G.R. No. 183308 - INSULAR INVESTMENT AND TRUST CORPORATION, VS. CAPITAL ONE EQUITIES CORP. (NOW KNOWN AS CAPITAL ONE HOLDINGS CORP.) AND PLANTERS DEVELOPMENT BANK.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, where the demand is established with reasonable certainty, the interest shall begin to run from the time the claim is made judicially or extrajudicially (Art. 1169, Civil Code) but when such certainty cannot be so reasonably established at the time the demand is made, the interest shall begin to run only from the date the judgment of the court is made (at which time the quantification of damages may be deemed to have been reasonably ascertained). The actual base for the computation of legal interest shall, in any case, be on the amount finally adjudged. 3. When the judgment of the court awarding a sum of money becomes final and executory, the rate of legal interest, whether the case falls under paragraph 1 or paragraph 2, above, shall be 12% per annum from such finality until its satisfaction , this interim period being deemed to be by then an equivalent to a forbearance of credit. [59] (Emphases supplied) Because the obligation arose from a contract of sale and purchase of government securities, and not from a loan or forbearance of money, the applicable interest rate is 6% from June 10, 1994, when IITC received the demand letter from COEC. [60] After the judgment becomes final and executory, the legal interest rate increases to 12% until the obligation is satisfied. In sum, the Court finds that after compensation is effected, IITC still owes COEC P17,141,347.49 worth of treasury bills, subject to the interest rate of 6% per annum from June 10, 1994, then subsequently to the increased interest rate of 12% from the date of finality of this decision until full payment. PDB has an obligation to deliver the treasury bills to IITC The CA, in absolving PDB from all liability, reasoned that: (1) PDB was not involved in the transactions for the purchase and sale of treasury bills between IITC and COEC; (2) IITC failed to allege in its Amended Complaint and prove during the trial that PDB directly and principally sold to IITC P186,790,000 worth of treasury bills; (3) while PDB undertook, in its May 4, 1994 letter to deliver to IITC the said treasury bills, the obligation did not ripen because the bills did not become available to PDB and IITC did not remit any payment to PDB; (4) IITC did not demand delivery of the treasury bills; (5) IITC merely sued PDB as an alternative defendant, implying that IITC did not have a principal and direct cause of action against PDB on the treasury bills; and (6) there was nothing in the records to support the trial courts finding that PDB owed IITC P186,790,000 worth of treasury bills. [61] PDB essentially echoes the reasons set forth by the CA and reiterated that because IITC did not pay for the treasury bills subject of its (PDB) May 4 undertaking, then IITC had no right to demand delivery of the said securities from PDB. Moreover, the check payments made by COEC to PDB were not in payment of the treasury bills purchased by IITC from PDB, but for COECs other obligations with PDB. The total amount of the