G.R. No. 96551, 4 November 1996

FACTS:

Premium Marble Resources, Inc. (Premium for brevity), assisted by Atty. Arnulfo Dumadag as counsel, filed an action for damages against International Corporate Bank.A few days after Premium filed the said case, Printline Corporation, a sister company of Premium also filed an action for damages against International Corporate Bank.

Meantime, the same corporation, i.e., Premium, but this time represented by Siguion Reyna, Montecillio and Ongsiako Law Office as counsel, filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that the filing of the case was without authority from its duly constituted board of directors as shown by the excerpt of the minutes of the Premium’s board of directors’ meeting.

In its opposition to the motion to dismiss, Premium thru Atty. Dumadag contended that the persons who signed the board resolution namely Belen, Jr., Nograles & Reyes, are not directors of the corporation and were allegedly former officers and stockholders of Premium; that Siguion Reyna Law office is the lawyer of Belen and Nograles and not of Premium and that the Articles of Incorporation of Premium shows that Belen, Nograles and Reyes are not majority stockholders.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the filing of the case for damages against private respondent was authorized by a duly constituted Board of Directors of the petitioner corporation.

RULING:

No. The filing of the case was not duly authorized.

We agree with the finding of public respondent Court of Appeals, that in the absence of /any board resolution from its board of directors the [sic] authority to act for and in behalf of the corporation, the present action must necessarily fail. The power of the corporation to sue and be sued in any court is lodged with the board of directors that exercises its corporate powers.

It appears from the general information sheet and the Certification issued by the SEC on August 19, 1986 that as of March 4, 1981, the officers and members of the board of directors of the Premium Marble Resources, Inc. were:

Alberto C. Nograles — President/Director
Fernando D. Hilario — Vice President/Director
Augusto I. Galace — Treasurer
Jose L.R. Reyes — Secretary/Director
Pido E. Aquilar — Director
Saturnino G. Belen, Jr. — Chairman of the Board

While the Minutes of the Meeting of the Board on April 1, 1982 states that the newly elected officers for the year 1982 were Oscar Gan, Mario Zavalla, Aderito Yujuico and Rodolfo Millare, petitioner failed to show proof that this election was reported to the SEC. In fact, the last entry in their General Information Sheet with the SEC, as of 1986 appears to be the set of officers elected in March 1981.

The claim, therefore, of petitioners as represented by Atty. Dumadag, that Zaballa, et al., are the incumbent officers of Premium has not been fully substantiated. In the absence of an authority from the board of directors, no person, not even the officers of the corporation, can validly bind the corporation.

*Case Digest by Paul C. Gandola, Refresher, Andres Bonifacio Law School, SY 2019-2020