AGAPITO ALAJAR, ET AL., PETITIONERS AND APPELLANTS, VS. HON. COURT OF INDUSTRIAL, RELATIONS AND CIRILO P. BAYLOSIS, ET AL., RESPONDENTS AND APPELLEES. BUREAU OF LANDS, INTERVENOR.

This is a petition for certiorari to review the decision of the Court of
Industrial Relations in eight tenancy cases (Nos. 871-R to 878-R of that Court)
wherein it ordered the division of the palay produce of the lands in question
for the crop year 1950-1951 between petitioners herein (tenants) and respondents
Cirilo P. Baylosis, et al. (landlords),on the ratio of 70-30 in favor of the
tenants, the quantity of the harvest of each landholding to be based on the
estimates of the number of cavanes produced by each, as listed in the decision
(Annex G, Petition). It is claimed by petitioners that the Court below acted
with grave abuse of discretion in estimating the harvest in terms of cavans
instead of cans, allegedly in complete disregard of the decision of the Court of
First Instance of Batangas in Expropriation Proceedings No. 84, and of this
Court in G. R. L-6191.^[*]

It appears that the landholdings involved herein formed part of the tracts of
land which the government sought to expropriate in Expropriation Proceedings No.
84 of the Court of First Instance of Batangas for resale to the tenants. The
Batangas Court decided in favor of the expropriation and ordered the transfer of
the lands in question to the Bureau of Lands. On appeal to this Court, however,
the expropriation proceedings were dismissed (G. R. L-6191). These tenancy cases
arose before the filing of the expropriation proceedings; and as the Court of
Industrial Relations found after trial that the tenants-defendants harvested
their palay produce for the crop year 1950-1951 before the transfer of their
landholdings to the Bureau of Lands in Expropriation Proceedings No. 84, said
Court ordered the division of the harvest on the ratio of 70-30 in favor of the
tenants on the basis of the estimates of the number of cavans produced in each
landholdings submitted by the landlords. It is this decision that is now the
subject of the present petition.

The petition is patently without merit. In the first place, it is not even
sufficient in form and substance to justify the issuance of the writ of
certiorari prayed for. It charges that the Court of Industrial Relations abused
its discretion in disregarding the decision of the Court of First Instance of
Batangas in Expropriation Proceedings No. 84 and of this Court in G. R. L-6191;
yet it does not attach to the petition the decisions allegedly violated by the
Court below and point out which particular portion or portions thereof have been
disregarded by $he respondent Court.

We have taken it upon ourselves to look up and consult the decisions referred
to; and have found that neither our decision in G. R. L-6191, nor the decision
of the Court of First Instance of Batangas in Expropriation Proceedings No. 84
(which was reversed in G. R. L-6191) said anything about harvests, or the
division thereof. We are thus constrained to agree with respondents-appellees
that these certiorari proceedings were instituted merely to further delay the
division of the harvest between the parties which has been pending litigation
since 1950.

Wherefore, the petition for certiorari is dismissed. Petitioners shall pay
the costs. So ordered.

Bengzon, Acting C.J., Padilla, Montemayor, Reyes, A., Jugo, Bautista
Angelo, Labrador and Concepcion, JJ., concur.

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^[*] Republic of the Philippines vs.
Baylosis, et al. (96 Phil., 461).