P.R. Laws tit. 31, § 3276
Should the original instrument, the protocol, and the original record have disappeared, the following shall constitute evidence:
(1) First copies made by the public official who authenticated them.
(2) Subsequent copies issued by virtue of a judicial mandate, after citing the persons interested.
(3) Those which, without a judicial mandate, may have been taken in the presence of the persons interested and with their consent.
In the absence of the said copies, any other copies, thirty (30) or more years old, shall be evidence, provided they have been taken from the original by the official who authenticated them or by any other in charge of their custody.
Copies less than thirty (30) years old, or which may be authenticated by a public official, in which the circumstances mentioned in the preceding paragraph do not concur, shall serve only as a basis of written evidence.
The force of proof of copies of a copy shall be weighed by the courts according to the circumstances.
History —Civil Code, 1930, § 1175.