CONSUELO S. CALALANG, PETITIONER, VS. ENRIQUE MEDINA, ETC., ET AL., RESPONDENTS.

This is a petition for
mandamus against the Commissioner of
Public Service and the Associate Commissioners of Public Service, as well as for the recovery of damages.

It appears that, on June 19,
1959, Republic Act
No. 2290, granting Consuelo S. Calalang a franchise
to construct, operate and maintain an ice plant and cold storage in Hagonoy, Bulacan, subject to
certain conditions, was approved. 
Accordingly, on August 17, 1959, Mrs. Calalang
filed with the Public Service Com­mission – hereinafter referred to as PSC – an
application docketed as PSC Case
No. 126911, for the corresponding certificate of public convenience.  Prior thereto, or on July 17, 1959, Auro Tanjangco, as administratrix of the estate of her deceased husband
Gervacio Tanjangco,
operator of an old ice plant in the same town of Hagonoy, had filed with the Commission an
application, docketed as PSC
Case No. 126537, for increase in the capacity of said old ice plant, from ten (10) to forty (40) tons
daily.  Mrs. Calalang
objected to this petition for increase and prayed that the two cases – Nos.
126537 and 126911 – be jointly heard.  By
an order dated September 10, 1959, PSC Associate Commissioner As­pillera overruled Mrs. Calalang’s
opposition to said petition and denied the motion for a joint hearing.

Her motion for the
reconsideration of said order having, likewise, been denied by
Commissioner Aspillera, Mrs. Calalang
instituted in this Court Cause L-16068, against the Intestate Estate of Gervacio Tanjangco and
Commissioner Aspillera, for a writ of certiorari,
upon the ground that said Commissioner had gravely abused his discretion and
exceeded his jurisdiction in overruling said opposition and in denying the
motion for a joint trial, as well as the motion for reconsideration, without
submitting the latter to the Commission en banc.  Upon the posting of the bond required therefor, we issued an order restrain­ing Commissioner Aspillera from promulgating any decision in Case No.
126537, until further orders from this Court. 
This order, however, came too late, for on September 28, 1959, Com­missioner Aspillera
had rendered his decision in said case au­thorizing Mrs. Tanjangco
to increase the capacity of her ice plant from ten (10) to thirty (30) tons
daily.  Accordingly, on November 21, 1959, Mrs. Calalang filed with this Court a supplemental petition
praying for another injunctive order, to restrain the execution of said
decision until the final disposition of
case L-16068.  Upon the filing of
an additional bond by Mrs. Calalang, the writ of
preliminary injunction prayed for in he supplemental petition therein was
issued on Decembers 3, 1959.

Meanwhile, or on September
26, 1960, her application in Case No. 126911 was denied by the
Commission.  Pending resolution of Mrs. Calalang’s motion for reconsideration of the decision
therein rendered, or on November 29, 1960, this Court rendered judgment in
L-16068 reversing the order of the Commission in Case No. 126537 dated
September 10, 1959; setting aside the hearing held and the judgment rendered in
that case; declaring that Mrs. Calalang’s opposition to the petition therein should be
admitted; and ordering the Commission to jointly try cases Nos. 126537 and
126911 and to thereafter render a new judgment in accordance with the law and
the evidence, as well as making permanent the writ of preliminary injunction
issued on December 3, 1959.

Relying upon our aforementioned decision in L-16068, Mrs. Calalang
subsequently filed in Case No. 126911 a supplemental motion for reconsideration
of the decision therein rendered on September
26, 1960.  After due hearing
and the filing of memoranda be the parties therein, said motion was submitted
for resolution on August 15, 1963.  The Commission having taken no action on said
motion for reconsideration, despite her petitions of December 7, 1963 and April
7, 1964, urging the resolution thereof, on May 24, 1965, Mrs. Calalang commenced the present action against the
Commissioner of Public Service and the Assistant Commissioners of Public
Service to compel them to act on her aforementioned motion for reconsideration
and supplemental motion for reconsideration of the decision in Case No. 126911,
as well as to recover the sum of P100,000.00 as damages allegedly suffered by
her from 1962 to the present.  Twenty
(20) days later, or on June 14, 1965,
the Commission issued an order setting aside its decision in Case No. 126911
and setting said case and Case No. 126537 for joint trial.  As a consequence, the herein petition for
mandamus has become moot.

This notwithstanding, Mrs. Calalang
presses her claim for damages allegedly incurred on account of the undue delay
in the resolution of her motion for reconsideration and supplemental motion for
reconsideration in Case No. 126911.

It should be noted, however, that her claim for damages is
incidental to the petition for mandamus, without which we would have no
original jurisdiction to entertain said claim. 
It is thus debatable, to say the least, whether
or not we can pass upon said claim, once
the principal action for mandamus has become moot.  At any rate, there is, as yet, no means by
which to ascertain the amount of the damages allegedly sustained by Mrs. Calalang, assuming that respondents may be held liable therefor, on which we need not and do not express any
opinion.  Indeed, unless and until a
final judgment has been rendered fixing the conditions under which Mrs. Calalang may operate the ice plant and cold storage covered
by her franchise, and, particularly, the capacity thereof, it is legally
impossible to determine amount of said damages.

WHEREFORE, the petition herein is hereby dismissed,
without special pronouncement as to costs.

Reyes, J.B.L., Dizon, Makalintal, Zaldivar, Sanchez,
Castro, and Angeles, JJ.,
concur.