G.R. NO. 159592 - SPOUSES FERDINAND AGUILAR AND JOSEPHINE C. AGUILAR, VS. CITYTRUST FINANCE CORPORATION.G.R. NO. 159706WORLD CARS, INC., VS. SPOUSES FERDINAND AND JOSEPHINE C. AGUILAR.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

accordingly issued Check No. 112724 [16] in the amount of P4,150.00 payable to Sunny Motors, and Check No. 112725 [17] in the amount of P106,850.00 payable to Perez. Check Nos. 112703, [18] 112724 [19] and 112725 [20] were in the meantime cleared. [21] No official receipt for the checks having been issued to Josephine, she warned Perez that if she did not get any by the end of July 1992, she would request for stop payment of the last check she issued in his name, Check No. 112706 [22] dated July 30, 1992 in the amount of P111,000.00. Perez failed to deliver any receipt to Josephine, drawing her to advise, by telefax, FEBTC Del Monte, Quezon City Branch a letter [23] dated July 30, 1992 to stop the payment of Check No. 112706. The clearing of Check No. 112706 having been stopped on Josephine's advice, Perez repaired to the Aguilar residence, asking the reason therefor. On being informed by Josephine of the reason, Perez explained that receipts were in Bulacan where the main office of World Cars is, and he had no time to go there owing to its distance. Perez then advised Josephine that if she did not issue another check to replace Check No. 112706, the 12-month installment term of payment under the documents she and her husband signed would take effect. [24] Not wanting to be bound by the 12-month installment term, Josephine issued Check No. 112767 [25] dated August 4, 1992 in the amount of P111,000.00 payable to Perez who issued her Sunny Motor Sales Provisional Receipt No. 5028. [26] Check No. 112767 was also later cleared. [27] In September 1992, Josephine received a letter [28] dated August 20, 1992 from Ana Marie Caber (Ana Marie), Account Specialist of Citytrust, advising her that as of August 20, 1992, her overdue account with it in connection with the purchase of the car had amounted to "P1,045.39" inclusive of past due charges. Josephine at once informed Ana Marie that she had fully paid the car to which Ana Marie replied that "maybe not all of the papers have been processed yet," hence, she advised Josephine not to worry about it. [29] In December 1992, Josephine received another letter [30] dated December 9, 1992 from Citytrust advising her that her account had been, as of December 9, 1992, overdue in the amount of P110,706.60 inclusive of unpaid installments for the months of August, September, October, November and December 1992 plus accumulated penalty charges; and that if she failed to arrange for another payment scheme, her account would be referred to its legal counsel for collection. Josephine again called Ana Marie inquiring what was going on and the latter replied that no payment for the car had been received. Josephine also called up World Cars and spoke to its Vice-President, a certain Domondon, who informed her that based on company records, the last payment had not been received. [31] The spouses Aguilar thus filed a complaint [32] for "annulment of chattel mortgage plus damages" against Citytrust and World Cars before the R