(a) A body corporate and politic is hereby created constituting a public corporation or an autonomous governmental instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico by the name of Land Authority of Puerto Rico, which corporation shall hereafter be known as the “Authority”. The Authority is hereby authorized and empowered to create, with the approval of the Governor of Puerto Rico, such domestic subsidiary corporations as it may deem proper to carry out the purposes of §§ 241 et seq. of this title. Said subsidiaries shall have their own juridic personality and shall have such purposes, powers and faculties as are assigned to it by the Authority and by §§ 241 et seq. of this title.
(b) The powers of the Authority and of each of its subsidiaries shall be exercised and their general policies shall be determined by a governing board (hereafter known as the “Board”) composed of the Secretary of Agriculture, who shall be its chairman, and four additional members who shall be appointed by the Governor of Puerto Rico and who shall hold office as such at the pleasure of the appointing authority and until their successors have been duly appointed and have qualified. The said members of the Board shall receive no compensation for their services as such. The Board may adopt such rules, regulations and procedures as it may deem necessary or advisable to conduct its business and to exercise the powers of the Authority and of its subsidiary corporations. The regulations of the Authority and those of each of the subsidiaries, which shall be approved by the Board, may provide that such powers and duties of the Authority and of the subsidiaries as the Board may deem proper, may be delegated to the executive directors, or other officers, agents, or employees. The Board shall send a copy of these regulations to the Legislative Assembly.
(c) The Authority and its subsidiaries shall, as public corporations, have legal existence and legal personality separate and apart from those of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and, consequently, the debts, obligations, contracts, bonds, notes, promissory notes, receipts, expenditures, accounts, funds, printed matter, and property of the Authority and of its subsidiaries, as well as the officers, agents, or employees thereof, shall be understood as being of the said corporations and not of either the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or any of the offices, bureaus, departments, commissions, dependencies, municipalities, branches, agents, officers, or employees thereof.
(d) The Authority is hereby empowered to assign and convey to subsidiaries created hereunder franchises, licenses, permits, trademarks, records and personnel of the Authority. The assignment and conveyance of franchises, licenses, permits, trademarks, and records may be made gratuitously in the cases of subsidiaries whose stock are owned entirely by the Authority. In all other cases such assignment or conveyance shall be made through adequate financial agreement.
(e) The Authority and each of the subsidiary corporations created under §§ 241 et seq. of this title shall be severally liable for the obligations contracted by the Land Authority up to the time of the creation of each subsidiary.
(f) All rights, privileges, exemptions, powers and faculties conferred on the Authority are likewise conferred on any subsidiary corporation which may be established, except where otherwise provided in the Land Law of Puerto Rico; Provided, That the articles of incorporation, corporate bylaws, rules, orders and other provisions, officially established by any subsidiary corporation, may limit the application or use by such subsidiary of any of said rights, privileges, exemption, powers and faculties.
History —Apr. 12, 1941, No. 26, p. 388, § 2; May 15, 1950, No. 429, p. 1048, § 1; May 28, 1954, No. 46, p. 260, § 8; June 30, 1955, No. 106, p. 622, § 1; June 27, 1958, No. 131, p. 315, § 1.