Sixto, deceased, was entitled to recover one-half of the amount due on the mortgage debt which the defendant Sarria claimed to have discharged by legal payments. The recovery sought was for one-half of the four installments of purchase money due respectively on the fifteenth day of May in the years from 1893 until 1896, inclusive. The defendant interposed different defenses to different installments of the debt. We will proceed to consider them, together with the charge and rulings of the court concerning the same.

Referring to the first and second installments, we find it to be the contention of the plaintiff in error that Maria Belen, having been adjudged heir ab intestato under a decree which expressly reserved the rights of third parties, no payment could have been lawfully made to her as against the rights of the plaintiff in error, and that if any such payment was made it was subject to the risk that the subsequent established rights of the plaintiff in error might entitle him to recover from Sarria one-half of such payments. Upon this subject the court charged the jury:

On February 15, 1894, she [Maria Belen] having been declared the heir, the entry was made of that fact in the registry (of property). I say to you as a matter of law, that that declaration of her heirship was without prejudice to the rights of third parties-and that meant that if any other person showed himself afterwards to be an heir he was entitled to a proper proportion of the estate, but so far as a collection of debts, and so far as a proper attention to the assets were concerned and the control of them, she became entitled to attend to that."

Upon the same subject the plaintiff in error had requested the court to charge:

"As the ex parte decree declaring Belen Six to the heir of Manuel Sixto expressly saved the rights of third parties, that was notice to the defendant that any payment made to her was made at his peril as against the other true heirs; and, as defendant was not required by any legal authority to pay the

first two payments to Belen Sixto, and as the plaintiff is shown in truth to have been an equal heir with Belen Sixto, the plaintiff is entitled to recover one-half of those two payments."

So far as this contention is concerned, we think the court below was right. The sections of the Code of Porto Rico (War Department translation), under which Maria Belen was declared the heir ab intestato of Manuel Sixto, are as follows: 976. After the measures indispensable for the security of the property prescribed in the foregoing section have been taken, and without prejudice to including in the same proceedings the making of the inventory, the designation of heirs ab intestato shall be proceeded with in a separate record.

"977. This designation may also be made at the instance of the interested parties, without the necessity of previously taking the steps mentioned, in cases in which they are not necessary and in which the institution of intestate proceedings is not requested.

"978. Heirs ab intestato, who are descendants of the deceased, may obtain a declaration of their rights by proving, with the proper documents or with the evidence obtainable, the death of the person whose estate is in question, their relationship to the same, and with the evidence of witnesses that said person died intestate, and that they, or the persons whom they designate, are his only heirs.

"The services of a solicitor or attorney are not necessary in order to present this claim.

"979. The deputy public prosecutor shall be cited to appear at said proceeding, to whom the record shall afterward be referred for the period of six days for his report thereon. Should he find the proof insufficient, a hearing shall be granted to the interested parties in order that they may cure the defect.

"

"When the deputy public prosecutor requests it, or the judge considers it necessary, the documents presented shall be compared with the originals.

"980. When the foregoing steps have been taken, the judge shall, without further proceedings, make a ruling designating the heirs ab intestato should he deem it proper, or he may refuse to make such declaration, reserving the rights of the claimants to institute an ordinary action. This ruling may be appealed from both for review and a stay of proceedings.

"1000. After the declaration of heirs ab intestato has been made, by a final judgment or ruling, the proceedings shall be continued according to the procedure prescribed for testamentary proceedings.

"1001. The judge shall order that there be delivered to the heirs instituted all the property, books, and papers of the intestate, and that the administrator render an account of his administration to them, the judicial intervention ceasing."

It is argued that this appointment of the heir ab intestato is subject to the limitation that the rights of the heir are not fixed until five years have elapsed from the date of the designation by the court proceedings, and in support of this contention certain articles of the Mortgage Law of Porto Rico are cited: "2. In the registries mentioned in the preceding article shall be recorded:

"1. Instruments transferring or declaring ownership of realty, or of property rights thereto.

"2. Instruments by which rights of use, use and occupancy, emphyteusis, mortgage, annuity, servitudes, and any others by which states are created, acknowledged modified or extinguished.

"23. The instruments mentioned in articles 2 and 5, which are not duly recorded or entered in the registry, cannot prejudice third persons.

"The record of real property and property rights, acquired through an inheritance or legacy, shall not prejudice third persons until five years have elapsed since the date thereof, excepting in cases of testate or intestate inheritances, legacies and additions thereto, when left to legal heirs.

"381. Property acquired through inheritance or legacy can

not be cleared until five years have elapsed from the date of their record in the registry."

But we think this limitation of five years was intended to permit such heirs at law or parties beneficially interested in the estate to assert their rights as against the heir and the property in his hands, and to prevent its transfer except subject to the right of such persons to assert their claims within the permitted limitation. We are here dealing with the right to collect the assets, and the Code provides, secs. 1000, 1001, that after the designation of the heir or heirs ab intestato by a final judgment or ruling of the court the proceedings shall be continued according to the procedure prescribed for testamentary proceedings, and the judge may order that all the property, books and papers of the intestate be turned over to the heirs, and that the administrator render his account of his administration of the estate, and thereupon judicial intervention shall cease. It seems to us manifest that the effect of these proceedings is to permit the heir ab intestato, after such final decision, to receive and collect the estate. It may be that others will establish an interest in the property for which the heir will have to respond, and it is specially provided that, for the purpose of transfer, property shall not be deemed clear until after five years have elapsed. But this does not require that the collection of debts shall be delayed for a like period or that they shall be paid to the legally declared heir or heirs, upon,pain of being required to respond to others who may within the limitation permitted establish a right to the property. Such construction would seem to be unreasonable, and we are cited to no authority that goes to that extent. It is opposed to the practice of the civil law upon which the Code of Porto Rico is based, in which system the heir by intestacy corresponded with the common law administrator, except that the Roman heir was entitled to administer both the real and personal estate. Story on Conflict of laws, $ 508.

In the present case the first installment was due on May 15,

1893, and was paid into court of first instance according to its order and a receipt given therefor under the seal of the court on June 22, 1893. This was done before any proceedings were instituted by the plaintiff in error. The payment was made under the order of the court, and we see no reason why the defendant in error should not be discharged thereby.

As to the second installment, other considerations apply. Sarria testified that while this installment fell due on May 15, 1894, he paid the same on April 1, 1894, to Maria Belen, which payment, he says, was solemnized by a notarial act duly acknowledged. As to this payment, the court in its charge took the view that the contentious suit of Adolfo Sixto was not commenced until April 4, 1894, of which fact Sarria was not notified until June 5, 1894, and therefore Maria Belen had the right to collect this payment. The suit of April 4, 1894, was the one begun by Adolfo Sixto after the decision against him in the court of first instance, holding that he could only contest the right of Maria Belen by a contentious proceeding, from which the plaintiff in error took an appeal, but abandoned the same, and on April 4, 1894, amended the suit to a contentious proceeding, making Maria Belen a party defendant, and seeking for an order to the registrar to make a cautionary order touching the property in controversy, and also an order to the defendant in error requiring him to retain at the disposition of the court whatever sums he owed to the estate of Manuel Sixto, deceased. On the day of the beginning of this contentious suit, Sarria paid to Maria Belen, anticipating the maturity of the installment by more than a month, the amount which would have fallen due on the fifteenth day of May following.

We think that, in view of the testimony produced, the validity of this payment should have been submitted to the jury under proper instructions. The plaintiff testified that he was known to the defendant, and that the latter was well aware that he was a son of Manuel Sixto, deceased. The proceeding to declare his rights had been begun. It is evident