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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

FIRST DIVISION

[G.R. No. L-4300. March 21, 1908. ]

MARIA BARRETTO, administratrix of the estate of Marcelo Dominguez, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LEONA REYES, Defendant-Appellant.

Kincaid and Hurd, for Appellant.

Manly and Gallup and Hartigan Rohde and Gutierrez, for Appellee.

SYLLABUS


1. DEPOSIT. — A transaction held not to constitute a deposit, although so termed by the contracting parties.

2. DAMAGES ON BREACH OF CONTRACT. — The measure of damages stipulated for by parties to a valid contract will be adopted by the court in rendering judgment thereon.


D E C I S I O N


TRACEY, J.:


On June 30, 1898, the defendant and Marcelo Dominguez, the plaintiff’s intestate, executed an agreement containing the following clause:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"I, Doña Leona Reyes, widow of Don Teodoro Durante, do hereby acknowledge that I have on this date received from Don Marcelo Dominguez, a Peninsular Spaniard, married, and a resident of this town, the amount of 7,556 cavanes of palay, as a deposit without interest, which palay, clean and of good weight, I promise to deliver at the store of Sr. Dominguez on or before the 15th of June of the next year, 1899.

"In case that on the aforesaid date I am not able to deliver the whole number of cavanes as above stated, I promise to liquidate any undelivered balance and reduce the same to money, at the highest price for which the product may be sold in Nueva Caceres, and the resulting amount I likewise agree to pay for in palay, clean and of good weight, at this store on the 15th of June of the following year, 1900, at the rate of 30 provincial gantas for each peso."cralaw virtua1aw library

The testimony established these additional facts:chanrob1es virtual 1aw library

That the defendant had in reality received from Dominguez not palay but money, estimated according to a standard not shown, as the equivalent of the palay mentioned the result of the settlement of previous transactions between them; that during the absence of Dominguez from the province, he left his affairs in charge of an agent, whose powers included the carrying out of this contract; that the defendant made delivery on account, amounting to 253
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