I much regret the constantly recurring duty of addressing disagreeable
dispatches to the Nicaraguan Government, but when the judge of a court
presumes to ignore an international agreement and substitute therefor
his judicial decision, given on ex parte evidence, it appears to me
unavoidable. In a letter from Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul Bingham,
dated San Juan del Norte, July 9, he writes:
Judge Roman may possibly ignore the fund in the hands of Consul Bingham
and proceed against the merchants by again seizing their property in
order to enforce a third payment, in which case I shall promptly advise
the Department.
I beg to inclose herewith copy and translation of Judge Roman’s
“sentence” against the Bluefields merchants, which needs no comment
further than that his assurance is equal to any judicial action that he
may be ordered to take.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Judiciary of the Bluefields
District
,
May 25,
1900
.
Considered the present demand instituted by Don Tomas Infante, of
legal age, bookkeeper, and of this vicinity, in representation of
the Hacienda Publica of Nicaragua as administrator of revenue of the
department of Zelaya, the 7th November, 1899, against Samuel Weil
& Co., New Orleans Central American Trading Company, and Allen
& Caldwell of this vicinity; Jacob Albert Peterson and Samuel
Dean Spellman, of legal age and of this vicinity, and Orr &
Laubenheimer, residents Rama, all merchants, for the amount or
values that are charged for customs duties that they owe to the
national treasury or Hacienda Publica of Nicaragua since before the
25th of February of the aforesaid year.
Procedure in rebellion of the accused because they did not appear in
person nor name an attorney, as they were advised to do in act
November 7 aforesaid, taken as answered the demand in act of April 2
of this year, and it was opened for evidence the 11th of the same
April for the term of thirty days, the which completed, the
plaintiff completing the copy of the good proof, committed his
conclusions in writing the 12th of the present month of May, on
which date copy was sent to the defendants, who made no use of
it.
Considered: That the defendants neither alleged nor proved anything,
for which reason this authority has to abide by the allegations and
proofs of the plaintiff in order to decide article 375, Pr, N, E.
Considering that the demand has been interposed [Page 818] without being ignorant that the
accused gave the agents of the rebellion, initiated the 3d February,
1899, amounts or values equivalent to the customs dues claimed, but
that does not excuse them from payment to the lawful creditor, since
it is known that they made no payment after the 3d and before the
24th of February aforesaid, because it is known and proven that Gen.
Juan Pablo Reyes Solis, recognized as governor intendente and
inspector-general of the Atlantic coast, duty that he was charged
with by the Government of Nicaragua, traitorously to this, created
himself chief of the same rebellion that Reyes promoted, from which
it results that consciously they made delivery of money to an
illegal organization.
That as much for this as for the wording of the number one of the
agreement of the 29th of April, 1899, the judgment has been
instructed upon the basis of the existence of the obligation
demanded.
Considering that the proof rendered by the claimant establishes as
demonstrated that the rebellion initiated the 3d February, 1899, was
not the work of the people, and can not be considered as a
revolution, but it was the treason carried out by Gen. Juan Pablo
Reyes Solis, who was before the legal authority, and, as such,
governed the department of Zelaya; therefore he had no need to
employ force to obtain the command or government of this region,
since his own treachery was enough, from which it should not be
considered a de facto government, what was only an ephemera or
situation derived from the commission of a crime; that the change of
legitimate authority to chief of a rebellion by the aforesaid
treachery was notoriously known is shown by the fact of having fixed
public notice by the vice consuls and consular agents of England and
the United States notifying their fellow-citizens that they should
abstain from taking part in the political movements of the country
that Gen. Juan Pablo Reyes Solis was effecting, and finally, that
North Americans, English, and other foreigners of different
nationalities took part in the rebellion in various ways—enlisting
in the ranks, furnishing provisions and even steamers to the rebels,
and even delivering to the agents of the rebellion amounts of money
that they owed to the legitimate Government for customs dues,
without their being obliged by force nor embargoes to do so; arts.
254, no book, and 284 P. N. E.
Considering that the reason given that treachery could not give as
result a de facto government, and that the payment made by the
accused merchants, knowing the crime committed by Gen. Juan Pablo
Reyes Solis and his subalterns, without the mediation of force nor
pressure was not good, which does not exempt them from the
obligation which they are under of paying those customs duties to
the legitimate creditor, or, that is, the national treasury of
Nicaragua; Art 1577 c. C.
Considering that in number three of the agreement of April 29, 1899,
between the minister of foreign relations of Nicaragua, Don Joaquin
Sanson, and the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of
the United States of America, Mr. William L. Merry, there is laid
down “the difficulty overcome once that it has been discussed before
whom it may appertain,” respecting which the organic law of
tribunals is very clear and conclusive, establishing in its article
70 that the judges of the district shall understand in the judgments
in which appears the Hacienda Publica, whose value exceeds $500.
With these grounds and in conformity with articles 198, 369 P. N.
E., and 70 of the law of October 3, 1899, I give judgment, declaring
that Samuel Weil & Co., Allen & Caldwell, Jacob Albert
Peterson, Samuel Dean Spellman, and Orr & Laubenheimer owe to
the fiscal or Hacienda Publica of Nicaragua the customs dues of
which the agreement of the 29th April of the year cited treats, and
that the present demands and condemns them to the payment of the
costs of this judgment. Notify them.
S. A. Roman and Reyes,
Franco Navarro, Sect.
This simple copy of the sentence agrees with the original and is
extended at the request of Dr. Duke W. Goodman, in Bluefields, July
18, 1900.
Before me,
Franco Navarro, Sect.
Bluefields, Nicaragua, July 14, 1900.
I hereby certify that the above and foregoing is a true and exact
copy of the original now in the office of the consular agency of
the United States at Bluefields, Nicaragua.
Duke W. Goodman,
Acting Consular
Agent.
