Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
G.R. No. L-45503 July 27, 1938
SANTIAGO SAMBRANO, applicant-appellant,
vs.
NORTHERN LUZON TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, INC., oppositor-appellee.
Sixto Brillantes for appellant.
L. D. Lockwood for appellee.
Evaristo Sandoval for the Public Service Commission.
VILLA-REAL, J.:
The present appeal is taken by the petitioner Santiago Sambrano from an order of the Public Service Commission reading as follows:
Pending study of the plan or policy which has to be adopted by the government with respect to the granting of new certificates for the operation of TPU autotrucks in the Island of Luzon as public service, and considering that the present number of operators who render the transportation services in this region is more than sufficient to meet the public need in this line of business, and to avoid causing damages to those who up to the present time have filed applications for new certificates, extension of line and increase of hours; resolved that it be ordered, as it is hereby ordered, that these cases be provisionally dismissed.
February 25, 1937.
The herein petitioner and appellant Santiago Sambrano filed with the Public Service Commission an application, which was registered as case No. 41712, asking that he be given additional hours of trip between San Fernando, La Union, and Vigan, Ilocos Sur, and vice versa, and between Laoag, Ilocos Norte, and Vigan, Ilocos Sur, and vice versa. The Northern Luzon Transportation Co., Inc., and the Manila Railroad Company each interposed an opposition to said application. The trial began before the commission and the petitioner, Santiago Sambrano, adduced evidence in support of his claim that the public needed the additional hours applied for by him, presenting for this purpose Governor Quirolgico of Ilocos Sur and contractor Vicente Agbayani as witnesses. At the termination of the presentation of the evidence for the said petitioner, Santiago Sambrano, the oppositor, Northern Luzon Transportation Co., Inc., began to adduce evidence in support of its opposition, calling to the witness stand Mr. Minnick, manager of said corporation. While counsel for the petitioner was cross-examining the said Mr. Minnick, the commission suspended the trial and entered the order quoted at the beginning of this decision.
The only question to be decided in the present appeal, which is raised by the petitioner and appellant Santiago Sambrano in his brief, is whether the Public Service Commission erred in dismissing his application at the said stage of the proceeding. 1ªvvphïl.nët
Having admitted the application of Santiago Sambrano, having docketed it and collected the corresponding docket fees; having set it for trial and having begun the presentation of the evidence up to the time when counsel for the petitioner was cross-examining the witness for the oppositor and appellee Northern Luzon Transportation Co., Inc., the Public Service Commission was under a duty to allow the continuation of the trial until the parties had completed the presentation of their evidence, and to pass upon the said application, unless the petitioner had desisted from continuing with the case and had asked for its dismissal, or the oppositor, at the time the petitioner closed the presentation of his evidence, had asked for the dismissal of the application upon the insufficiency of the evidence adduced by said petitioner to justify his claim. The commission is not by practice or by law authorized to suspend the trial of the case and to dismiss it, although provisionally, just because there was under study a plan or policy which the government intended to adopt with respect to the granting of new certificates for the operation of TPU autotrucks in the Island of Luzon as public services, and because it considered that the present number of land transportation companies of the public service in said region was more than sufficient to satisfy the public need in this branch of the public service. The determination of whether or not the additional hours of trip which the petitioner asks in his application are necessary to meet the public need can only be made after hearing all the evidence presented in favor and against the application. The order issued by the Public Service Commission, which is the subject matter of the present appeal and whereby the application was dismissed, not being authorized by any law, is void and without value or legal effect. Moreover, the said dismissal is to the prejudice of the petitioner, because the right to file a new application without the necessity of praying the fees not having been reserved to him, he loses those which he has already paid.
Wherefore, the appealed order is reversed, and the case is ordered remanded to the Public Service Commission for further proceedings, with the costs to the appellee. So ordered.
Avanceña, C.J., Abad Santos, Imperial, Diaz, Laurel and Concepcion, JJ., concur.
The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation
