Limjuco vs Pedro Fragante

TITLE: Limjuco vs. The Estate of Pedro Fragante

CITATION: 45 OG No. 9, p.397
FACTS:
Pedro Fragante, a Filipino citizen at the time of his death, applied for a certi
ficate of public convenience to install and maintain an ice plant in San Juan Ri
zal. His intestate estate is financially capable of maintaining the proposed se
rvice. The Public Service Commission issued a certificate of public convenience
to Intestate Estate of the deceased, authorizing said Intestate Estate through
its special or Judicial Administrator, appointed by the proper court of competen
t jurisdiction, to maintain and operate the said plant. Petitioner claims that
the granting of certificate applied to the estate is a contravention of law.
ISSUE: Whether or not the estate of Fragante may be extended an artificial judic
ial personality.
HELD:
The estate of Fragante could be extended an artificial judicial personality beca
use under the Civil Code, gestate of a dead person could be considered as artific
ial juridical person for the purpose of the settlement and distribution of his p
ropertiesh. It should be noted that the exercise of juridical administration inc
ludes those rights and fulfillment of obligation of Fragante which survived afte
r his death. One of those surviving rights involved the pending application for
public convenience before the Public Service Commission.
Supreme Court is of the opinion that gfor the purposes of the prosecution of said
case No. 4572 of the Public Service Commission to its final conclusion, both th
e personality and citizenship of Pedro O. Fragrante must be deemed extended, wit
hin the meaning and intent of the Public Service Act, as amended, in harmony wit
h the constitution: it is so adjudged and decreedh.
Limjoco vs. Estate of Fragrante
G.R. No. L-770
April 27, 1948
FACTS:
On May 21, 1946, the Public Service Commission issued a certificate of public co
nvenience to the Intestate Estate of the deceased Pedro Fragante, authorizing th
e said intestate estate through its Special or Judicial Administrator, appointed
by the proper court of competent jurisdiction, to maintain and operate an ice p
lant with a daily productive capacity of two and one-half (2-1/2) tons in the Mu
nicipality of San Juan and to sell the ice produced from the said plant in the M
unicipalities of San Juan, Mandaluyong, Rizal, and Quezon City; that Fragantefs i
ntestate estate is financially capable of maintaining the proposed service.
Petioner argues that allowing the substitution of the legal representative of th
e estate of Fragante for the latter as party applicant and afterwards granting t
he certificate applied for is a contravention of the law.
ISSUE:
Whether the estate of Fragante be extended an artificial judicial personality.
HELD:
The estate of Fragrante must be extended an artificial judicial personality. If
Fragrante had lived, in view of the evidence of record, would have obtained from
the commission the certificate for which he was applying. The situation has not
changed except for his death, and the economic ability of his estate to appropr
iately and adequately operate and maintain the service of an ice plant was the s
ame that it received from the decedent himself.
It has been the constant doctrine that the estate or the mass of property, right
s and assets left by the decedent, directly becomes vested and charged with his
rights and obligations which survive after his demise. The reason for this legal
fiction, that the estate of the deceased person is considered a "person", as de
emed to include artificial or juridical persons, is the avoidance of injustice o
r prejudice resulting from the impossibility of exercising such legal rights and
fulfilling such legal obligations of the decedent as survived after his death u
nless the fiction is indulged.
The estate of Fragrante should be considered an artificial or juridical person f
or the purposes of the settlement and distribution of his estate which, include
the exercise during the judicial administration of those rights and the fulfillm
ent of those obligations of his estate which survived after his death.
The decedent's rights which by their nature are not extinguished by death go to
make up a part and parcel of the assets of his estate for the benefit of the cre
ditors, devisees or legatees, if any, and the heirs of the decedent. It includes
those rights and fulfillment of obligation of Fragante which survived after his
death like his pending application at the commission.