CASE DIGEST Topic I. STATUTORY COSNTRUCTION 1. Definition Brief Case Title, Citation and Year of Decision Caltex v.

Palomar, 18 SCRA 247 (1966) Facts (State only the pertinent facts) Caltex came up with a promotion to increase public awareness to its products wherein any person would simply go the Caltex service Station and fill-up form and make an estimate of the actual consumption of the said gasoline station. The person to guess the nearest consumption of the gasoline station in a day wins. The person entering the contest need not be a customer or (does he need to) purchase any of Caltexs products. Foreseeing the possibility of using the mailing system for the publication of the promo (As such), it wrote the Postmaster General for an authority to use the mailing system for the said promotion. The postmaster denied this authority citing that under the Revised Administrative Code, the same partakes of a lottery or a gift-enterprise which is prohibited under the Revised Administrative Code. The Postmaster General threatened Caltex with the issuance of a fraud order in case it pushes through with the use of the mailing system for the dissemination of information regarding the said promo. Caltex asked for a reconsideration (of the decision) from the Postmaster General, which the latter denied. Caltex then filed a case in court for a declaratory relief. The court ruled in favor of Caltex declaring that there was no violation of the Administrative Code. The Postmaster General appealed. Caltex invoked Statutory Construction because there is an ambiguity in the interpretation of the terms Lottery and Gift Enterprise as applied to the case. The Postmaster General opposed the use of Statutory Construction because the law is clear and unequivocal. Issue (State the pertinent issue to the case) Whether or not Statutory Construction may be utilized to settle the controversy between the parties. Ruling / Held (State the ruling pertinent to the issue) Yes. Statutory Construction is the art or process of discovering or ascertaining the intention of the legislature, when the same has been rendered doubtful by reason of the ambiguity in the law or the fact that a given case is not provided for by the law, and applying it to an interpretation of the terms lottery or gift-enterprise as applied to the facts of the given case. Statutory Construction may therefore be resorted to in order to settle the controversy.