Modesto Soriano vs Carolina Abalos, et.al. 84 Phil 206
Subject: Obligations and Contracts
FACTS
On March 17, 1938, respondent Juliana Abalos and
Carolina Abalos sold the parcel of the land described in the complaint to
Felipe Maneclang and Modesto Soriano at the price of P750, with option to
repurchase the same "at anytime they have the money." Offer to
repurchase was made in December 1941, which could not be carried out because of
the war. Felipe Maneclang, in the meantime, ceded all his right to petitioner
Modesto Soriano, and in May 1944, offer to repurchase was again made, but
Modesto Soriano rejected the offer. Wherefore, vendors consigned the price of
P750 with the court and filed a complaint for repurchase.
Juliana Abalos died and was substituted in this case
by her heirs Romulo and Florencio, surnamed Manuel. It turned out that the
property did not belong to the vendors Carolina and Juliana Abalos alone, but
also to their sisters, the intervenors and respondent Mercedes and Encarnacion
Abalos. The Court of First Instance of Pangasinan rendered judgment ordering
Modesto Soriano to execute a deed of reconveyance in favor, not only of
Carolina Abalos and the heirs of Juliana Abalos, but also of the intervenors
Mercedes and Encarnacion Abalos; authorizing Modesto Soriano to collect and
receive as price for the reconveyance the sum of P750 consigned with the court;
and sentencing Modesto Soriano to pay the respondent the sum of P3,200 as the
value of the fruits of the land in 1944 obtained by Modesto Soriano. This
judgment was affirmed in toto by the Court of Appeals.
Petitioner Modesto Soriano now maintains in this Court
that respondent no longer had any right to repurchase the property because,
there being no express agreement as to the time within which the repurchase
could be made, that time should be, under the first paragraph, article 1508 of
the Civil Code, four years which in this case expired on March 17, 1942.
ISSUE
Whether or not the phrase “at any time they have the
money” expressly stipulate a time or not.
RULING
Yes, the phrase “at any time they have the money”
expressly stipulate a time which is “anytime”.
Under the law (Art 1198), the debtor shall lose every
right to make use of the period: (1) When after the obligation has been
contracted, he becomes insolvent, unless he gives a guaranty or security for
the debt; (2) When he does not furnish to the creditor the guaranties or
securities which he has promised; (3) When by his own acts he has impaired said
guaranties or securities after their establishment, and when through a
fortuitous event they disappear, unless he immediately gives new ones equally
satisfactory; (4) When the debtor violates any undertaking, in consideration of
which the creditor agreed to the period; and, (5) When the debtor attempts to
abscond.
In this case, the stipulation, however, is that the
vendors may repurchase the property "at any time they have the
money." There is, therefore, a time expressly stipulated, which is
"any time." It being, however, an unlimited or indefinite time, under
the Civil Code, it cannot exceed ten years. The vendors had ten years within which
to repurchase the property and that the period did not expire until March 17,
1948. The offer to repurchase was made in May 1944.
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