THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF JARO vs.

GREGORIO DE LA PEA FACTS : The plaintiff is the trustee of a charitable bequest made for the construction of a leper hospital and that father Agustin de la Pea was the duly authorized representative of the plaintiff to receive the legacy. The defendant is the administrator of the estate of Father De la Pea. In the year 1898 the books Father De la Pea, as trustee, showed that he had on hand as such trustee the sum of P6,641, collected by him for the charitable purposes aforesaid. In the same year he deposited in his personal account P19,000 in the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank at Iloilo. Shortly thereafter and during the war of the revolution, Father De la Pea was arrested by the military authorities as a political prisoner, and while thus detained made an order on said bank in favor of the United States Army officer under whose charge he then was for the sum thus deposited in said bank. The arrest of Father De la Pea and the confiscation of the funds in the bank were the result of the claim of the military authorities that he was an insurgent and that the funds thus deposited had been collected by him for revolutionary purposes. The money was taken from the bank by the military authorities by virtue of such order, was confiscated and turned over to the Government. While there is considerable dispute in the case over the question whether the P6,641 of trust funds was included in the P19,000 deposited as aforesaid, nevertheless, a careful examination of the case leads us to the conclusion that said trust funds were a part of the funds deposited and which were removed and confiscated by the military authorities of the United States. ISSUE : Whether or not Father de la Pea is liable for the loss of the money under his trust? RULINGS : The court, therefore, finds and declares that the money which is the subject matter of this action was deposited by Father De la Pea in the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation of Iloilo; that said money was forcibly taken from the bank by the armed forces of the United States during the war of the insurrection; and that said Father De la Pea was not responsible for its loss. Father De la Pea's liability is determined by those portions of the Civil Code which relate to obligations. (Book 4, Title 1.) Although the Civil Code states that "a person obliged to give something is also bound to preserve it with the diligence pertaining to a good father of a family" (art. 1094), it also provides, following the principle of the Roman law, major casus est, cui humana infirmitas

resistere non potest, that "no one shall be liable for events which could not be foreseen, or which having been foreseen were inevitable, with the exception of the cases expressly mentioned in the law or those in which the obligation so declares." (Art. 1105.) By placing the money in the bank and mixing it with his personal funds De la Pea did not thereby assume an obligation different from that under which he would have lain if such deposit had not been made, nor did he thereby make himself liable to repay the money at all hazards. If the had been forcibly taken from his pocket or from his house by the military forces of one of the combatants during a state of war, it is clear that under the provisions of the Civil Code he would have been exempt from responsibility. The fact that he placed the trust fund in the bank in his personal account does not add to his responsibility. Such deposit did not make him a debtor who must respond at all hazards.
CA AGRO-INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS CORP. vs. THE

FACTS : Is the contractual relation between a commercial bank and another party in a contract of rent of a safety deposit box with respect to its contents placed by the latter one of bailor and bailee or one of lessor and lessee? Petitioner (through its President, Sergio Aguirre) and the spouses Ramon and Paula Pugao entered into an agreement whereby the former purchased from the latter two (2) parcels of land. P75,725.00 was paid as downpayment while the balance was covered by three (3) postdated checks and based on the agreement the titles to the lots shall be transferred to the petitioner upon full payment of the purchase price and that the owner's copies of the certificates of titles thereto, Transfer Certificates of Title (TCT) Nos. 284655 and 292434, shall be deposited in a safety deposit box of any bank. The same could be withdrawn only upon the joint signatures of a representative of the petitioner and the Pugaos upon full payment of the purchase price. Petitioner, through Sergio Aguirre, and the Pugaos then rented Safety Deposit Box No. 1448 of private respondent Security Bank and Trust Company, a domestic banking corporation hereinafter referred to as the respondent Bank. For this purpose, both signed a contract of lease stating that the nank is not depositary of the contents of the safe neither the possession nor control of the same and assumes absolutely no liability in connection therewith. Thereafter, a certain Mrs. Margarita Ramos offered to buy from the petitioner the two (2) lots at a price of P225.00 per square meter which, as petitioner alleged in its complaint, translates to a profit of P100.00 per square meter or a total of P280,500.00 for the entire property. Mrs. Ramos demanded the execution of a deed of sale which necessarily entailed the production of the certificates of title. In view thereof, Aguirre, accompanied by the Pugaos, then proceeded to the respondent Bank on 4 October 1979 to open the safety deposit box and get the certificates of title. However, when opened in the presence of the Bank's representative, the box yielded no such certificates. Hence, the latter filed on 1 September 1980 a complaint 2 for damages against the respondent Bank with the Court of First Instance. In its answer with counterclaim, respondent bank alleges that the petitioner has no cause of action because of the provisions stated in the contract of lease.

The trial court rendered a decision adverse to the petitioner. The unfavorable verdict is based on the trial court's conclusion that under paragraphs 13 and 14 of the contract of lease, the Bank has no liability for the loss of the certificates of title. The court declared that the said provisions are binding on the parties. ISSUE : the contractual relation between a commercial bank and another party in a contract of rent of a safety deposit box with respect to its contents placed by the latter one of bailor and bailee or one of lessor and lessee? RULINGS : We observe, however, that the deposit theory itself does not altogether find unanimous support even in American jurisprudence. We agree with the petitioner that under the latter, the prevailing rule is that the relation between a bank renting out safe-deposit boxes and its customer with respect to the contents of the box is that of a bail or and bailee, the bailment being for hire and mutual benefit. 21 This is just the prevailing view because: There is, however, some support for the view that the relationship in question might be more properly characterized as that of landlord and tenant, or lessor and lessee. It has also been suggested that it should be characterized as that of licensor and licensee. The relation between a bank, safe-deposit company, or storage company, and the renter of a safe-deposit box therein, is often described as contractual, express or implied, oral or written, in whole or in part. But there is apparently no jurisdiction in which any rule other than that applicable to bailments governs questions of the liability and rights of the parties in respect of loss of the contents of safe-deposit boxes. 22 (citations omitted) It is not correct to assert that the Bank has neither the possession nor control of the contents of the box since in fact, the safety deposit box itself is located in its premises and is under its absolute control; moreover, the respondent Bank keeps the guard key to the said box. As stated earlier, renters cannot open their respective boxes unless the Bank cooperates by presenting and using this guard key. Clearly then, to the extent above stated, the foregoing conditions in the contract in question are void and ineffective. It has been said: With respect to property deposited in a safe-deposit box by a customer of a safe-deposit company, the parties, since the relation is a contractual one, may by special contract define their respective duties or provide for increasing or limiting the liability of the deposit company, provided such contract is not in violation of law or public policy. It must clearly appear that there actually was such a special contract, however, in order to vary the ordinary obligations implied by law from the relationship of the parties; liability of the deposit company will not be enlarged or restricted by words of doubtful meaning. The company, in renting safe-deposit boxes, cannot exempt itself from liability for loss of the contents by its own fraud or negligence or that of its agents or servants, and if a provision of the contract may be construed as an attempt to do so, it will be held ineffective for the purpose. Although it has been held that the lessor of a safe-deposit box cannot limit its liability for loss of the contents thereof through its own negligence, the view has been taken that such a lessor may limits its liability to some extent by agreement or stipulation. 30 (citations omitted) Thus, we reach the same conclusion which the Court of Appeals arrived at, that is, that the petition should be dismissed, but on

grounds quite different from those relied upon by the Court of Appeals. In the instant case, the respondent Bank's exoneration cannot, contrary to the holding of the Court of Appeals, be based on or proceed from a characterization of the impugned contract as a contract of lease, but rather on the fact that no competent proof was presented to show that respondent Bank was aware of the agreement between the petitioner and the Pugaos to the effect that the certificates of title were withdrawable from the safety deposit box only upon both parties' joint signatures, and that no evidence was submitted to reveal that the loss of the certificates of title was due to the fraud or negligence of the respondent Bank. This in turn flows from this Court's determination that the contract involved was one of deposit. Since both the petitioner and the Pugaos agreed that each should have one (1) renter's key, it was obvious that either of them could ask the Bank for access to the safety deposit box and, with the use of such key and the Bank's own guard key, could open the said box, without the other renter being present. ANGEL JAVELLANA vs. JOSE LIM, ET AL. FACTS : The attorney for the plaintiff, Angel Javellana, file a complaint on the 30th of October, 1906, with the Court of First Instance of Iloilo, praying that the defendants, Jose Lim and Ceferino Domingo Lim, he sentenced to jointly and severally pay the sum of P2,686.58, with interest thereon at the rate of 15 per cent per annum from the 20th of January, 1898, until full payment should be made, deducting from the amount of interest due the sum of P1,102.16, and to pay the costs of the proceedings. Authority from the court having been previously obtained, the complaint was amended on the 10th of January, 1907; it was then alleged, on the 26th of May, 1897, the defendants executed and subscribed a document in favor of the plaintiff reading as follows: We have received from Angel Javellana, as a deposit without interest, the sum of two thousand six hundred and eighty-six cents of pesos fuertes, which we will return to the said gentleman, jointly and severally, on the 20th of January, 1898. - Jaro, 26th of May, 1897. - Signed Jose Lim. - Signed: Ceferino Domingo Lim. That, when the obligation became due, the defendants begged the plaintiff for an extension of time for the payment thereof, building themselves to pay interest at the rate of 15 per cent on the amount of their indebtedness, to which the plaintiff acceded; that on the 15th of May, 1902, the debtors paid on account of interest due the sum of P1,000 pesos, with the exception of either capital or interest, had thereby been subjected to loss and damages. A demurrer to the original complaint was overruled, and on the 4th of January, 1907, the defendants answered the original complaint before its amendment, setting forth that they acknowledged the facts stated in Nos. 1 and 2 of the complaint; that they admitted the statements of the plaintiff relative to the payment of 1,102.16 pesos made on the 15th of November, 1902, not, however, as payment of interest on the amount stated in the foregoing document, but on account of the principal, and denied that there had been any agreement as to an extension of the time for payment and the payment of interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum as alleged in paragraph 3 of the complaint, and also denied all the other statements contained therein. As a counterclaim, the defendants alleged that they had paid to the plaintiff sums which, together with the P1,102.16 acknowledged in the complaint, aggregated the total sum of P5,602.16, and that, deducting therefrom the total sum of P2,686.58 stated in the document transcribed in the complaint, the

plaintiff still owed the defendants P2,915.58; therefore, they asked that judgment be entered absolving them, and sentencing the plaintiff to pay them the sum of P2,915.58 with the costs. Evidence was adduced by both parties and, upon their exhibits, together with an account book having been made of record, the court below rendered judgment on the 15th of January, 1907, in favor of the plaintiff for the recovery of the sum of P5,714.44 and costs. The defendants excepted to the above decision and moved for a new trial. This motion was overruled and was also excepted to by them; the bill of exceptions presented by the appellants having been approved, the same was in due course submitted to this court. The document of indebtedness inserted in the complaint states that the plaintiff left on deposit with the defendants a given sum of money which they were jointly and severally obliged to return on a certain date fixed in the document; but that, nevertheless, when the document appearing as Exhibits 2, written in the Visayan dialect and followed by a translation into Spanish was executed, it was acknowledged, at the date thereof, the 15th of November, 1902, that the amount deposited had not yet been returned to the creditor, whereby he was subjected to losses and damages amounting to 830 pesos since the 20th of January, 1898, when the return was again stipulated with the further agreement that the amount deposited should bear interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum, from the aforesaid date of January 20, and that the 1,000 pesos paid to the depositor on the 15th of May, 1900, according to the receipt issued by him to the debtors, would be included, and that the said rate of interest would obtain until the debtors on the 20th of May, 1897, it is called a deposit consisted, and they could have accomplished the return agreed upon by the delivery of a sum equal to the one received by them. For this reason it must be understood that the debtors were lawfully authorized to make use of the amount deposited, which they have done, as subsequent shown when asking for an extension of the time for the return thereof, inasmuch as, acknowledging that they have subjected the letter, their creditor, to losses and damages for not complying with what had been stipulated, and being conscious that they had used, for their own profit and gain, the money that they received apparently as a deposit, they engaged to pay interest to the creditor from the date named until the time when the refund should be made. Such conduct on the part of the debtors is unquestionable evidence that the transaction entered into between the interested parties was not a deposit, but a real contract of loan. Article 1767 of the Civil Code provides that The depository can not make use of the thing deposited without the express permission of the depositor. Otherwise he shall be liable for losses and damages. Article 1768 also provides that When the depository has permission to make use of the thing deposited, the contract loses the character of a deposit and becomes a loan or bailment. The permission shall not be presumed, and its existence must be proven. When on one of the latter days of January, 1898, Jose Lim went to the office of the creditor asking for an extension of one year, in

view of the fact the money was scare, and because neither himself nor the other defendant were able to return the amount deposited, for which reason he agreed to pay interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum, it was because, as a matter of fact, he did not have in his possession the amount deposited, he having made use of the same in his business and for his own profit; and the creditor, by granting them the extension, evidently confirmed the express permission previously given to use and dispose of the amount stated as having bee deposited, which, in accordance with the loan, to all intents and purposes gratuitously, until the 20th of January, 1898, and from that dated with interest at 15 per cent per annum until its full payment, deducting from the total amount of interest the sum of 1,000 pesos, in accordance with the provisions of article 1173 of the Civil Code. Notwithstanding that it does not appear that Jose Lim signed the document (Exhibit 2) executed in the presence of three witnesses on the 15th of November, 1902, by Ceferino Domingo Lim on behalf of himself and the former, nevertheless, the said document has not been contested as false, either by a criminal or by a civil proceeding, nor has any doubt been cast upon the authenticity of the signatures of the witnesses who attested the execution of the same; and from the evidence in the case one is sufficiently convinced that the said Jose Lim was perfectly aware of and authorized his joint codebtor to liquidate the interest, to pay the sum of 1,000 pesos, on account thereof, and to execute the aforesaid document No. 2. A true ratification of the original document of deposit was thus made, and not the least proof is shown in the record that Jose Lim had ever paid the whole or any part of the capital stated in the original document, Exhibit 1. If the amount, together with interest claimed in the complaint, less 1,000 pesos appears as fully established, such is not the case with the defendant's counterclaim for P5,602.16, because the existence and certainty of said indebtedness imputed to the plaintiff has not been proven, and the defendants, who call themselves creditors for the said amount have not proven in a satisfactory manner that the plaintiff had received partial payments on account of the same; the latter alleges with good reason, that they should produce the receipts which he may have issued, and which he did issue whenever they paid him any money on account. The plaintiffs allegation that the two amounts of 400 and 1,200 pesos, referred to in documents marked "C" and "D" offered in evidence by the defendants, had been received from Ceferino Domingo Lim on account of other debts of his, has not been contradicted, and the fact that in the original complaint the sum of 1,102.16 pesos, was expressed in lieu of 1,000 pesos, the only payment made on account of interest on the amount deposited according to documents No. 2 and letter "B" above referred to, was due to a mistake. Moreover, for the reason above set forth it may, as a matter of course, be inferred that there was no renewal of the contract deposited converted into a loan, because, as has already been stated, the defendants received said amount by virtue of real loan contract under the name of a deposit, since the so-called bailees were forthwith authorized to dispose of the amount deposited. This they have done, as has been clearly shown. The original joint obligation contracted by the defendant debtor still exists, and it has not been shown or proven in the proceedings that the creditor had released Joe Lim from complying with his obligation in order that he should not be sued for or sentenced to pay the amount of capital and interest together with his codebtor, Ceferino Domingo Lim, because the record offers satisfactory evidence against the pretension of Jose Lim, and it further appears that document No. 2 was executed by the other debtor, Ceferino Domingo Lim, for himself and on behalf of Jose Lim; and it has

also been proven that Jose Lim, being fully aware that his debt had not yet been settled, took steps to secure an extension of the time for payment, and consented to pay interest in return for the concession requested from the creditor. In view of the foregoing, and adopting the findings in the judgment appealed from, it is our opinion that the same should be and is hereby affirmed with the costs of this instance against the appellant, provided that the interest agreed upon shall be paid until the complete liquidation of the debt. So ordered. Arellano, C.J., Carson, Willard and Tracey, JJ., concur. MANUEL GARCIA GAVIERES vs. T.H. PARDO DE TAVERA The present appeal has been interposed in the declarative action of greater import filed in the Court of First Instance of Tondo, commenced on January 10, 1900, by Don Manuel Garcia Gavieres as plaintiff and successor in interest of the deceased Doa Ignacia de Gorricho against Don Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera as universal heir of the deceased Don Felix Pardo de Tavera for the collection of a balance of 1,423 pesos 75 cents, remaining due on an original obligation of 3,000 pesos which, as the plaintiff alleges, was the amount of a deposit delivered by Doa Ignacia Gorricho, deceased, to Don Felix Pardo de Tavera, deceased, on the 31st day of October, 1859. The agreement between the parties appears in the following writing:

in force. The date of the document is January 31, 1859. The proof of payment in support of the defense we consider likewise sufficient to establish such defense. The document dated January 8, 1869, executed by Don Felix Garcia Gavieres, husband and legal representative of Doa Ignacia Gorricho, acknowledges the receipt of 1,224 pesos from Don Manuel Darvin, representative of the deceased Don Felix Pardo de Tavera. This sum is declared in said document to be the balance due upon the debt of 2,000 pesos. This was slightly more or less the amount which remained as due upon the original obligation after deducting the payment which are admitted to have been made. In the absence of evidence disclosing that there were other claims in favor of Gavieres it is reasonably to be supposed that this payment was made to satisfy the balance due upon the original obligation. The original contract between the parties was celebrated nearly a half century ago; the contracting parties have ceased to exist long since; it may be that there exists or may have existed documents proving a total payment between the parties and that this document has some time ago suffered the common fate of perishable things. He who by laches in the exercise of his rights has caused a failure of proof has no right to complain if the court does not apply the strict rules of evidence which are applicable in ordinary cases, and admits to a certain extent the presumption to which the conduct of the interest party himself naturally gives rise. It is our opinion that the judgment of the Court of First Instance should be affirmed, and it is so ordered, with costs of appeal taxed against the appellant. Arellano, C.J., Torres, Willard, and Mapa, JJ., concur. VICENTE DELGADO vs. PEDRO BONNEVIE When Pedro Bonnevie and Francisco Arandez formed in Nueva Caceres, Ambos Camarines, a regular general partnership for engaging in the business of threshing paddy, Vicente Delgado undertook to deliver to them paddy for this purpose to be cleaned and returned to him as rice, with the agreement of payment them 10 centimos for each cavan and to have returned in the rice onehalf the amount received as paddy. The paddy received for this purpose was credited by receipts made out in this way: "Receipt for (number) cavanes of paddy in favor of (owner of the paddy), Nueva Caceres, (day) of (month), 1898." And they issued to Vicente Delgado receipts Nos. 86-99 for a total of 2,003 cavanes and a half of paddy, from April 9 to June 8, 1898. On February 6, 1909, Vicente Delgado appeared in the Court of First Instance of Ambos Camarines with said receipts, demanding return of the said 2,003 and a half cavanes of paddy, or in the absence thereof, of the price of said article at the rate of 3 pesos the cavan of 6,009 pesos and 50 centimos, with the interest thereon at 6 percent a year reckoning from, November 21, 1905, until complete payment, and the costs. The plaintiff asked that the interest run from November 21, 1905, because on that date his counsel demanded of the defendants, Bonnevie and Arandez, their partnership having been dissolved, that they settle the accounts in this matter. The court decided the case by sentencing the defendant, Pedro Bonnevie and Francisco Arandez, to pay to Vicente Delgado two thousand seven hundred and fifty-four pesos and 81 centimos (2,754.81), the value of 2,003 cavanes of paddy at the rate of 11 reales the cavan and 6 percent interest on said sum reckoned from November 21, 1905, and the costs.

Received of Seorita Ignacia de Gorricho the sum of 3,000 pesos, gold (3,000 pesos), as a deposit payable on two months' notice in advance, with interest at 6 per cent per annum with an hypothecation of the goods now owned by me or which may be owned hereafter, as security of the payment. In witness whereof I sign in Binondo, January 31, 1859. FELIX PARDO DE TAVERA.

The defendant answering complaint of plaintiff alleges among other things as a defense, that the document upon which the complaint is based was not a contract of deposit as alleged in the complaint, but a contract of loan, and setting forth furthermore the payment of the original obligation as well as the prescription of the action. The defendant contends that the document upon which the action is based is not evidence of a deposit, as the plaintiff maintains, but of a contract of loan, and that the prescription applicable to loans has extinguished the right of action. Although in the document in question a deposit is spoken of, nevertheless from an examination of the entire document it clearly appears that the contract was a loan and that such was the intention of the parties. It is unnecessary to recur to the canons of interpretation to arrive at this conclusion. The obligation of the depositary to pay interest at the rate of 6 per cent to the depositor suffices to cause the obligation to be considered as a loan and makes it likewise evident that it was the intention of the parties that the depositary should have the right to make use of the amount deposited, since it was stimulated that the amount could be collected after notice of two months in advance. Such being the case, the contract lost the character of a deposit and acquired that of a loan. (Art. 1768, Civil Code.) All personal actions, such as those which arise from a contract of loan, cease to have legal effect after twenty years according to the former law and after fifteen years according to the Civil Code now

On appeal to this Supreme Court, the only grounds of error assigned are: (1) Violation of articles 532 and 950 of the Code of Commerce; (2) violation of articles 309 of the Code of Commerce and 1955 and 1962 of the Civil Code; and (3) violation of section 296 of the Code of Civil Procedure. With reference to the first assignment of error it is alleged that the receipts in question, the form whereof has been set forth, were all issued before July 11, 1898, and being credit paper as defined in paragraph 2 of article 532 of the Code of Commerce, the right of action arising therefrom prescribed before July 11, 1901, in accordance with article 950 of the Code of Commerce. This conclusion is not admissible. It is true that, according to the article 950 of the Code of Commerce, actions arising from bills of exchange, drafts, notes, checks, securities, dividends, coupons, and the amounts of the amortization of obligations issued in accordance with said code, shall extinguish three years after they have fallen due; but it is also true that as the receipts in question are not documents of any kinds enumerated in said article, the actions arising therefrom do not extinguish three years from their date (that, after all, they do not fall due). It is true that paragraph 2 of article 950 also mentions, besides those already stated, "other instruments of draft or exchange;" but it is also true that the receipts in this case are not documents of draft or exchange, they are not drafts payable to order, but they are, as the appellants acknowledge, simple promises to pay, or rather mere documents evidencing the receipt of some cavanes of paddy for the purpose already stated, which is nothing more than purely for industrial, and not for mercantile exchange. They are documents such as would be issued by the thousand so-called rice-mills scattered throughout the Islands, wherein a few poor women of the people in like manner clean the paddy by pounding it with a pestle and return hulled rice. The contract whereby one person receives from another a quantity of unhulled rice to return it hulled, for a fixed compensation or renumeration, is an industrial, not a commercial act; it is, as the appellant say, a hire of services without mercantile character, for there is nothing about the operation of washing clothes. Articles 532 and 950 of the Code of Commerce have not, therefore, been violated, for they are not applicable to the case at bar. Neither are articles 309 of the Code of Commerce and 1955 and 1962 of the Civil Code applicable. The first of these articles reads thus: Whenever, with the consent of the depositor, the depositary disposes of the articles on deposit either for himself or for his business, or for transactions intrusted to him by the former, the rights and obligations of the depositary and of the depositor shall cease, and the rules and provisions applicable to the commercial loans, commission, or contract which took place of the deposit shall be observed. The appellants say that, in accordance with this legal provision, the puddy received on deposit ceased to continue under such character in order to remain in their possession under the contract of hire of services, in virtue whereof they could change it by returning rice instead of paddy and a half less than the quantity received. They further say that the ownership of personal property, according to article 1955 of the Civil Code, prescribes by uninterrupted possession for six years, without necessity of any other condition, and in accordance with article 1962 of the same Code real actions, with regard to personal property, prescribe after the lapse of six years from the loss of possession.

Two questions are presented in these allegations: One regarding the nature of the obligation contracted by the appellants; and the other regarding prescription, not for a period of three years, but of six years. With reference to the first, it is acknowledged that the obligation of the appellants arose primarily out of the contract of deposit, but this deposit was later converted into a contract of hire of services, and this is true. But it is also true that, after the object of the hire of services had been fulfilled, the rice in every way remained as a deposit in the possession of the appellants for them to return to the depositor at any time they might be required to do so, and nothing has relieved them of this obligation; neither the dissolution of the partnership that united them, nor the revolutionary movement of a political character that seems to have occurred in 1898, nor the fact that they may at some time have lost possession of the rice. With reference to the second question, or under title of deposit or hire of services, the possession of the appellants can in no way amount to prescription, for the thing received on deposit or for hire of services could not prescribe, since for every prescription of ownership the possession must be in the capacity of an owner, public, peaceful, and uninterrupted (Civil Code, 1941); and the appellants could not possess the rice in the capacity of owners, taking for granted that the depositor or lessor never could have believed that he had transferred to them ownership of the thing deposited or leased, but merely the care of the thing on deposit and the use or profit thereof; which is expressed in legal terms by saying that the possession of the depositary or of the lessee is not adverse to that of the depositor or lessor, who continues to be the owner of the thing which is merely held in trust by the depositary or lessee. In strict law, the deposit, when it is of fungible goods received by weight, number or measurement, becomes a mutual loan, by reason of the authorization which the depositary may have from the depositor to make use of the goods deposited. (Civil Code, 1768, and Code of Commerce, 309.) . But in the present case neither was there for authorization of the depositor nor did the depositaries intend to make use of the rice for their own consumption or profit; they were merely released from the obligation of returning the same thing and contracted in lieu thereof the obligation of delivering something similar to the half of it, being bound by no fixed terms, the opposite of what happens in a mutual loan, to make the delivery or return when and how it might please the depositor. In fact, it has happened that the depositaries have, with the consent of the depositor, as provided in article 309 of the Code of Commerce, disposed of the paddy "for transactions he intrusted to them," and that in lieu of the deposit there has been a hire of services, which is one entered into between the parties to the end that one should return in rice half of the quantity of paddy delivered by the other, with the obligation on the latter's part of paying 10centimos for each cavan of hulled rice. The consequence of this is that the rules and regulations for contract of hire of services must be applied to the case, one of which is that the thing must be returned after the operation entrusted and payment of compensation, and the other that the action for claiming the thing leased, being personal, does not prescribe for fifteen years under article 1964 of the Civil Code.chanroblesvirtualawlibrary chanrobles virtual law library If the action arising from the receipts in question does not prescribe in three years, as does that from bills of exchange, because they are not drafts payable to order or anything but

receipts that any warehouseman would sign; if the possession of the paddy on the part of those who received it for threshing is not in the capacity of owner but only in that of depositary or lessor of services and under such character ownership thereof could not prescribe in six years, or at any time, because adverse possession and not mere holding in trust is required prescription; if the action to recover the paddy so delivered is not real with regard to personal property, possession whereof has been lost, but a personal obligation arising from contract of lease for recovery of possession that has not been lost but maintained in the lessee in the name of the lessor; if prescription of any kind can in no way be held, only because there could not have been either beginning or end of a fixed period for the prescription, it is useless to talk of interruption of the period for the prescription, to which tends the third assignment of error, wherein it is said that the court violated article 296 of the Code of Civil Procedure in admitting as proven facts not alleged in the complaint, justas if by admitting them there would have been a finding with regard to the computation of the period for timely exercise of the action, taking into consideration the legal interruptions of the running of the period of prescription. The court has made no finding in the sense that this or that period of time during which these or those facts occured must be counted out, and therefore the action has not prescribed, because by eliminating such period of time and comparing such and such date the action has been brought in due time. Prescription of three or six years cannot be presupposed in the terms alleged, but only of fifteen years, which is what is proper to oppose to the exercise of a right of action arising from hire of services and even of deposit or mutual loan, whether common or mercantile; and such is the prescription considered possible by the trial court, in conformity with articles 943 of the Code of Commerce and 1964 of the Civil Code.chanroblesvirtualawlibrary chanrobles virtual law library The trial judge confined himself to sentencing the defendants to payment of the price of the paddy, ignoring the thing itself, return whereof ought to have been the subject of judgment in the first place, because the thing itself appears to have been extinguished and its price has taken its place. But the assigning of legal interest from November 21, 1905, can have no other ground than the demand made by plaintiff's counsel upon the defendants to settle this matter. Legal interest on delinquent debts can only be owed from the time the principal amount constitutes a clear and certain debt, and in the present case the principal debt has only been clear and certain since the date of the judgment of the lower court; so the legal interest can be owed. only since then. The judgment appealed from is affirmed, except that the legal interest shall be understood to be owed from the date thereof; with the costs of this instance against the appellants. Torres, Mapa, Johnson and Carson, JJ., concur. SILVESTRA BARON vs. PABLO DAVID These two actions were instituted in the Court of First Instance of the Province of Pampanga by the respective plaintiffs, Silvestra Baron and Guillermo Baron, for the purpose of recovering from the defendant, Pablo David, the value of palay alleged to have been sold by the plaintiffs to the defendant in the year 1920. Owing to the fact that the defendant is the same in both cases and that the two cases depend in part upon the same facts, the cases were heard together in the trial court and determined in a single opinion. The same course will accordingly be followed here. In the first case, i. e., that which Silvestra Baron is plaintiff, the court gave judgment for her to recover of the defendant the sum of

P5,238.51, with costs. From this judgment both the plaintiff and the defendant appealed. In the second case, i. e., that in which Guillermo Baron, is plaintiff, the court gave judgment for him to recover of the defendant the sum of P5,734.60, with costs, from which judgment both the plaintiff and the defendant also appealed. In the same case the defendant interposed a counterclaim in which he asked credit for the sum of P2,800 which he had advanced to the plaintiff Guillermo Baron on various occasions. This credit was admitted by the plaintiff and allowed by the trial court. But the defendant also interposed a cross-action against Guillermo Baron in which the defendant claimed compensation for damages alleged to have Ben suffered by him by reason of the alleged malicious and false statements made by the plaintiff against the defendant in suing out an attachment against the defendant's property soon after the institution of the action. In the same cross-action the defendant also sought compensation for damages incident to the shutting down of the defendant's rice mill for the period of one hundred seventy days during which the above-mentioned attachment was in force. The trial judge disallowed these claims for damages, and from this feature of the decision the defendant appealed. We are therefore confronted with five distinct appeals in this record. Prior to January 17, 1921, the defendant Pablo David has been engaged in running a rice mill in the municipality of Magalang, in the Province of Pampanga, a mill which was well patronized by the rice growers of the vicinity and almost constantly running. On the date stated a fire occurred that destroyed the mill and its contents, and it was some time before the mill could be rebuilt and put in operation again. Silvestra Baron, the plaintiff in the first of the actions before us, is an aunt of the defendant; while Guillermo Baron, the plaintiff in the other action; is his uncle. In the months of March, April, and May, 1920, Silvestra Baron placed a quantity of palay in the defendant's mill; and this, in connection with some that she took over from Guillermo Baron, amounted to 1,012 cavans and 24 kilos. During approximately the same period Guillermo Baron placed other 1,865 cavans and 43 kilos of palay in the mill. No compensation has ever been received by Silvestra Baron upon account of the palay delivered by Guillermo Baron, he has received from the defendant advancements amounting to P2,800; but apart from this he has not been compensated. Both the plaintiffs claim that the palay which was delivered by them to the defendant was sold to the defendant; while the defendant, on the other hand, claims that the palay was deposited subject to future withdrawal by the depositors or subject to some future sale which was never effected. He therefore supposes himself to be relieved from all responsibility by virtue of the fire of January 17, 1921, already mentioned. The plaintiff further say that their palay was delivered to the defendant at his special request, coupled with a promise on his part to pay for the same at the highest price per cavan at which palay would sell during the year 1920; and they say that in August of that year the defendant promised to pay them severally the price of P8.40 per cavan, which was about the top of the market for the season, provided they would wait for payment until December. The trial judge found that no such promise had been given; and the incredulity of the court upon this point seems to us to be justified. A careful examination of the proof, however, leads us to the conclusion that the plaintiffs did, some time in the early part of August, 1920, make demand upon the defendant for a settlement, which he evaded or postponed leaving the exact amount due to the plaintiffs undetermined. It should be stated that the palay in question was place by the plaintiffs in the defendant's mill with the understanding that the defendant was at liberty to convert it into rice and dispose of it at

his pleasure. The mill was actively running during the entire season, and as palay was daily coming in from many customers and as rice was being constantly shipped by the defendant to Manila, or other rice markets, it was impossible to keep the plaintiffs' palay segregated. In fact the defendant admits that the plaintiffs' palay was mixed with that of others. In view of the nature of the defendant's activities and the way in which the palay was handled in the defendant's mill, it is quite certain that all of the plaintiffs' palay, which was put in before June 1, 1920, been milled and disposed of long prior to the fire of January 17, 1921. Furthermore, the proof shows that when the fire occurred there could not have been more than about 360 cavans of palay in the mill, none of which by any reasonable probability could have been any part of the palay delivered by the plaintiffs. Considering the fact that the defendant had thus milled and doubtless sold the plaintiffs' palay prior to the date of the fire, it result that he is bound to account for its value, and his liability was not extinguished by the occurence of the fire. In the briefs before us it seems to have been assumed by the opposing attorneys that in order for the plaintiffs to recover, it is necessary that they should be able to establish that the plaintiffs' palay was delivered in the character of a sale, and that if, on the contrary, the defendant should prove that the delivery was made in the character of deposit, the defendant should be absolved. But the case does not depend precisely upon this explicit alternative; for even supposing that the palay may have been delivered in the character of deposit, subject to future sale or withdrawal at plaintiffs' election, nevertheless if it was understood that the defendant might mill the palay and he has in fact appropriated it to his own use, he is of course bound to account for its value. Under article 1768 of the Civil Code, when the depository has permission to make use of the thing deposited, the contract loses the character of mere deposit and becomes a loan or acommodatum; and of course by appropriating the thing, the bailee becomes responsible for its value. In this connection we wholly reject the defendant's pretense that the palay delivered by the plaintiffs or any part of it was actually consumed in the fire of January, 1921. Nor is the liability of the defendant in any wise affected by the circumstance that, by a custom prevailing among rice millers in this country, persons placing palay with them without special agreement as to price are at liberty to withdraw it later, proper allowance being made for storage and shrinkage, a thing that is sometimes done, though rarely. In view of what has been said it becomes necessary to discover the price which the defendant should be required to pay for the plaintiffs' palay. Upon this point the trial judge fixed upon P6.15 per cavan; and although we are not exactly in agreement with him as to the propriety of the method by which he arrived at this figure, we are nevertheless of the opinion that, all things considered, the result is approximately correct. It appears that the price of palay during the months of April, May, and June, 1920, had been excessively high in the Philippine Islands and even prior to that period the Government of the Philippine Islands had been attempting to hold the price in check by executive regulation. The highest point was touched in this season was apparently about P8.50 per cavan, but the market began to sag in May or June and presently entered upon a precipitate decline. As we have already stated, the plaintiffs made demand upon the defendant for settlement in the early part of August; and, so far as we are able to judge from the proof, the price of P6.15 per cavan, fixed by the trial court, is about the price at which the defendant should be required to settle as of that date. It was the date of the demand of the plaintiffs for settlement that determined the price to be paid by the defendant, and this is true whether the palay was delivered in the character of sale with price undetermined or in the character of deposit subject to use by the defendant. It results that the plaintiffs are respectively entitle to recover the value of the palay which they had placed with the defendant during the period referred to, with interest from the date of the filing of their several complaints.

As already stated, the trial court found that at the time of the fire there were about 360 cavans of palay in the mill and that this palay was destroyed. His Honor assumed that this was part of the palay delivered by the plaintiffs, and he held that the defendant should be credited with said amount. His Honor therefore deducted from the claims of the plaintiffs their respective proportionate shares of this amount of palay. We are unable to see the propriety of this feature of the decision. There were many customers of the defendant's rice mill who had placed their palay with the defendant under the same conditions as the plaintiffs, and nothing can be more certain than that the palay which was burned did not belong to the plaintiffs. That palay without a doubt had long been sold and marketed. The assignments of error of each of the plaintiffsappellants in which this feature of the decision is attacked are therefore well taken; and the appealed judgments must be modified by eliminating the deductions which the trial court allowed from the plaintiffs' claims. The trial judge also allowed a deduction from the claim of the plaintiff Guillermo Baron of 167 cavans of palay, as indicated in Exhibit 12, 13, 14, and 16. This was also erroneous. These exhibits relate to transactions that occurred nearly two years after the transactions with which we are here concerned, and they were offered in evidence merely to show the character of subsequent transactions between the parties, it appearing that at the time said exhibits came into existence the defendant had reconstructed his mill and that business relations with Guillermo Baron had been resumed. The transactions shown by these exhibits (which relate to palay withdrawn by the plaintiff from the defendant's mill) were not made the subject of controversy in either the complaint or the cross-complaint of the defendant in the second case. They therefore should not have been taken into account as a credit in favor of the defendant. Said credit must therefore be likewise of course be without prejudice to any proper adjustment of the rights of the parties with respect to these subsequent transactions that they have heretofore or may hereafter effect. The preceding discussion disposes of all vital contentions relative to the liability of the defendant upon the causes of action stated in the complaints. We proceed therefore now to consider the question of the liability of the plaintiff Guillermo Baron upon the cross-complaint of Pablo David in case R. G. No. 26949. In this cross-action the defendant seek, as the stated in the third paragraph of this opinion, to recover damages for the wrongful suing out of an attachment by the plaintiff and the levy of the same upon the defendant's rice mill. It appears that about two and onehalf months after said action was begun, the plaintiff, Guillermo Baron, asked for an attachment to be issued against the property of the defendant; and to procure the issuance of said writ the plaintiff made affidavit to the effect that the defendant was disposing, or attempting the plaintiff. Upon this affidavit an attachment was issued as prayed, and on March 27, 1924, it was levied upon the defendant's rice mill, and other property, real and personal. Upon attaching the property the sheriff closed the mill and placed it in the care of a deputy. Operations were not resumed until September 13, 1924, when the attachment was dissolved by an order of the court and the defendant was permitted to resume control. At the time the attachment was levied there were, in the bodega, more than 20,000 cavans of palay belonging to persons who held receipts therefor; and in order to get this grain away from the sheriff, twenty-four of the depositors found it necessary to submit third-party claims to the sheriff. When these claims were put in the sheriff notified the plaintiff that a bond in the amount of P50,000 must be given, otherwise the grain would be released. The plaintiff, being unable or unwilling to give this bond, the sheriff surrendered the palay to the claimants; but the attachment on the

rice mill was maintained until September 13, as above stated, covering a period of one hundred seventy days during which the mill was idle. The ground upon which the attachment was based, as set forth in the plaintiff's affidavit was that the defendant was disposing or attempting to dispose of his property for the purpose of defrauding the plaintiff. That this allegation was false is clearly apparent, and not a word of proof has been submitted in support of the assertion. On the contrary, the defendant testified that at the time this attachment was secured he was solvent and could have paid his indebtedness to the plaintiff if judgment had been rendered against him in ordinary course. His financial conditions was of course well known to the plaintiff, who is his uncle. The defendant also states that he had not conveyed away any of his property, nor had intended to do so, for the purpose of defrauding the plaintiff. We have before us therefore a case of a baseless attachment, recklessly sued out upon a false affidavit and levied upon the defendant's property to his great and needless damage. That the act of the plaintiff in suing out the writ was wholly unjustifiable is perhaps also indicated in the circumstance that the attachment was finally dissolved upon the motion of the plaintiff himself. The defendant testified that his mill was accustomed to clean from 400 to 450 cavans of palay per day, producing 225 cavans of rice of 57 kilos each. The price charged for cleaning each cavan rice was 30 centavos. The defendant also stated that the expense of running the mill per day was from P18 to P25, and that the net profit per day on the mill was more than P40. As the mill was not accustomed to run on Sundays and holiday, we estimate that the defendant lost the profit that would have been earned on not less than one hundred forty work days. Figuring his profits at P40 per day, which would appear to be a conservative estimate, the actual net loss resulting from his failure to operate the mill during the time stated could not have been less than P5,600. The reasonableness of these figures is also indicated in the fact that the twenty-four customers who intervened with third-party claims took out of the camarin 20,000 cavans of palay, practically all of which, in the ordinary course of events, would have been milled in this plant by the defendant. And of course other grain would have found its way to this mill if it had remained open during the one hundred forty days when it was closed. But this is not all. When the attachment was dissolved and the mill again opened, the defendant found that his customers had become scattered and could not be easily gotten back. So slow, indeed, was his patronage in returning that during the remainder of the year 1924 the defendant was able to mill scarcely more than the grain belonging to himself and his brothers; and even after the next season opened many of his old customers did not return. Several of these individuals, testifying as witnesses in this case, stated that, owing to the unpleasant experience which they had in getting back their grain from the sheriff to the mill of the defendant, though they had previously had much confidence in him. As against the defendant's proof showing the facts above stated the plaintiff submitted no evidence whatever. We are therefore constrained to hold that the defendant was damaged by the attachment to the extent of P5,600, in profits lost by the closure of the mill, and to the extent of P1,400 for injury to the good-will of his business, making a total of P7,000. For this amount the defendant must recover judgment on his cross-complaint. The trial court, in dismissing the defendant's cross-complaint for damages resulting from the wrongful suing out of the attachment, suggested that the closure of the rice mill was a mere act of the sheriff for which the plaintiff was not responsible and that the defendant might have been permitted by the sheriff to continue running the mill if he had applied to the sheriff for permission to

operate it. This singular suggestion will not bear a moment's criticism. It was of course the duty of the sheriff, in levying the attachment, to take the attached property into his possession, and the closure of the mill was a natural, and even necessary, consequence of the attachment. For the damage thus inflicted upon the defendant the plaintiff is undoubtedly responsible. One feature of the cross-complaint consist in the claim of the defendant (cross-complaint) for the sum of P20,000 as damages caused to the defendant by the false and alleged malicious statements contained in the affidavit upon which the attachment was procured. The additional sum of P5,000 is also claimed as exemplary damages. It is clear that with respect to these damages the cross-action cannot be maintained, for the reason that the affidavit in question was used in course of a legal proceeding for the purpose of obtaining a legal remedy, and it is therefore privileged. But though the affidavit is not actionable as a libelous publication, this fact in no obstacle to the maintenance of an action to recover the damage resulting from the levy of the attachment. Before closing this opinion a word should be said upon the point raised in the first assignment of error of Pablo David as defendant in case R. G. No. 26949. In this connection it appears that the deposition of Guillermo Baron was presented in court as evidence and was admitted as an exhibit, without being actually read to the court. It is supposed in the assignment of error now under consideration that the deposition is not available as evidence to the plaintiff because it was not actually read out in court. This connection is not well founded. It is true that in section 364 of the Code of Civil Procedure it is said that a deposition, once taken, may be read by either party and will then be deemed the evidence of the party reading it. The use of the word "read" in this section finds its explanation of course in the American practice of trying cases for the most part before juries. When a case is thus tried the actual reading of the deposition is necessary in order that the jurymen may become acquainted with its contents. But in courts of equity, and in all courts where judges have the evidence before them for perusal at their pleasure, it is not necessary that the deposition should be actually read when presented as evidence. From what has been said it result that judgment of the court below must be modified with respect to the amounts recoverable by the respective plaintiffs in the two actions R. G. Nos. 26948 and 26949 and must be reversed in respect to the disposition of the crosscomplaint interposed by the defendant in case R. G. No. 26949, with the following result: In case R. G. No. 26948 the plaintiff Silvestra Baron will recover of the Pablo David the sum of P6,227.24, with interest from November 21, 1923, the date of the filing of her complaint, and with costs. In case R. G. No. 26949 the plaintiff Guillermo Baron will recover of the defendant Pablo David the sum of P8,669.75, with interest from January 9, 1924. In the same case the defendant Pablo David, as plaintiff in the crosscomplaint, will recover of Guillermo Baron the sum of P7,000, without costs. So ordered. Avancea, C.J., Johnson, Malcolm, Villamor, Romualdez and Villa-Real, JJ., concur.