G.R. No. L-18216 October 30, 1962
Lessons Applicable: Strong Juridical Personality (Corporate Law)
FACTS:
- Sept 19, 1960: 5 stockholders of the F. Guanzon and Sons, Inc. executed a certificate of liquidation of the assets of the corporation, dissolution and distribution among themselves in proportion to their shareholdings, as liquidating dividends, corporate assets, including real properties
- Register of Deeds of Manila denied the registration of the certificate of liquidation:
- The number of parcels not certified to in the acknowledgment;
- P430.50 Reg. fees need be paid;
- P940.45 documentary stamps need be attached to the document;
- The judgment of the Court approving the dissolution and directing the disposition of the assets of the corporation need be presented
- Commissioner of Land Registration overruled ground No. 7 and sustained requirements Nos. 3, 5 and 6.
- Stockholders appealed
- contend that the certificate of liquidation is not a conveyance or transfer but merely a distribution of the assets of the corporation which has ceased to exist for having been dissolved
ISSUE: W/N certificate merely involves a distribution of the corporation's assets (or should be considered a transfer or conveyance)
HELD: NO. affirm the resolution appealed from
- Corporation - juridical person distinct from the members composing it.
- Properties registered in the name of the corporation are owned by it as an entity separate and distinct from its members.
- While shares of stock constitute personal property they do not represent property of the corporation.
- A share of stock only typifies an aliquot part of the corporation's property, or the right to share in its proceeds to that extent when distributed according to law and equity but its holder is NOT the owner of any part of the capital of the corporation nor entitled to possession
- The stockholder is not a co-owner or tenant in common of the corporate property