Guidote v. Borja

OSTRAND, J.:

On March 4, 1921, the plaintiff brought an action against the administratrix of the estate of Narciso Santos, deceased, to recover the sum of P9,534.14, a part of which was alleged to be the net profits due the plaintiff in a partnership business conducted under the name of "Taller Sinukuan," in which the deceased was the capitalist partner and the plaintiff the industrial partner, the rest of the sum consisting of advances alleged to have been made to said partnership by the plaintiff. The defendant in her answer admitted the existence of the partnership and in a cross-complaint and counter-claim prayed that the plaintiff be ordered to render an accounting of the partnership business and to pay to the estate of the deceased the sum of P25,000 as net profits, credits, and property pertaining to said deceased.

In the first trial of the case the plaintiff called several witnesses and introduced a so-called accounting and a mass of documentary evidence consisting of books, bills, and alleged vouchers, which documentary evidence was so hopelessly and inextricably confused that the court, as stated in its decision, could not consider it of much probative value. It was, however, fund as facts that the aforesaid partnership had been formed, on or about June 15, 1918; that Narciso Santos died on April 6, 1920, leaving the plaintiff as the surviving partner; and that plaintiff failed to liquidate the affairs of the partnership and to render an account thereof to the administratrix of Santos' estate. The court, therefore, dismissed the plaintiff's complaint and absolved the defendant therefrom, and ordered the plaintiff to render a full and complete accounting, verified by vouchers, of the partnership business from June 15, 1918, until September 1, 1922.

To this decision and order the plaintiff duly excepted. The plaintiff thereupon rendered an account prepared by one Tomas Alfonso, a public accountant. Numerous objections to said account were presented by the defendant, and the court, upon hearing, disapproved the account and ordered that the defendant submit to the court an accounting of the partnership business from the date of the commencement of the partnership, June 15, 1918, up to the time the business was closed.

On January 25, 1924, the defendant presented an account and liquidation prepared by a public accountant, Santiago A. Lindaya, showing a balance of P29,088.95 in favor of the defendant. The account was set down for hearing upon the question of its approval or disapproval by the court, at which hearing the defendant introduced the public accountant Jose Turiano Santiago to testify as to the results of an audit made by him of the accounts of the partnership. Santiago testified that he had been a public accountant for over 20 years, having appeared in court as such on several occasions; that he had examined the exhibits offered in evidence of the case by both parties; that he had prepared a separate accounting or liquidation similar in results to that prepared by Lindaya, but with a few differences in the sums total; and that according to his examination, the financial status of the partnership was as follows: Narciso Santos is a creditor of the Taller Sinukuan in the sum of P26,020.89 consisting as follows: For his capital ..................................

P12,588.53 For his credit ................................... 10,348.30 For his share of the profits ............ 3,068.06 Total ...................................................