Carlos Vs Mindoro Sugar
Carlos Vs Mindoro Sugar
Carlos Vs Mindoro Sugar
corporation, which has been taken in payment of a debt due to it, and which it sells
or transfers in payment of its own debt, the guaranty being given to enable it to
dispose of the bond to better advantage. And so guaranties of payment of bonds
taken by a loan and trust company in the ordinary course of its business, made in
connection with their sale, are not ultra vires, and are binding."
When a contract is not on its face necessarily beyond the scope of the power of the
corporation by which it was made, it will, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be
presumed to be valid. Corporations are presumed to contract within their powers.
The doctrine of ultra vires, when invoked for or against a corporation, should not be
allowed to prevail where it would defeat the ends of justice or work a legal wrong. It
has been intimated according to section 121 of the Corporation Law, the Philippine
Trust Company, as a banking institution, could not guarantee the bonds to the value
of P3,000,000 because this amount far exceeds its capital of P1,000,000 of which
only one-half has been subscribed and paid.
This difficulty is easily obviated by bearing in mind that the banking operations are
not
the primary aim of said corporation, which is engaged essentially in the trust
business, and that the prohibition of the law is not applicable to the Philippine Trust
Company, for the evidence shows that Mindoro Sugar Company transferred all its
real property, with the improvements, to it, and the value of both, which surely
could not be less than the value of the obligation guaranteed, became a part of its
capital and assets; in other words, with the value of the real property transferred to
it, the Philippine Trust Company had enough capital and assets to meet the amount
of the bonds guaranteed with interest thereon.