GREGORIO ATIENZA, ET AL., PETITIONERS, VS. HON. COURT OF AGRARIAN RELATIONS, ETC., ET AL., RESPONDENTS.

Before the Court of Agrarian Relations, Fifth Regional District,
forty-four share-tenants of the Ascue spouses claimed for the refund of
certain amounts which the spouses had deducted from the said tenants’
share as hauling expenses of the sugar-cane produced in their
landholdings to the Central Azucarera Don Pedro.

The issue was submitted for decision upon a stipulation of facts
“and of all other facts admitted in the pleadings and in the previous
hearings upon submission of itemized list of additional hauling
expenses charged.”

Such hauling expenses (one-half) had been charged against the
share-tenants as part of the expenses of production, the spouses having
shouldered the other half. And the payment of such expenses resulted
from an agreement which the spouses had with Central Azucarera Don
Pedro.

The share-tenants object to paying such expenses because, they
argue, they were not parties to the agreement with the Central
Azucarera.

The Court found, and so declared, that under the circumstances, the
share-tenants were represented by the spouses in their dealings with
the Central Azucarera. Wherefore, the Court denied the claims for
refund. Hence this appeal by the tenants by way of certiorari.

In their petition for certiorari, they assert that they had
established by their evidence that the agreement between them and the
spouses was that all the expenses of hauling the sugar-cane, shall be
for the exclusive account of the spouses (p. 4, petition). And they
cite pages of the stenographic notes and the testimony of Nicolas
Endoso (p. 2, memo of petitioners), on the alleged verbal agreement to
that effect. Other factual issues are raised, which it is not now
necessary to enumerate.

Wherefore, as the matter involves questions of
fact, and the monetary demand amounts to about five thousand pesos only
(p. 8, petition), this record is referred to the Court of Appeals for
decision, under the provision of sec. 156 of the Land Reform Code
(Republic Act 3844). So ordered.

Bautista Angelo, Reyes, J.B.L., Dizon, Regala, Makalintal, Bengzon, J.P., Zaldivar, and Sanchez, JJ., concur.