of architects.
(h) To receive and investigate the charges that may be brought against members in the practice of their profession and forward them to the Board of Directors for action. If it finds just cause after a preliminary hearing in which the interested person or his representatives shall be given the opportunity to be heard, it may institute the sanctions that in its discretion are proper, according to the regulations, as well as institute the corresponding procedure to cancel the license before the Board of Examiners, according to the proceedings established herein, and shall be present and sustain the charges. Nothing contained in this subsection shall be construed to restrict or alter the power of the Board of Examiners of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors of Puerto Rico to institute these proceedings on its own account.
(i) To protect its members in the practice of their profession and, through the creation of pension funds, an insurance system and special funds, or to aid those who retire because of physical disability or old age, and the heirs or beneficiaries of those who die in any other way.
(j) To exercise such incidental powers as may be necessary or convenient for the purpose of its creation and operation and which are not in conflict with this chapter.
(k) To impose dues on its members as determined by its General Assembly.
(l) To introduce community and professional service programs and to create the Puerto Rico Architects Association Foundation of Puerto Rico, which shall function as a non-profit corporation and after its approval by the Board of Directors shall be empowered to make investments to fulfill the purposes of the Puerto Rico Architects Association. The Architects Association Foundation shall provide, among others, community and social service programs.
The Puerto Rico Architects Association, with the direct authorization of the General Assembly or its Board of Directors, may transfer to the Architects Association Foundation the title of any of its personal or real property acquired by purchase or gratuitously that it deems convenient and necessary so that said Foundation may better fulfill the objectives and purposes of said Foundation. Any of the real or personal property of the Architects Association Foundation, as well as any profit or surplus arising from investments or activities which the Architects Association Foundation of Puerto Rico is hereby empowered to execute with the purpose of fulfilling the objectives of this chapter, shall be exempted from all taxes.
History —July 6, 1978, No. 96, p. 284, § 2.