whether-puerto-rico-courts-can-foreclose-access-to-relief-from-appellate-court-judgments

QUESTION PRESENTED FOR REVIEW Petitioners learned that a Puerto Rico Court of Appeals (“Court of Appeals”) judgment issued in the year 2020 unjustly and erroneously condemning them to pay a multimillion-dollar judgment for allegedly tortiously Interfering with a loan agreement was based on misrepresentations made at the appellate level by Respondent. In response, Petitioners promptly filed a motion for relief of judgment, pursuant to Puerto Rico Rule of Civil Procedure 49.2 (“Rule 49.2”), before the Puerto Rico Court of First Instance as required. However, and unexpectedly, the Puerto Rico Court of First Instance (“Court of First Instance”) and the Court of Appeals both ruled that the former lacked jurisdiction to entertain such a motion because it could not revise judgments issued by courts of higher hierarchy. Questions presented: 1. Whether Puerto Rico Courts can foreclose all access to relief from appellate court judgments despite ii Rule 49.2’s clear language stating that Courts of First Instance may rule on motions requesting relief from appellate court judgments if the former (i) identifies merit in the request and (ii) seeks prior leave of the appellate court to revise the judgment. 2. Whether the Puerto Rico Courts can limit the use of Rule 49.2 revisory discretion solely to flagrant violations rather than to a judgment issued by “mistake” or due to misrepresentation, by simply ruling that the issue could have been previously raised.