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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

FIRST DIVISION

[G.R. No. 2939. October 2, 1906. ]

JAIME SERRA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GO-HUNA, Defendant-Appellant.

Roberto Moreno, for Appellant.

J. N. Wolfson, for Appellee.

SYLLABUS


1. ADMINISTRATOR; PROOF OF REPRESENTATIVE CHARACTER. — In an action by an administrator for goods of the estate sold by him after the death in question on the trial at which evidence was received, although not formally proved, may be inferred by documents acted upon by both parties, in which he is styled administrator.


D E C I S I O N


TRACEY, J.:


The defendant denies that the lumber, for a part of the price of which this action was brought, was either brought by him or sold by the plaintiff. He testimony on both points it out weighed by that of the two witnesses for the plaintiff, who satisfactorily explain the circumstance that the receipt for part of the lumber was signed not by the defendant, but by another Chinaman. The doubt in the case arises from the failure to prove directly either the fact that the lumber was the property of the estate in plaintiff’s hands or the other fact that he was its administrator.

If the lumber had been sold by the intestate, formal proof of the representative character of his administrator might have been required, but inasmuch as the point was not expressly made on the trial below and as the sale was made in the name of the plaintiff, we are of the opinion the documentary proof, consisting of the bill presented of the defendant made out against him in the name of the plaintiff as administrator and the receipt for part of the lumber, running to the plaintiff by name and signed by defendant’s agent, in the light of the testimony of the plaintiff’s witnesses and in the absence of contradictory proof, suffice to supply the lack of the usual formal testimony.

The judgment of the court below is affirmed with costs. After the expiration of twenty days let judgment be entered in accordance herewith and ten days thereafter the cause be remanded to the lower court for proper procedure. So ordered.

Arellano, C.J., Torres, Mapa, Johnson, Carson, and Willard, JJ., concur.

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