G.R. No. 38621 ; September 15, 1933
EULALIO POSAS, petitioner-appellee, vs. TOLEDO TRANSPORTATION CO., INC., oppositor-appellant.

FACTS

Eulalio Posas applied to the Public Service Commission for authority to operate a truck from General Trias, Cavite, to Manila with a 5 a.m. departure time. The Commission initially denied this request, a decision affirmed by the Supreme Court on April 21, 1932 ( G.R. No. 35249 ). Shortly after that final decision, a petition was again filed with the Commission in Posas’s name, seeking the same 5 a.m. departure. The Commission initially denied but then granted the petition. It was later discovered that Eulalio Posas had died prior to the filing of this subsequent petition.

ISSUE

Whether the Public Service Commission acted without jurisdiction and in violation of the Supreme Court’s final decision by granting a petition filed in the name of a deceased person and by effectively rehearing a matter already conclusively decided by the Supreme Court.

RULING

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the oppositor-appellant. The orders of the Public Service Commission dated October 31, 1932, are declared null and void. First, the petition was a nullity as it was filed in the name of a dead man, violating the fundamental rule that only parties with a real interest can prosecute an action. Second, the Commission had no authority to rehear and reverse a matter upon which the Supreme Court had already rendered a final decision. The Supreme Court’s prior affirmation of the denial became the law of the case, which a subordinate body like the Commission cannot nullify. The Court condemned the practice of re-litigating trivialities and taxed the costs against the attorney who instituted the proceeding.

AI Generated by Armztrong.