Soto-Rios v. Banco Popular De Puerto Rico

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• recognizing that \recording is a necessary prerequisite to 'valid constitution' \ of a mortgage under Puerto Rico law
• recognizing that “recording is a ‘constitutive’ act for a mortgage,” without which the creditor does not hold a mortgage but only an unsecured personal obligation
• holding that “[i]n Puerto Rico, the nature and effect of mortgages is governed by the Commonwealth's Mortgage and Property Registry Act of 1979 and portions of its Civil Code.”
• determining that creditor who \presented\ mortgage to the registrar before the debtors filed their petition obtained a pre-petition interest in the property
• “the bankruptcy trustee ... may ordinarily avoid any transfer of the property or obligation of the debtor to the extent allowed under state law”
• “[U]nder Puerto Rico law, the registration is a ‘constitutive’ act for a mortgage, and without the existence of a mortgage, a creditor only has an unsecured personal obligation regarding the underlying debt.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).