Kapisanan ng mga Mangagawa sa MRR vs Credit Union, etc., GR No. L-14332, May 20, 1960
Subject: Obligations and Contracts
FACTS
The
plaintiff, a registered labor organization, sued the defendant, a credit and
cooperative association, to recover a sum of money. - The parties submitted the
case for decision based on a stipulation of facts. - It was established that
the defendant had borrowed a total of P104,000.00 from the plaintiff between
1950 and 1951, with the loan payable in ten equal annual installments. - As per
the terms of the loan contract, the defendant owed the plaintiff a balance of
P49,900.00, of which only P18,500.00 had been paid. - The defendant argued that
during the period from 1950 to 1953, when the General President of the
plaintiff and the Chairman of the defendant credit union were the same person,
no payment was made to the plaintiff. - The defendant contended that the amount
of P26,800.00 due and unpaid during that period should not be paid due to a
supposed merger between the creditor and debtor under Article 1276 of the New
Civil Code. - The defendant also claimed that the plaintiff's demand was
premature, citing a provision requiring prior notice to the Administrator
before a suit could be filed against a cooperative.
ISSUE
Whether or not there was merger of rights for
the 2 juridical entities.
RULING
No,
there was never any merger of the two juridical entities.
Under
the law (Art. 1275, NCC), the obligation is
extinguished from the time the characters of creditor and debtor are merged in
the same person.
In
this case, they kept their own identities and activities: the one
was duly registered and operated under Commonwealth Act 213 and Republic Act
875, while the other functioned under the provisions of the National
Cooperative Act (Act 2508 as amended). Thus, there can be no confusion
or merger if the debtor and creditor represent (different) juridical
entities even if the officers of both are the SAME.
Note that only a majority — not all — of the members of the boards of the two
organizations were the same persons.
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