Bunge Corporation v Camenforte (29 August 1952)

Bautista Angelo, J.
FACTS:
Plaintiffs claim that a contract was entered into between the Visayan Products Company (represented by
Camenforte and company) and Bunge Corp. for the sale of 500 long tons of copra in bulk at $188.80 per ton.
It was stipulated that Visayan Products would ship the copra on November or December 1947 to the plaintiff in SF,
CA for delivery.
Visayan Products failed to make the delivery. Believing in good faith that the copra would be delivered on time,
plaintiff sold to El Dorado Oil Works the quantity of copra it purchased.
Because of the failure to ship and deliver the copra on time, plaintiff claims it suffered damages worth P180,000.
Defendant Vicente Kho admitted that it was Visayan Products-Tacloban that entered into the transaction and not
Visayan Products-Cebu.
o He was the manager and controlling stockholder of Visayan Products-Tacloban.
Kho claims that he did his best to comply with the contract but failed to do so because of force majeure. He
stated that he arranged for a ship to make the delivery, but before the ship arrived, a storm occurred causing the
destruction of the bodega where the copra was stored.
ISSUES + RULING:
WoN the civil liability of the defendants subsists despite of the fortuitous event. YES.
The subject of the contract is 500 tons of copra; it does not refer to any particular or specific copra, nor does it
mention the place where the copra is to be acquired.
o The subject matter of the sale is therefore generic and not specific.
It appearing that the obligation of appellant is to deliver copra in a generic sense, the obligation cannot be
deemed extinguished by the destruction or disappearance of the copra.
Their obligation subsists as long as that commodity is available. A generic obligation is not extinguished by the
loss of a thing belonging to a particular genus. Genus nunquan perit.
According to Manresa:
o Specific thing: a concrete, particularized object, indicated by its own individuality
o Generic thing: ne whose determination is confined to that of its nature, to the genus (genero) to which it
pertains
WoN defendants are liable for damages. YES.
According to the plaintiff, it suffered damages worth $84,630.86 as it failed to deliver the copra to El Dorado.
The lower court ruled that the sale to El Dorado was concluded before the sale between plaintiff and defendant
corporation. As such, the copra sold to El Dorado could not have been the one purchased from defendant.
However, the lower court still found it proper to award damages.
SC: the lower court in its ruling; the difference in the dates is merely nominal because of the time difference
between NY and Cebu.
DISPOSITION: Affirmed. Costs against defendant.