G.R. No. 1875. September 9, 1905.
Rudolph Wahl, plaintiff-appellee, vs. Donaldson Sim & Co., defendant-appellant.
FACTS: Plaintiff Rudolph Wahl sued Donaldson Sim & Co. upon a contract. The complaint alleged the defendant was a duly organized collective partnership (a juridical person) under the Code of Commerce. After procedural delays, a default judgment was entered against the defendant. Following the death of James C. Donaldson Sim, Rita Donaldson Sim, as administratrix of his estate, moved to dismiss the case, claiming the real defendant was James C. Donaldson Sim as an individual, that the partnership had dissolved earlier, and that the action abated upon his death, requiring the claim to be presented to the estate commissioners. These factual claims in the motion were unsworn and unproven. The trial court denied the motion and rendered judgment against the defendant partnership. The administratrix appealed.
ISSUE
Whether the defendant in the case was the collective partnership Donaldson Sim & Co. (a juridical person) or the individual James C. Donaldson Sim, which determines if the action survived his death.
RULING
The defendant was the collective partnership Donaldson Sim & Co., a juridical person distinct from its partners. The record, including the defendant’s own proposed pleadings referring to itself as a partnership, substantiated this. Since it was a juridical person under Article 35 of the Civil Code and Article 116 of the Code of Commerce, its personality was separate from that of James C. Donaldson Sim. Consequently, his death did not abate the action; it merely dissolved the partnership, with liquidation affairs devolving to the surviving partners or appointed liquidators as per the Code of Commerce, not the executors of the deceased partner. The trial court did not err in refusing to set aside the default judgment. The judgment of the lower court was affirmed.