De Castro v Artigo

G.R. No. 115838 July 18, 2002

Art. 1236 – Creditor not bound to accept payment or performance by third person.

Facts:

·          Respondent Francisco Artigo sued petitioners the De Castros to collect the unpaid balance of his broker's commission from them.

·          Petitioners were co-owners of four (4) lots located at Quezon City.

·          They authorized Artigo to act as real estate broker in the sale of these properties for 5% commission.

·          When the sale of 2 lots was consummated, Artigo received only P48,893.76 as commission.

·          Hence, he sued below to collect the balance of P303,606.24.

·          On appeal, the De Castros contended that Artigo's inaction and failure to protest estops him from recovering more than what was actually paid him by virtue of Article 1234 of the Civil Code.

Issue:

WoN Artigo's acceptance of partial payment of his commission amounts to a waiver of the balance and puts him in estoppel.

Held:

            No, the Court holds that the De Castros' reliance on Article 1235 of the Civil Code is misplaced.

            As used in Article 1235, The word accept means to take as satisfactory or sufficient, or agree to an incomplete or irregular performance. Hence, the mere receipt of a partial payment is not equivalent to the required acceptance of performance as would extinguish the whole obligation.

            In this case, it is evident that Artigo merely received the partial payment without waiving the balance. Thus, there is no estoppel to speak of.

            Thus, the petition is denied for lack of merit.