Professional Documents
Culture Documents
*
G.R. No. 156207. September 15, 2006.
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* FIRST DIVISION.
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CHICO-NAZARIO, J.:
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2 Docketed as Civil Case No. 21458-92 filed before the Regional Trial
Court of Davao City Branch 14.
3 Records, p. 25.
4 Id. at p. 54.
5 Id., at p. 60.
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6 Id.
7 Id., at p. 72.
8 Rollo, p. 268.
9 Records, p. 106.
10 Penned by Judge William M. Layague.
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18 Records, p. 77.
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SEC. 32. Section sixty-three of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:
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“SEC. 63. Legal character.—Checks representing deposit money do not have legal
tender power and their acceptance in the payment of debts, both public and
private, is at the option of the creditor: Provided, however, that a check which has
been cleared and credited to the account of the creditor shall be equivalent to a
delivery to the creditor of cash in an amount equal to the amount credited to his
account. (O.G. No. 50, Vol. 68, p. 46; emphasis supplied.)
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In the case
28
of New Pacific Timber & Supply Co., Inc. v.
Seneris:
“[S]ince the said check had been certified by the drawee bank, by
the certification, the funds represented by the check are
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29 G.R. No. 156940, 14 December 2004, 446 SCRA 282, 291, citing
Philippine Bank of Commerce v. Court of Appeals, 336 Phil. 667, 681; 269
SCRA 695, 708 (1997).
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30 Records, p. 24.
31 Philippine Bank of Commerce v. Court of Appeals, supra note 27.
32 326 Phil. 326, 347; 256 SCRA 309, 323 (1996), citing Bautista v.
Mangaldan Rural Bank, Inc., G.R. No. 100755, 10 February 1994, 230
SCRA 16, 21 and Simex International (Manila), Inc. v. Court of Appeals,
G.R. No. 88013, 19 March 1990, 183 SCRA 360, 366-367.
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35
2220 of the Civil 36
Code. All these elements are present in
the instant case.
In the first place, by refusing to make good the
manager’s check it has issued, Ong suffered
embarrassment and 37
humiliation arising from the dishonor
of the said check. Secondly, the culpable act of PCI Bank
in having cleared the check of Serande and issuing the
manager’s check to Ong is undeniable. Thirdly, the
proximate cause of the loss is attributable to PCI Bank.
Proximate cause is defined as that cause which, in natural
and continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient
intervening cause, produces the injury,38 and without which
the result would not have occurred. In this case, the
proximate cause of the loss is the act of PCI Bank in having
cleared the check of Sarande and its failure to exercise that
degree of diligence required of it under the law which
resulted in the loss to Ong.
On exemplary damages, Article 2229 of the Civil Code
states:
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(10) Acts and actions referred to in Articles 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34,
and 35.
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