G.R. No.
L-6648 July 25, 1955 productions are milled by respondent corporation, and who are so numerous that it would be
impractical to include them all as parties herein;
VICTORIAS PLANTERS ASSOCIATION, INC., NORTH NEGROS PLANTERS ASSOCIATION, INC.,
FERNANDO GONZAGA, JOSE GASTON and CESAR L. LOPEZ, on their own behalf and on behalf of 2. That respondent Victorias Milling Co., Inc. is a corporation likewise duly organized and established
other sugarcane planters in Manapla, Cadiz and Victorias Districts, petitioners-appellees, under and by virtue of the laws of the Philippines, with main offices at Ayala Building Manila, where it
vs. may be served with summons;
VICTORIAS MILLING CO., INC., respondent-appellant.
Ross, Selph, Carrascoso and Janda for appellant. 3. That at various dates, from the year 1917 to 1934, the sugar cane planters pertaining to the
Tañada, Pelaez and Teehankee for appellees. districts of Manapla and Cadiz, Negros Occidental, executed identical milling contracts, setting forth
the terms and conditions under which the sugar central "North Negros Sugar Co. Inc." would mill the
PADILLA, J.: sugar produced by the sugar cane planters of the Manapla and Cadiz districts;
This is an action for declaratory judgment under Rule 66. The relief prayed for calls for an
interpretation of contracts entered into by and between the sugar cane planters in the districts of A copy of the standard form of said milling contracts with North Negros Sugar Co., Inc. is hereto
Manapla, Cadiz and Victorias, Occidental Negros, and the Victorias Milling Company, Inc. After issues attached and made an integral part hereof as Annex "A.
had been joined the parties submitted the case for judgment upon the testimony of Jesus Jose
Ossorio and the following stipulation of facts: As may be seen from the said standard form of milling contract, Annex "A," the sugarcane planters of
Manapla and Cadiz, Negros Occidental had executed on November 17, 1916 with Miguel J. Ossorio, a
1. That petitioners Victorias Planters Association, Inc. and North Negros Planters Association, Inc. are contract entitled "Contrato de la Central Azucarrera de 300 Toneladas," whereby said Miguel J.
non-stock corporations duly established and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the Ossorio was given a period up to December 31, 1916 within which to make a study of and decide
Philippines, with main offices at Victorias, Negros Occidental, and Manapla, Negros Occidental, whether he would construct a sugar central or mill with a capacity of milling 300 tons of sugar cane
respectively, and were organized by, and are composed of, sugar cane planters in the districts of every 24 hours and setting forth the mutual obligations and undertakings of such central and the
Victorias, Manapla and Cadiz, respectively, having been established principally as the representative planters and the terms and conditions under which the sugar cane produced by said sugar can
entities of the numerous sugar cane planters in said districts whose sugar cane productions are milled planters would be milled in the event of the construction of such sugar central by said Miguel J.
by the respondent corporation, with the main object of safeguarding their interests and of taking up Ossorio. Such central was in fact constructed by said Miguel J. Ossorio in Manapla, Negros Occidental,
with the latter problems and questions which from time to time, may come up between the said through the North Negros Sugar Co., Inc., where after the standard form of milling contracts (Annex
respondent corporation the said sugar cane planters; the other petitioners are Filipinos, of legal age, "A") were executed, as above stated.
and together with numerous other sugar cane planters who own sugar cane producing properties at
Victorias, Manapla, and Cadiz Districts, Negros Occidental, are bona fide o fficials and members of The parties cannot stipulate as to the milling contracts executed by the planters by Victorias, Negros
either one of the two petitioner associations; that petitioner Fernando Gonzaga is a resident of Occidental, other than as follows; a number of them executed such milling contracts with the North
Victorias, Negros Occidental, petitioner Jose Gaston is a resident of Victorias, Negros Occidental, and Negros Sugar Co., Inc., as per the standard forms hereto attached and made an integral part as
petitioner Cesar L. Lopez is a resident of Bacolod City, Negros Occidental; and that said petitioners Annexes "B" and "B-1," while a number of them executed milling contracts with the Victorias Milling
bring this action for the benefit and on behalf of all their fellow sugar cane planters, owners of sugar Co., Inc., which was likewise organized by Miguel J. Ossorio and which had constructed another
cane producing lands in the said districts of Victorias, Manapla, and Cadiz, whose sugar cane Central at Victorias, Negros Occidental, as per the standard form hereto attached and made an
integral part hereof as Annex "C".
4. The North Negros Sugar Co., Inc. had its first molienda or milling during the 1918-1919 crop year, (i) Los hacenderos' imponen sobre sus haciendas mencionadas y citadas en esta escritura
and the Victorias Milling Co., had its first molienda or milling during the 1921-1922 crop year. servidumbres voluntarias a favor de Don Miguel J. Ossorio de sembrar caña por lo menos en tres
quintas partes (3/5) de su extension superficial y entregar la caña que produzcan a Don Miguel J.
Subsequent moliendas or millings took place every successive crop year thereafter, except the 6-year Ossorio, de acuerdo con este contrato, por espacio de treinta (30) años, a contar un (1) año desde la
period, comprising 4 years of the last World War II and 2 years of post-war reconstruction of fecha de la primera molienda. repeated representation were made with respondent corporation for
respondent's central at Victorias, Negros Occidental. negotiations regarding the execution of new milling contracts which would take into consideration
the charged circumstances presently prevailing in the sugar industry as compared with those
5. That after the liberation, the North Negros Sugar Co., Inc. did not reconstruct its destroyed central prevailing over 30 years ago and would provide for an increased participation in the milled sugar for
at Manapla, Negros Occidental, and in 1946, it advised the North Negros Planters Association, Inc. the benefit of the planters and their workers.
that it had made arrangements with the respondent Victorias Milling Co., Inc. for said respondent
corporation to mill the sugar cane produced by the planters of Manapla and Cadiz holding milling 7. That notwithstanding these repeated representations made by the herein petitioners with the
contracts with it. Thus, after the war, all the sugar cane produced by the planters of petitioner respondent corporation for the negotiation and execution of new milling contracts, the herein
associations, in Manapla, Cadiz, as well as in Victorias, who held milling contracts, were milled in only respondent has refused and still refuses to accede to the same, contending that under the provisions
one central, that of the respondent corporation at Victorias; of the mining contract (Annex "A".) "It is the view of the majority of the stockholder-investors, that
our contracts with the planters call for 30 years of milling — not 30 years in time" and that "as there
6. Beginning with the year 1948, and in the following years, when the planters-members of the North was no milling during 4 years of the recent war and two years of reconstruction, when these six years
Negros Planters Association, Inc. considered that the stipulated 30-year period of their milling are added on to the earliest of our contracts in Manapla, the contracts by this view terminate in the
contracts executed in the year 1918 had already expired and terminated in the crop year 1947-1948, autumn of 1952," and the "the contracts for the Victorias Planters would terminate in 1957, and still
and the planters-members of the Victorias Planters Association, Inc. likewise considered the later for those in the Cadiz districts," and that "apart from the contractual agreements, the Company
stipulated 30-year period of their milling contracts, as having likewise expired and terminated in the believes these war and reconstruction years accrue to it in equity.
crop year 1948-1949, under the pertinent provisions of the standard milling contract (Annex "A") on
the duration thereof, which provided in Par. 21 thereof as follows: The trial court rendered judgment the dispositive part of which is —
(a) Que entregaran a la Central de la `North Negros Sugar Co., Inc.' o a la que se construya en Wherefore, the Court renders judgment in favor of the petitioners and against the respondent and
Victorias por Don Miguel J. Ossorio o sus cesionarios por espacio de treinta (30) años desde la declares that the milling contracts executed between the sugar cane planters of Victorias, Manapla
primera molienda, la caña que produzcan sus respectivas haciendas, obligandose ademas a sembrar and Cadiz, Negros Occidental, and the respondent corporation or its predecessors-in-interest, the
anualmente con cañadulce por lo menos en tres quintas partes de su extension total apropiado para North Negros Sugar Co., Inc., expired and terminated upon the lapse of the therein stipulated 30-year
caña, incluyendo en esta denominacion tanto la siembra con puntas nuevas como el cultivo del period, and that respondent corporation is not entitled to claim any extension of or addition to the
retoño o cala-anan y sujetando la siembra a las epocas convenientes designadas por el comite de said 30-year term or period of said milling contracts by virtue of an equivalent to 6 years of the last
hacenderos a fin de poder proporcionar caña a la Central de conformidad con las clausulas 17 y 18 de war and reconstruction of its central, during which there was no planting and/or milling.
esta escritura.
From this judgment the respondent corporation has appealed.
xxx xxx xxx
The appellant contends that the term stipulated in the contracts is thirty milling years and not thirty In accord with the rule laid down in the case of Lacson vs. Diaz, 47 Off. Gaz., Supp. No. 12, p. 337,
calendar years and postulates that the planters fulfill their obligation — the six installments of their where despite the fact that the lease contract stipulated seven sugar crops and not seven crop years
indebtedness--which they failed to perform during the six milling years from 1941-42 to 1946-47. The as the term thereof, we held that such stipulation contemplated seven consecutive agricultural years
reason the planters failed to deliver the sugar cane was the war or a fortuitous event. The appellant and affirmed the judgment which declared that the lessee was not entitled to an extension of the
ceased to run its mill due to the same cause. term of the lease for the number of years the country was occupied by the Japanese Army during
which no sugarcane was planted. We are of the opinion and so hold that the thirty-year period
Fortuitous event relieves the obligor from fulfilling a contractual obligation.1 The fact that the stipulated in the contracts expired on the thirtieth agricultural year. The period of six years — four
contracts make reference to "first milling" does not make the period of thirty years one of thirty during the Japanese occupation when the appellant did not operate its mill and the last two during
milling years. The term "first milling" used in the contracts under consideration was for the purpose which the appellant reconstructed its mill — cannot be deducted from the thirty-year period
of reckoning the thirty-year period stipulated therein. Even if the thirty-year period provided for in stipulated in the contracts.
the contracts be construed as milling years, the deduction or extension of six years would not be
justified. At most on the last year of the thirty-year period stipulated in the contracts the delivery of The judgment appealed from is affirmed, with costs against the appellant.
sugar cane could be extended up to a time when all the amount of sugar cane raised and harvested
should have been delivered to the appellant's mill as agreed upon. The seventh paragraph of Annex CASE DIGEST
"C", not found in the earlier contracts (Annexes "A", "B", and "B-1"), quoted by the appellant in its
Victorias Planters Association Inc., et al. vs. Victorias Milling Corp.
brief, where the parties stipulated that in the event of flood, typhoon, earthquake, or other force FACTS: Several sugarcane farmers in Negros Occidental entered into a contract with the North Negros Sugar Co.
majeure, war, insurrection, civil commotion, organized strike, etc., the contract shall be deemed In. and Victorias Milling Co. Inc. wherein said corporation will construct a sugar central or mill with the capacity
suspended during said period, does not mean that the happening of any of those events stops the of milling 300 tons of sugar every 24 hours. In the said contract it is stipulated that the sugar cane planter’s
produce will be milled by the said corporation for the period of 30 years. During the World War II comprising of 4
running of the period agreed upon. It only relieves the parties from the fulfillment of their respective
years and the post war period comprising of 2 years the petitioners was not able to produce sugarcane and the
obligations during that time — the planters from delivering sugar cane and the central from milling it. sugar central is destroyed. The North Central Sugar Co. Inc. did not reconstruct its destroyed mill but rather
In order that the central, the herein appellant, may be entitled to demand from the other parties the made an arrangement with the planters that their produce will be milled by Victorias Milling Co. Inc. herein
fulfillment of their part in the contracts, the latter must have been able to perform it but failed or respondent. In view of the 30-year period of the milling contract the petitioner contended that the contract is
deemed terminated. On the other hand the respondent stated that the contract speaks of “30 years milling
refused to do so and not when they were prevented by force majeure such as war. To require the period” not “30 years in time” and in view of the failure of the petitioners to produce sugarcane during the war
planters to deliver the sugar cane which they failed to deliver during the four years of the Japanese and post war they still have 6 years milling period. The trial court ruled in favor of the petitioners
occupation and the two years after liberation when the mill was being rebuilt is to demand from the
ISSUE: Is the occurrence of war (fortuitous event) relieved the petitioners from their obligation?
obligors the fulfillment of an obligation which was impossible of performance at the time it became
due. Nemo tenetur ad impossibilia. T he obligee not being entitled to demand from the obligors the RULING: Yes, considering that war is a force majeure or a fortuitous event, the obligee has no legal right compel
performance of the latters' part of the contracts under those circumstances cannot later on demand the obligor to perform his obligation. Furthermore it is impossible in this case for the petitioner to produce crops
its fulfillment. The performance of what the law has written off cannot be demanded and required. (Nemo tenetor ad impossibilia) and the fulfillment of that impossible, if granted will amount to the extension of
the contract. Therefore the judgment appealed is affirmed.
The prayer that the plaintiffs be compelled to deliver sugar cane to the appellant for six more years to
make up for what they failed to deliver during those trying years, the fulfillment of which was
impossible, if granted, would in effect be an extension of the term of the contracts entered into by
and between the parties.
