Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
G.R. No. L-15674 November 29, 1961
MANUEL REGALADO, ET AL., petitioners-appellants,
vs.
THE PROVINCIAL CONSTABULARY COMMANDER OF NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, respondent-appellee.
P>Hilado and Hilado for petitioners-appellants.
Angel S. Salcedo and C. S. Carreon for respondent-appellee.
D. C. Sangolia as Amicus Curiae.
DIZON, J.:
Petitioners are engaged in the deep-sea fishing business. They used to buy ice from an ice plant in Bacolod City to be sent to Cadiz, Occidental Negros, for use in said business. Complying with the request made by the Public Service Commission, the respondent Provincial Commander of the Philippine Constabulary in Occidental Negros prevented the entry into Cadiz of the ice thus bought by petitioners. For this reason the latter filed in the Court of First Instance of said province the present action for injunction. Their prayer for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction against respondent was granted, but after trial upon an agreed stipulation of facts, the court dismissed the case and dissolved the aforesaid preliminary writ. Thereupon petitioners interposed the present appeal, claiming that said court erred in holding that it had no jurisdiction to grant an injunction against respondent and, consequently, in dismissing the case.
Inasmuch as it is not denied that respondent, in preventing the entry into Cadiz of the ice purchased by petitioners in Bacolod City, was merely enforcing an order of the Public Service Commission upon the latter's request, it seems clear that an injunction issued against him would in effect be one against slid Commission. In fact, the latter should have been made a party defendant. We believe, therefore, that in dismissing the case the lower court did not commit any error because we have held heretofore that a Court of First Instance has no authority to issue an injunction against the Public Service Commission or any other court or semi-judicial body of equal rank (Iloilo Commercial vs. Public Service Commission, 56 Phil. 38). Moreover, for practical purposes, the injunction sought by petitioners has already become unnecessary considering that in G.R. No. L-15300 filed by the same petitioners against the same Provincial Commander of the Philippine Constabulary in Occidental Negros and other parties — an action originally instituted in this Court — we declared void the order of the Public Service Commission herein in question and issued a final injunction against therein respondents restraining them from in any manner enforcing the same.
WHEREFORE, the decision appealed from is affirmed, with costs.
Bengzon, C.J., Padilla, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion, Reyes, J.B.L., Barrera, Paredes and De Leon, JJ., concur.
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