Estrada vs.

Court of Agrarian Relations

2 SCRA 986 (1961)

Where the court ordered the manager of the bonded warehouse to deliver the deposited palay to
certain specified parties, and the person ordered to present the original warehouse receipts
failed to do so because they were allegedly lost in a fire, the court may order said manager to
release the palay to the proper parties upon their issuing a receipt therefore without necessity of
producing and surrendering the original receipts.

Facts: Respondent Faustino Galvan refuses to release the palay, which were the subject matter of herein
case. The manager of the Moncada Bonded Warehouse also refused to release the palay notwithstanding
the resolution issued by the Supreme Court to release the same to the petitioners. Such refusal was
anchored on the fact that the petitioners were not able to present the original receipt corresponding to the
palay deposited. On the part of the petitioners, their failure to surrender the original receipt was due to the
fire that destroyed such document.

Issue: Whether the warehouseman could release the palay even without the surrender of the original

Ruling: The excuses respectively offered by the manager of the Moncada and Galvan are not without
some merits. However, such incidents do not constitute a valid excuse to evade compliance with the order
of this Court that the palay in question be delivered to the petitioners, and, considering that the petitioners,
according to the manifestation filed by their counsel under date of August 3, 1961, are in dire need of said
palay for their subsistence, our order must be carried out in the meantime that this cases have not been
finally decided in order to ameliorate the precarious situation in which said petitioners find themselves.

It is hereby ordered that the manager or the owner of the Moncada Bonded Warehouse in Moncada,
Tarlac, and respondent Faustino F. Galvan release and deliver to the petitioners the portion still remaining
to be delivered to them or their shares in the palay involved in these cases.