Subject: Law 102 B – Consti 1

G.R. No. L-17467

Parties NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, represented by its Agent,
THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK, plaintiff-appellant, vs. JOSE YULO
TOBIAS, defendant-appellee.
Date April 23, 1963
Ponente CONCEPCION, J
Digeter KEITH JASPER MIER
FACTS
 Plaintiff filed a complaint on March 22, 1960 seeking to recover from defendant
the sum of P6,905.81 plus interest and attorney’s fees under a promissory note of
said defendant dated and issued May 13, 1946.
 Defendant filed a motion to dismiss for the ground that the action upon which
the complaint is based has elapsed for more than ten (10) years.

ISSUES
Whether or not the statute of limitations does not run against government owned
and controlled corporations.

RULINGS & RATIONES DECIDENDI

YES. It does, like all other corporations capitalized by the Government, a business
corporation, and, as such, its cause of action is subject to the statute of limitations. The
plaintiff herein cannot invoke exemptions as it does not exercise sovereign powers due
to the fact that it is an agency for the performance of purely corporate, proprietary or
business functions. It was also clear in its organic act C.A. 182, as amended by
Commonwealth Act 311 section 3 which states that agency of the plaintiff “shall be
subject to the provision of the Corporation Law in so far as they are inconsistent” with
the provisions of said Act “and shall have the general powers mentioned in said law”
this includes “...making contracts of any kind and description;” and “perform any and
all acts which corporation or natural person is authorized to perform under the laws
now existing or which may be enacted hereafter.”