G.R. No. L-4604 Case Digest

G.R. No. L-4604 January 12, 1909

Gutierrez Hermanos, plaintiff-appellees

vs Antonio de la Riva, defendant-appellant

Ponente: Willard

Facts:

Harmanos is a general partnership in Manila engaged in the purchase of hemp, copra and other products. dela Riva became the owner of a business consisted in the purchase of products to Manila in 1903. Business relations were established between plaintiff and the defendant, and a n account was opened between them. The balance due on December 31,1903 this current account was agreed by the parties. In August, a receiver of dela Riva in Catanduanes was appointed which caused the business relations between two companies to cease. So, Hermanos made a demand on the account balance from dela Riva. Payment was refused. Hermanos brought this action asking for the payment with interest. Dela Riva made objections to different items in the account as well as on the currency used.

Held:

After a careful study of all the evidence relating to this counterclaim, we agree entirely with the above-quoted conclusions of the court below. It is very improbable that the plaintiffs ever agreed with the defendants to pay Molina the purchase price of this property. If they had made such agreement they would themselves have bought the property, and that agreement would undoubtedly have appeared somewhere in writing. That the plaintiffs did make large advances to the defendant upon the purchase by him of the business appears in the evidence. They paid the first installment of P33,000 due Molina at the time the contract was made, by crediting Molina with the amount upon the current account which they had with him, and charging the same amount to the defendant in his current account. It moreover appears that before they had received any money or other property from the defendant they had made other advances to him, to such an amount that, as De la Riva himself testified, from the beginning he owed them P60,000.

The failure to pay the second installment due Molina cannot, we think, be attributed to plaintiffs. In the property sold by Molina to De la Riva were included claims against various persons in Catanduanes, amounting to a large sum. Prior to the time when the second installment became due the defendant had notified the plaintiffs that some of these claims could not be collected, and in view of the fact that Molina in the contract that guaranteed their payment he insisted that the amount of the uncollectible debts, which, as he afterwards stated in a counterclaim presented against Molina reached the sum of P72,000, should be deducted from the price. Molina's agent was notified that this claim and refused to admit it. No agreement could be reached between the parties, and Molina commenced his second action, as has been stated, in August, 1905. It is true that the defendant testified that he repeatedly asked the plaintiffs to pay this second installment, but the documentary evidence indicates that he insisted upon some allowance by reason of the uncollectible debts.

The judgment of the court below is modified, by changing the amount thereof, to wit, P94,222.50, to P93,963.30, and with this modification it is affirmed and judgment ordered against the defendant for P93,963.30, with interest thereon from the 1st of January, 1906, at 8 per cent per annum, and the costs of the First Instance. No costs will be allowed to either party in this court.