SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

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EN BANC

G.R. No. L-48198 January 18, 1943

FELICIANO SISON, Petitioner, vs. THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Respondent.

Feliciano Sison in his own behalf.
Assistant Solicitor-General Canizares and Solicitor Bautista for respondent.

MORAN, J.: chanrobles virtual law library

CRIMINAL LAW; SALE OF RADIO AS INVOLVING A CIVIL OBLIGATION AND NOT THE CRIME OF "ESTAFA." - Petitioner received a radio from the complainant to keep the same for trial for five days at the termination of which he bound himself to either return it to the company or, if he desired retain it, pay the initial sum of P90 and the balance in installments. Held: That as petitioner chose to retain the radio set, the transaction, theretofore indefinite, became automatically a sale under which he was obligated to pay the initial sum of P90 and the balance in installments as agreed upon. If, therefore, petitioner had, for more than eight months, deliberately avoided paying anything at all, it was merely his civil obligation to pay the stipulated amounts on the article he is deemed to have purchased. On the other hand, the undisputed fact that the radio set had always remainded in the premises of the petitioner and therefore accessible to the company at any time, negatives any presumption of misappropriation thereof. Under any view of the case, no legal ground can be perceived upon which to rest the criminal liability of petitioner.