State Act

Code of Comunidades of 1961

Art. 397 – The appeals and complaints against the resolutions of the comunidade or their managing committee, which are within the powers of the administrator to decide and for which no special procedure has been laid down in the Code, shall be filed within ten days from the date on which they become known, if the appellant or complainant has taken part in the resolution or if he has been communicated and in other cases within fifteen days of the resolution. §1. The appeal shall be filed by an application setting the due grounds and submitted, in person or through a legal counsel to the clerk of the comunidade or the secretary of the administration office who shall give a receipt for it, indicating the date of receipt and recording the said date in the margin of the application. §2. The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply to the complaints. §3. If the appeal or the complaint is submitted to the clerk of the comunidades, he shall attach to the same, a copy of the impugned resolution contested and the respective documents, specially those mentioned in the appeal, obtaining authenticate copy of the same, if it is not possible to obtain the originals from archives and within three days shall forward it to the president, who shall convene the meeting of the comunidade within three days, following the formalities prescribed in the article 33 and its paragraphs or a meeting of the managing committee depending on whether the appeal or complaint has been filed against the resolution of former or latter, so that they may submit their reply. §4. If the appeal or the complaint is submitted to the secretary of the administration office, he shall annex to the same a copy of the resolution, if it was submitted earlier to the administration office, and other relevant documents in his possession and with the order of the administrator he shall forward it within three days to the clerk of the comunidade for him to follow the procedure prescribed in the preceding paragraph. §5. All the appeals or complaints shall be duly processed. §6. After the appeals or complaint has been forwarded to the administration office, with the reply referred to in the final part of paragraph 3, the evidence shall be led if so applied by the parties, or if the administrator so directs. §7. The files shall be made available to the advocate of the parties, for a period of ten days, for examination only for the purpose of filing arguments, in case a wakalatnama is attached to the file. §8. The attorney of the comunidade shall issue wakalatnama to a lawyer as soon as he comes to know of an appeal against the comunidade and if he has not done so until the file is sent to the administration office, he shall be notified for this purpose, save when there is no need of a lawyer, but in such case the decision shall be communicated personally to the attorney. §9. What is prescribed in the preceding chapter shall be followed in all other matters.