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Heirs of Tan Eng Kee Vs CA
Heirs of Tan Eng Kee Vs CA
Heirs of Tan Eng Kee Vs CA
sole proprietorship. He registered the same as such in 1954; that Kee was just an
employee based on the latters payroll and SSS coverage, and other records
indicating Tan Eng Lay as the proprietor.
Also, the business definitely amounted to more P3,000.00 hence if there was a
partnership, it should have been made in a public instrument.
But the business was started after the war (1945) prior to the publication of
the New Civil Code in 1950. Even so, nothing prevented the parties from
complying with this requirement.
Also, the Supreme Court emphasized that for 40 years, Tan Eng Kee never
asked for an accounting. The essence of a partnership is that the partners share in
the profits and losses. Each has the right to demand an accounting as long as the
partnership exists. Even if it can be speculated that a scenario wherein if
excellent relations exist among the partners at the start of the business and all
the partners are more interested in seeing the firm grow rather than get
immediate returns, a deferment of sharing in the profits is perfectly plausible.
But in the situation in the case at bar, the deferment, if any, had gone on too long
to be plausible. A person is presumed to take ordinary care of his concerns. A
demand for periodic accounting is evidence of a partnership which Kee never did.
The Supreme Court also noted; In determining whether a partnership exists,
these rules shall apply:
(1) Except as provided by Article 1825, persons who are not partners as to each
other are not partners as to third persons;
(2) Co-ownership or co-possession does not of itself establish a partnership,
whether such co-owners or co-possessors do or do not share any profits made by
the use of the property;
(3) The sharing of gross returns does not of itself establish a partnership, whether
or not the persons sharing them have a joint or common right or interest in any
property which the returns are derived;
(4) The receipt by a person of a share of the profits of a business is prima facie
evidence that he is a partner in the business, but no such inference shall be drawn
if such profits were received in payment:
(a) As a debt by installment or otherwise;
(b) As wages of an employee or rent to a landlord;
(c) As an annuity to a widow or representative of a deceased partner;
(d) As interest on a loan, though the amount of payment vary with the profits of
the business;
(e) As the consideration for the sale of a goodwill of a business or other property
by installments or otherwise.