Law School Noob: [CASE DIGEST] Yulo v. Chan Pe (G.R. No. 156448)

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

[CASE DIGEST] Yulo v. Chan Pe (G.R. No. 156448)

FACTS:

Alfredo Yulo had leased Chan Pe door No. 11 as well as another room of the Commercial Building at Bonifacio Street, Bacolod City for a period of five (5) years. Their lease agreement contained a stipulation that upon default, the contract will be deemed automatically cancelled and the advance payment of the lessee shall also be confiscated.

Pe had failed to pay the rentals from May to October for a total sum of Php 3,900. As such, Yulo filed a case against Pe. The Court of First Instance sentenced Pe to pay Yulo the sum of Php 3,900 as rent arrears, which shall be deducted from Php 5,700 (balance of advance payment of Php 6,000 deducted by the discount of 100 per month of February to April), after which Yulo will pay (or give back) Pe the sum of Php 1,800, representing the balance of the advance payment (Php 5,700 minus Php 3,900).

ISSUE:

Whether the CFI's ruling is correct. -- NO.

HELD:

The Supreme Court held that the stipulation in the contract which provides that upon default, the contract will be deemed automatically cancelled and the advance payment of the lessee shall also be confiscated, was a penal clause. Moreover, said stipulation also provided for payment of either liquidated damages or exemplary damages.

The Courth held that Yulo is entitled to retain the balance of Php 5,700. In addition, the Php 1,800 balance should not be given back to Pe, as this shall serve as compensation to Yulo for such damages he may have suffered for the breach of obligation by Pe.

LAW SCHOOL LIFE

The real score on law school and alcohol

Law school is so demanding an endeavor, no decent law student would want to deliberately skip clat asses for a tall glass of beer, no matter how deliciously ice cold such beverage is. It just isn't done. At all [. . .]

Should law students take a leave of absence until the COVID-19 pandemic ends?

For many, the abrupt shift to digital learning due to the pandemic is a novel concept that is particularly difficult to adjust to. This is more pronounced among law students, where daily physical interactions with classmates and professors are necessary in fostering a robust academic experience [. . .]

So you took the Bar Exams and failed. Now what?

Failing the Bar constitutes an abysmal point in any law graduate's life. It can trigger a lot of negative things, which is why it is very important that Bar examinees should have a support system to cling on to in the event of failure [. . .]

Bar review season pitfalls and tips to make reviewing for the Bar Exams less stressful

The Bar Exam review season is when reviewees try to conjur everything they have learned in law school and condense everything into neat mental folders easily retrievable when needed. Doing so requires focus, concentration, determination, and wise use of resources, particularly time and money [. . .]

The lowdown on law school entrance exams: Top 3 law schools in the Philippines

The top three law schools in the Philippines by reputation, quality of their alumni, and passing rate in the Bar exams are the College of Law of the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, the Ateneo School of Law in Makati, and the College of Law of the San Beda University in Manila. Each year these schools manage to attract graduates from all over the Philippines. As such, competition for slots in any of these schools is intense [. . .]

The Filipino law student's guide to scoring law textbooks on the cheap

Law books are often thick and heavy tomes of specialized legal information, mostly annotations of laws or statutes with a discussion of existing jurisprudence. They can be very intimidating. Even worse, they are bound to punch a gaping hole in your wallet [. . .]

To digest or not to digest -- that's the question

Relying on digests spares one the trouble of having to go through the case itself, identifying relevant facts, determining key issues, and analyzing the court's rationale in coming up with its decision [. . .]