Edward Douglass White

“ But no averment tending in any way to deflect the legal presumption of community as to property acquired during marriage was made concerning the property allotted to the daughtes by the agreement, and which the bill, as amended, sought to administer and distribute. This being the case, it follows that the necessary effect of the bill, as amended, was to assert that, notwithstanding the legal presumption of community, the interest of the deceased wife in the property could be determined without the presence of her estate or of her heirs who were directly interested. ”

“ The court expressly found 'that the citizenship and residence of the parties was as alleged in the bill of complaint.' After the findings of fact had been made and the decree entered, and after an appeal by one of the parties, other of the defendants who had initiated appeals, but had not perfected them, moved for an extension of time to perfect their appeals and for an opening of the decree, on the ground that when the bill was filed complainant was not a citizen of Spain, but of Porto Rico, and therefore the court never had jurisdiction of the case. ”

“ There being no marital contract to the contrary, a legal community of property, as defined in the Spanish law, supervened between the spouses.
The wife, at the time of the marriage, had 8,000 pesos of separate money and the husband about half that amount. During the nine years which intervened between the marriage and September 8, 1875, the husband had become the owner of various pieces of real estate, seven or eight of which were situated in the district of Naguabo, and one, or maybe two or more, in the district of Humacao. ”

“ Demonstrative as are the foregoing considerations as to the want of power, in the absence of the estate of the mother or her heirs, to annul the agreement and the title which apparently flowed therefrom, and to collaterally avoid the decrees of the Porto Rican courts concerning the same, and to set aside, as simulated and fraudulent, the sales made in virtue of the title at least apparently vested by the agreement, they all become more controlling when the nature and character of the rights with which the agreement dealt are taken into view. ”

“ The lawyers, Jose Maria Cuadra and Rafael Lopez Landron, the first representing Dona Maria Guadalupe and Dona Petronila Patricia, and the second representing Dona Manuela Gutman, become hereby obliged to conclude this settlement in a manner which shall carry the same to conclusion without loss of time, so as to leave each interested party in full possession of what belongs to her by this agreement, and furnished with their respective titles of property as inscribed in the books of the registry, free from every charge and lien. ”

“ The daughters, before their marriage, generally lived with their mother and were educated and supported by her, and after their marriage received some allowance for their support, the extent of which need not be considered. ”

“ By the Porto Rican Code of Civil Rrocedure (article 62, paragraph 5) , power to administer estates, both testamentary and intestate, is vested in the judge of the last place of residence of the deceased. ”

“ The widow instituted the necessary preliminary probate proceedings in the proper court to open the estate, and became executrix and the tutrix of her minor children and usufructuary of their estate, and, in one or both capacities, went into possession and control of the entire property, including in such property her community estate, if any there was. ”