G.R. No. L-5932. February 25, 1954
ALEJANDRO SAMSON, PETITIONER, VS. ANDREA B. ANDAL DE AGUILA, ET AL., RESPONDENTS.
PARAS, J.:
and Valentina Berana de Andal in the Court of First Instance of Manila
a complaint for declaratory relief, praying that judgment be rendered
fixing the amount which Alejandro Samson should pay to Agapito B. Andal
and Valentina Berana de Andal under a deed of mortgage executed by the
former in favor of the latter, and that the defendants be ordered to
cancel the mortgage upon payment of said amount. On August 26, 1949,
the court rendered a decision, declaring that the amount due from the
plaintiff to the defendants is P150, Philippine currency, plus annual
interest at the rate of 7 per cent from October 25, 1944, and ordering
the defendants to execute the proper deed of cancellation upon payment
by the plaintiff of said amount. The court applied the Ballantyne scale
of values. Agapito B. Andal and Valentina Berana de Andal appealed to
the Court of Appeals which, on June 9, 1952, rendered a decision
holding that the plaintiff should pay to the defendants P6,000 (the
full amount of the loan obtained by the plaintiff from the defendants
on October 25, 1944), in actual Philippine currency, plus the
stipulated interest, but subject to the moratorium law. From this
decision Alejandro Samson has appealed to this Court by Way of
certiorari. By resolution of October 17, 1952, Agapito B. Andal and
Valentina Berana de Andal (who had died) were ordered substituted as
parties respondents by their heirs, Andrea B. Andal de Aguila and
others.
The Court of Appeals found that Alejandro Samson, herein petitioner,
obtained from Agapito B. Andal and Valentina B. de Andal on October 25,
1944, a loan of P6,000, with interest at 7 per cent per annum and, to
secure its payment, the former executed in favor of the latter a real
estate mortgage. That court, in holding that the petitioner should pay
P6,000 in present Philippine currency, argued that while the loan was
made during the Japanese occupation, it became due and payable only
after said period. We have heretofore sustained the proposition that,
when an obligation is payable within a certain period of time, and the
whole or part thereof coincides with the Japanese occupation, payment
after the liberation must be adjusted in accordance with the Ballantyne
schedule, because the debtor could have paid said obligation in
Japanese war notes during the occupation. (Asis vs. Agdamag,[1] G. R. No. L-3709, October 25, 1951; Ang Lam vs. Peregrina,[2] G. R. No. L-4871, January 26, 1953.) As Mr. Justice Feria indicated in his concurring opinion in the case of Gomez vs. Tabia,[3]
47 Off. Gaz. 641, the debtor’s mere failure to accomplish payment
during the Japanese occupation did not make him liable to pay, as
damage or penalty, the difference between the value of the Japanese war
notes at the time the obligation became payable and of the Philippine
currency at the time of payment. It is true that the creditors herein
could not demand payment prior to October 25, 1945, but this did not
preclude the debtor, herein petitioner, from paying his obligation at
any time within one year from October 25, 1944, if he had wanted to do
so.
Wherefore, the decision of the Court of Appeals is hereby reversed,
and it is declared that the amount which the petitioner should pay to
cancel his mortgage is only the sum of P150, the equivalent in actual
Philippine currency of P6,000 in Japanese war notes on October 25,
1944, plus annual interest at the rate of 7 per cent on the said sum of
P150 from October 25, 1944. So; ordered without costs.
Bengzon, Reyes, Jugo, Bautista Angelo, and Labrador, JJ., concur.
Padilla, J., concurs in the result.
[1] 90 Phil., 249.
[2] 92 Phil., 506.
[3] 84 Phil., 269.