bacani and matoto vs
TRANSCRIPT
-
7/28/2019 Bacani and Matoto Vs
1/3
Bacani and Matoto vs. Natl. Coconut Corp., et al.
100 Phil 471
FACTS:
Plaintiffs are a court stenographer assigned in Branch VI of the Court of First
Instance of Manila. During the pendency of Civil Case No. 2293 (Francisco Sycip vs.
National Coconut Corporation) the counsel for defendant requested to the
stenographers for copies of the transcript of the stenographic notes taken by them
during the hearing.
Plaintiffs complied with the request by delivering to Counsel Alikpala the needed
transcript containing 714 pages and thereafter submitted to him their bills for the
payment of their fees. The National Coconut Corporation paid the amount of P564 to
Leopoldo T. Bacani and P150 to Mateo A. Matoto for said transcript at the rate of P1 per
page.
The Auditor General disallowed the payment of these fees and sought the
recovery of the amounts paid. On January 19, 1953, the Auditor General required
the Plaintiffs to reimburse the paid amount.
The Department of Justice expressed its opinion that the National Coconut
Corporation, being a government entity, was exempt from the payment of the fees.(Section 8, Rule 130, stenography may only charge as fees P0.03 for each page of
transcript of not less than 200 words before the appeal is taken and P0.15 for each
page after the filing of the appeal)
The party has agreed and in fact has paid P1 per page for the services rendered
by the stenographers and has not raised any objection to the amount paid until its
propriety was disputed by the Auditor General.
On February 6, 1954, the Auditor General issued an order directing the Cashier
of the Department of Justice to deduct from the salary of Leopoldo T. Bacani the
amount of P25 every payday and from the salary of Mateo A. Matoto the amount of P10
every payday beginning March 30, 1954.
To prevent deduction of these fees from their salaries and secure a judicial ruling
that the National Coconut Corporation is not a government entity within the purview of
section 16, Rule 130 of the Rules of Court, this action was instituted in the Court of First
Instance of Manila.
ISSUE:
1. Whether or not National Coconut Corporation is a government entity or included
in the term Government of the Republic of the Philippines.
-
7/28/2019 Bacani and Matoto Vs
2/3
2. Whether or not corporations that perform certain functions of government make
them a part of the Government of the Philippines.
3. Whether or not the plaintiffs are liable for salary deduction for the amount paid to
them as stenographers.
HELD:
1. No, Government of the Republic of the Philippines used in section 2 of the
Revised Administrative Code refers only to that government entity through which
the functions of the government are exercised as an attribute of sovereignty, and
in this are included those arms through which political authority is made effective
whether they be provincial, municipal or other form of local government. These
are called municipal corporations. They do not include government entities which
are given a corporate personality separate and distinct from the government and
which are governed by the Corporation Law.
Their powers, duties and liabilities have to be determined in the light of that law
and of their corporate charters. They do not therefore come within the exemptionclause prescribed in section 16, Rule 130 of our Rules of Court.
2. No, they do not come under the classification of municipal or public corporation.
The mere fact that the Government happens to be a majority stockholder does
not make it a public corporation
3. No, under section 8, Rule 130, stenographers may only charge as fees P0.30 for
each page of transcript of not less than 200 words before the appeal is taken and
P0.15 for each page after the filing of the appeal, but in this case the National
Coconut Corporation, both parties has agreed on P1.00 per page for the services
rendered by the Plaintiffs and has not raised any objection to the amount paid
until its propriety was disputed by the Auditor General. The payment of the fees
in question became therefore contractual and as such is valid even if it goes
beyond the limit prescribed in section 8, Rule 130 of the Rules of Court.
The decision of the Court appealed from is affirmed, without pronouncement as
to costs because the case does not come under section 1, Rule 45 of the Rules
of Court relative to appeals from a decision of the Auditor General (deducting
from Plaintiffs salaries the amount paid to them as stenographers).
-
7/28/2019 Bacani and Matoto Vs
3/3