Biographies of Former Chief Justices

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Liana Fiol Matta

Chief Justice 2014-2016

Hon. Liana Fiol Matta graduated from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, where she obtained a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, in 1970. While in law school, she served as editor-in-chief of the Law Review. In 1988, she obtained an LL.M. from Columbia University (New York), where she also earned a J.S.D. in 1996.

After holding several important positions in the Government of Puerto Rico, from which she most notably contributed to the enactment of laws that protect consumer and women’s rights, she went on to become a professor. From 1978 to 1988, she worked as an associate professor, first at the Inter American University School of Law and later at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. Between 1988 and 1990, she worked as an advisor to the governor, specialized in the areas of Planning and Natural Resources, Women’s Rights, and Public Management. In 1992, she was appointed judge of the Court of Appeals, although she continued teaching at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico School of Law and the University of Puerto Rico School of Law.

From 1993 to 1995, Fiol Matta formed part of a Supreme Court Special Commission on Gender Discrimination in the Courts. From 1996 to 2002, she held the position of Administrative Judge of the Court of Appeals.

Fiol Matta has authored multiple legal papers published in Puerto Rico and the United States. She has constantly advocated for women’s rights and environmental conservation. In 1975, designated International Women’s Year, she received an award from the Bar Association of Puerto Rico for her contributions to legislation in her country. In 2002, she chaired a committee whose report, Educación Judicial para el Siglo XXI (“Judicial Education for the 21st Century”), led to the creation of the Puerto Rico Judicial Academy in 2003. That same year, she became the dean of the Judicial Academy and chair of its Academic Board. In addition, she is a Full Member of the Puerto Rican Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation since 2002.

On February 19, 2004, she took office as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court after being appointed by the governor of Puerto Rico, Sila María Calderón. On April 11, 2014, Governor Alejandro García Padilla appointed her as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. On May 22 of the same year, she was unanimously confirmed by the Senate of Puerto Rico.

In 2014, Justice Fiol Matta was also elected to the prestigious Standing Commission on Gender and Access to Justice of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit, which develops projects and proposals to promote gender perspective within the various Judicial Branches, among other issues. She held the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court until January 31, 2016, when she retired.

Federico Hernández Denton

Chief Justice 2004- 2014

Federico Hernández Denton was born on April 12, 1944, in Santurce, Puerto Rico.  In 1966, he obtained a B.A from Harvard University, where he also earned an LL.B. in 1969. He started his career as legal advisor to Jaime Benítez, who at the time was the president of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). Starting in 1970, he held several positions at the UPR College of Business Administration: professor of Business Law, director of the Center of Commercial Research (1969-1972), and founder and director of the Consumer Affairs Research Institute (1970-1972).

Due to his professional aptitude and solid academic background, Governor Luis A. Ferré recruited him in 1972 for the Special Committee on Puerto Rico and the Sea. From 1973 to 1977, he served as Secretary of Consumer Affairs. Hernández Denton also held a faculty position at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico School of Law, where he later served as dean from 1977 to 1985. He also directed the Clinical Program and the Foundation for Puerto Rican Studies from 1977 to 1980 and participated in the creation of Oficina de Servicios Legales de Santurce, from 1981 to 1985.

During 1978 and 1980, he was member of the Bar Association’s Governing Board, and from 1982 to 1985, he served on the Board of Directors of Puerto Rico Legal Services. Between 1983 and 1985, he chaired the Advisory Council of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the bill that eventually established the Uniform Administrative Procedures Actin Puerto Rico. In addition, he authored several professional articles that were published in professional journals, and he also directed the research conducted at the Center of Commercial Research and the Consumer Affairs Research Institute of the University of Puerto Rico.

After an extensive career in public service, especially in the fields of legal education, administrative law, and consumer law, Governor Rafael Hernández Colón appointed him associate justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico on June 14, 1985.  From this position, he chaired the Board of Bar Examiners for sixteen years. Nineteen years later, on August 9, 2004, Governor Sila María Calderón appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, a prestigious legal entity in the United States.

He served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court until April 12, 2014, when he retired as mandated by Article V, Section 10 of our Constitution. The work of the Hernández Denton Court focused on three core areas: equity in the access to justice, the modernization of the Judicial Branch, and transparency in the judicial processes.

The projects to achieve a greater equity in the access to justice included expanding the Drug Courts to ten judicial regions, establishing the Specialized Domestic Violence Court, integrating the Family and Minors Division, the Juvenile Drug Court, the implementation of a Protocol for Homeless Persons, the Specialized Mental Health Court, the expansion of Conflict Mediation Centers to all thirteen judicial regions, and the Court Improvement Project.

Projects to modernize the Judicial Branch were also launched while he was Chief Justice, such as the Master Roll of Attorneys, the Electronic Notary Registry, the digitization of procedures at the Office of Notarial Inspections and the Board of Bar Examiners, and the Unified Case Management and Administration System. The creation of the latter allowed for the implementation of the long-awaited and very necessary electronic filing system in January 2014. Other noteworthy initiatives include the launch of a mobile application for attorneys and for the community, allowing access information on Judicial Branch cases and services from their phones or mobile devices.

Justice Hernández Denton’s tenure will also be remembered for having opened proceedings to the media. He collaborated with the professional media organizations to develop and implement a protocol to provide the press with access to the courts of puerto rico and access to information on judicial proceedings. This protocol, a groundbreaking and visionary document, has been internationally recognized as a best practice and been used as a template for other judicial branches. The Supreme Court also took a significant step during his tenure by agreeing to the long-standing claim to allow cameras into court proceedings and by also allowing the use of new web-based technologies so journalists can cover events in such proceedings in rela time.

In the legal sphere, Justice Hernández Denton’s work stands out for his contributions in various fields of law, such as family law, the rights of legislative minorities, access to public information and court proceedingss, and the right to privacy, among others. With twenty-nine years of service in the Supreme Court, ten of them as Chief Justice, Federico Hernández Denton goes down in history as one of the judges with the longest careers in our Supreme Court.

Miriam Naveira Merly

Chief Justice 2003-2004

Miriam Naveira Merly was born on July 28, 1934, in Santurce, Puerto Rico. She studied at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, in New York City, earning a B.S. in Chemistry. She then returned to Puerto Rico to study law at the University of Puerto Rico and obtained an LL.M. from Columbia University, New York. In 1972, she pursued postgraduate studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She began her professional career as a law clerk in the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, first under then Associate Justice Lino Saldaña and later under Chief Justice Luis Negrón Fernández.

In 1966, she became the first woman to hold the position of Assistant Secretary of Justice in charge of Antitrust Affairs. She was also the first woman to hold the position of Solicitor General of Puerto Rico, from 1973 to 1976. In 1985, Georgetown University in Washington D.C. recognized her with an honorary J.S.D., while her alma mater, College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York, honored her with the same distinction on May 20, 1995.

On June 11, 1985, she became the first woman to hold the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. On December 30, 2003, she became the first woman to be sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. She held this position until her retirement in July of 2004. She passed away on April 15, 2018.

José Andreu García

Chief Justice 1992-2003

José Andreu García was born on September 18, 1937, in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. In 1958, he graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a B.A. in Social Sciences, with a major in Economics. That same year, he was admitted into the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, where he earned his LL.B. in 1961.He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court that same year.

In 1963, he was appointed district judge, a position he held until 1965, when he was appointed assistant district attorney. In 1966, he was promoted to the position of district attorney, which he held in Mayagüez until 1969. He was then appointed superior court judge, which position he held until 1973. As superior court judge, he was assigned to the civil division of the court in Ponce and later to the criminal division in San Juan, where he served as assistant administrative judge. He was also member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Public Buildings Authority from 1975 to 1977.

In August of 1990, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. On February 4, 1992, he was appointed and later confirmed as Chief Justice, which office he held until his retirement in September of 2003. He passed away on January 10, 2019.

Víctor M. Pons

Chief Justice 1985 – 1992

Víctor Pons was born on April 5, 1935, in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. He attended the University of Puerto Rico, where he obtained a B.A. in 1956 and an LL.B. in 1959. He was in the private practice from 1959 to 1985, with a brief pause from 1973-1974, during which time he served as Secretary of State.

He has been a member of various boards and committees, including at the Council for Higher Education (1966-1971), Asociación Puertorriqueña Pro Bienestar de la Familia (1970, 1975-1977), the Chamber of Commerce (1971-1972), the Governor’s Financial Council (1974), the Ad Hoc Committee for the Development of the Commonwealth (1974-1976), and Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín. In 1985, Governor  Rafael Hernández Colón appointed him as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  On December 18, 1985, he was sworn into office, which he held until his retirement in 1992. He passed away on November 11, 1999.

José Trías Monge

Chief Justice 1974 – 1985

José Trías Monge was born on May 5, 1920, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1940, he earned a B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico, and in 1943, he obtained a M.A. from Harvard University, from which institution’s law school he graduated a year later. In 1947, he completed his J.S.D. at Yale University.

From 1947 to 1949, he taught at the University of Puerto Rico. In 1949, he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of Puerto Rico. In 1951, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. From 1953 to 1957, he served as Secretary of Justice. He was also member of the Council for Higher Education from 1967 to 1972. On April 19, 1974, Governor Rafael Hernández Colón appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, which position he held until his retirement on October 20, 1985.

Pedro Pérez Pimentel

Chief Justice 1973 – 1974

Pedro Pérez Pimentel was born in Vieques in April of 1904. He studied law at the University of Puerto Rico and graduated in 1927. From 1927 to 1942, he practiced law in Humacao. After serving three years as legal advisor to the Treasurer of Puerto Rico (1942-1945), he entered a career in the judicial system. He began as district judge in Guayama (1945), in Humacao (1945-1949), and in San Juan (1949-1952).

In 1952, Governor Luis Muñoz Marín appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. He temporarily served as acting Chief Justice from 1972 to 1973 and in 1973 Governor Hernández Colón appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which position he held until his retirement in 1974.

Luis Negrón Fernández

Chief Justice 1957 – 1972

Luis Negrón Fernández was born in Cataño in 1910. In 1934, he earned a law degree from the University of Puerto Rico and soon after started working in public service. He served as head of the Legal Division of the State Insurance Fund (1935-1938), district attorney in Humacao (1938-1940), assistant attorney of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico (1940-1945), and Attorney General of Puerto Rico (1947-1948).

In 1948, President Truman appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, and in 1957, he became Chief Justice by appointment of Governor Muñoz Marín. After his retirement in 1971, he was appointed for the second time to the office of Chief Justice, which he held until 1972. He passed away on December 1, 1986.

Jaime Sifre Dávila

Chief Justice 1957-1957

Jaime Sifre Dávila was born on November 23, 1888, in Vega Baja. In 1908, he obtained an LL.B. from University of Michigan. He worked in public service for many years. He served as municipal court judge in San Germán (1911-1912), assistant attorney in San Juan (1912-1914), and General Special Prosecutor (1914-1919).

Governor Luis Muñoz Marín appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on August 25, 1952. Subsequently, on September 16, 1957, he took office as Chief Justice. He held this office briefly, until he resigned on November 24 of the same year. He passed away on October 6, 1960.

Cecil Snyder

Chief Justice 1953-1957

Aaron Cecil Snyder was born on September 14, 1907, in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied at Baltimore City College and John Hopkins University. In 1930, he graduated with a law degree from Harvard University. From 1930 to 1933, he was in the private practice. In 1933, he was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, position he held until President Roosevelt appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1942. In 1953, Governor Luis Muñoz Marín appointed him Chief Justice. His was the first Supreme Court appointment made by a Puerto Rican governor. He resigned his position as Chief Justice in 1957. He passed away on June 29, 1959.

Roberto H. Todd

Chief Justice 1951-1952

Roberto H. Todd was born in New York on March 6, 1891. He studied law at National University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1912. From 1912 to 1914, he completed postgraduate studies in Law at Universidad Central de Madrid. Starting in 1917, he hegan is carrer in the public service. He served as a law clerk for the Department of Justice (1917-1923), Assistant Attorney General (1923-1925), and District Court judge (now Superior Court) in Ponce (1925-1938) and in San Juan (1938-1941).

On February 20, 1941, President Roosevelt appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. On August 29, 1951, President Truman appointed him Chief Justice, which position he held until his retirement in 1952. In June of 1958, he received a Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the University of Puerto Rico. He passed away on June 10, 1973.

Angel R. De Jesús

Chief Justice 1948-1951

Angel R. De Jesús was born in Ciales on August 9, 1891. After graduating from Central High School in Santurce in 1910, he studied law at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In 1913, he earned his law degree and passed the bar exam. In 1915, he was appointed municipal court judge and served in Juana Díaz. He then went served as municipal court judge in Coamo and in San Juan. In 1918, after being in the private practice for some time, he was appointed federal bankruptcy judge, which position he held for twelve years.

In 1930, he was appointed judge of the District Court of San Juan, and in 1938, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In 1948—ten years later—President Truman appointed him Chief Justice, which position he held until his death on April 30, 1951.

Martín Travieso

Chief Justice 1944-1948

Martín Travieso was born in Mayagüez on July 6, 1882. In 1903, he earned his law degree from Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York. He was member of Puerto Rico Executive Cabinet from 1908 to 1914, and in 1914, he was appointed Secretary of State of Puerto Rico. He was the first Puerto Rican to hold that position.

In 1917, he was elected to the Senate in representation of the Unionist Party (Partido Unión) of Puerto Rico. President Roosevelt appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1936 and later as Chief Justice, which he held from 1944 to 1948. After retiring from the Supreme Court, he returned to politics and ran for governor, representing a collation of the Reformist Party, Statehood Party, and the Socialist Party. He passed away in January of 1971.

Emilio del Toro Cuebas

Chief Justice 1922-1943

Emilio del Toro Cuebas was born in Cabo Rojo on June 4, 1876. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Instituto de Segunda Enseñaza and earned his law degree from the University of Havana in 1897. In 1898, he was admitted to practice law in Puerto Rico. After seven years of practice, he started his career in the judicial system. In 1898, he held the position of assistant attorney of the Criminal Court in Mayagüez. Later, he served as prosecutor in the district courts of Humacao and San Juan and as General Assistant Prosecutor of Puerto Rico. He later was appointed Supreme Court Prosecutor and Judge of the District Court of San Juan. In 1909, President Taft appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and in 1922 President Harding appointed him Chief Justice, which position he held until his retirement in 1943. He passed away on November 10, 1955.

José Conrado Hernández

Chief Justice 1909-1922

José Conrado Hernández was born in Aibonito on February 19, 1849. In 1865, he earned a B.A. In 1873, he obtained a degree in Civil and Canon Law from the University of Salamanca, and he later earned a doctorate in Theology from Colegio Central de Salamanca. In 1874, he was admitted to practice law in Puerto Rico. He held several prominent positions in the Judicial Branch, including: Judge of First Instance in Aguadilla, Mayagüez, and Santiago de Cuba; Judge of the Courts of Pinar del Río and of Santa Clara in Cuba; Judge of the Territorial Courts of Cebu and of Manila in the Philippines; Judge of the Territorial Court of Puerto Rico; and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico from 1909 to 1922. He passed away on June 20, 1932.

José Severo Quiñonez

Chief Justice 1900-1909

José Severo Quiñones was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on November 6, 1839. In 1854, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy. He studied his first two years of Law at the University of Seville and completed his degree at Universidad Central de Madrid in 1860. In 1862, he was admitted to practice law before the Territorial Court of Puerto Rico.

He held important governmental positions, including: Vice President of the Provincial Council (1871-1873); Acting Intendent General for the Ministry of Finance (1897-1998); Chief Administrative Officer; Secretary of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce; and Delegate to the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. In the field of Law, he served as Prosecutor, Alternate Judge (Magistrado Suplente), and President of the Territorial Court (Audiencia Territorial) of Puerto Rico, as well as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1900-1909). He passed away on March 6, 1909.