Pedro Amezquita v. Rafael Hernandez Colon

McENTEE, Circuit Judge.

This civil rights action raises the question of what constitutional rights the members of a squatter community have in dealing with eviction at the hands of the governmental landowner. 1 The district court’s findings of fact are set forth in the opinion below, 378 F.Supp. 737 (D.P.R. 1974), so we only summarize them here. Sometime on or before January 18, 1974, a group of squatters occupied part of a farm owned by the Land Authority of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and began setting up a community popularly called Villa Pangóla. Shortly thereafter the Land Authority…