Case Digest (G.R. No. 9099)
Facts:
J. McMicking, Sheriff of Manila, Plaintiff and Appellee, vs. Sprungli & Co. et al., Defendants and Appellants, G.R. No. 9099, March 14, 1914, the Supreme Court, Moreland, J., writing for the Court.
Frank E. Fillis imported a circus into Manila and entered the goods under a bond to the Collector of Customs to export them within six months or pay the duties; E. J. Hawkes, William Ahern, and A. M. Timke were sureties on that bond. The Collector released the property, and Fillis subsequently executed and registered a chattel mortgage on the animals and paraphernalia in favor of Sprungli & Co. for P2,500.
The chattel mortgage was foreclosed by the sheriff and the mortgaged property sold for P1,439.12. The sheriff deposited the proceeds in court because the Insular Collector of Customs and other creditors asserted claims to the fund. In an interpleader proceeding (cause No. 9448), by agreement of counsel, the court on July 29, 1912 ordered the sheriff to pay Sprungli & Co. the funds in his hands less proper costs and “less also the sum of P617 claimed by the other intervener,” and directed that disposition of that P617 await the termination of cause No. 9716 (the action on the bond).
Cause No. 9716 was the Collector’s suit against Fillis and his sureties on the export bond. That action resulted in a judgment for the Collector for P1,500, with the clerk directed to apply on that judgment the P617 retained in the court in cause No. 9448. Sprungli & Co. objected to applying the P617 under the bond judgment and claimed the money belonged to it. The sheriff moved the Court of First Instance for a final adjudication and, on May 14, 1913, that court interpreted the parties’ July 29, 1912 agreement as authorizing immediate application of the P617 pursuant to the judgment in cause No. 9716 and directed the sheriff to execute that judgment forthwith.
Sprungli & Co. appealed the court’s May ...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Did the Court of First Instance correctly interpret and enforce the parties’ July 29, 1912 agreement so as to require immediate execution of the judgment in cause No. 9716 and application of the P617?
- Could the judgment in the action on the bond (cause No. 9716) determine the competing substantive rights of Sprungli & Co. and ...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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