RAMIREZ TELEPHONE CORPORATION VS BANK OF AMERICA CASE DIGEST
G.R. No. L-22614 August 29, 1969
RAMIREZ TELEPHONE CORPORATION, petitioner,
vs.
BANK OF AMERICA, E.F. HERBOSA, THE SHERIFF OF MANILA and THE COURT OF APPEALS, respondents.
CORPORATION LAW; ALTER EGO
RAMIREZ TELEPHONE CORPORATION, petitioner,
vs.
BANK OF AMERICA, E.F. HERBOSA, THE SHERIFF OF MANILA and THE COURT OF APPEALS, respondents.
CORPORATION LAW; ALTER EGO
FACTS:
(Full Text is in Spanish)
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Ramirez had unpaid rents due Herbosa.
The latter sought to garnish Ramirez's bank account, but no such personal account existed, and only an account in the name of Ramirez Telephone Company could be found and was garnished.
Ramirez Telephone Corporation appealed assigning the following errors, one of which is the issue in this case.
Whether or not CA erred in not applying the settled legal principle that a corporation has a personality separate and distinct from that of its stockholders and, therefore, the funds of a corporation cannot be reached to satisfy the debt of its stockholders.
HELD:
- NO. Judgment of CA affirmed.
- While respect for the corporate personality as such is the general rule, there are exceptions. In appropriate cases, the veil of corporate fiction may be pierced.
- In the case at bar, the corporate bank account could be garnished despite the fact that Ramirez himself leased Herbosa's premises because: although Ramirez was the tenant, the company in truth occupied the premises; Ramirez paid the rents with checks of the telephone company; and 75% of the shares of the company belonged to Ramirez and his wife.