FACTS:

Plaintiff filed a case against defendants for the recovery debt for the sum of P443.35 before the justice of peace. The justice of the peace rendered a judgment against the defendants and in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of P443.35, with interest and the costs. Defendants appealed to the CFI and the case was tried de novo in said court.

After trial, the CFI rendered its decision in favor of the plaintiff. One of the defendants, Juan Nigorra, appealed to this court.

Nigorra claimed “that the lower court committed an error in decreeing that both of the defendants “como razon social,” and each of them were individually liable for the payment of the amount claimed by the plaintiff.”

ISSUE:

Whether or not appellant is individually liable to the plaintiff for the full amount of the obligation incurred by the defendants.

RULING:

The defendants were liable only for their respective share of said obligation.

Article 1137 of the Civil Code provides that parties to a contract are not severally liable for the obligation created thereby in the absence of an express agreement to that effect. 

Said article 1137 provides:

“The concurrence of two or more creditors, or of two or more debtors in a single obligation, does not imply that each one of the former has a right to ask, nor that each one of the latter is bound to comply in full with the things which are the object of the same. This shall only take place when the obligation determines it expressly, being constituted as a joint obligation.”

In the absence of a finding of facts therefore that the defendants made themselves individually liable for the debt incurred, they are each liable for one-half of said obligation.

For these reasons the judgment of the lower court, holding that the appellant was individually liable to the plaintiff for the full amount of the obligation incurred by the defendants, is modified. As to the appellant, Juan Nigorra, he is liable for one-half of the sum claimed by the plaintiff, together with one-half the costs, and interest upon said amount at the rate of 6 percent from the 23d day of March, 1905.