Spouses Ramon M. Nisce v. Equitable Pci Bank

Summary

This case involves spouses who sought to prevent foreclosure of their real estate mortgage by claiming their loan obligations should be offset by the wife's USD deposit with the bank's subsidiary company. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that legal compensation cannot occur between separate corporate entities, even if one is a subsidiary of the other, absent grounds to pierce the corporate veil. The Court affirmed that the preliminary injunction was improperly granted since the spouses failed to establish a clear legal right, emphasizing the separate juridical personality of corporations and the strict requirements for legal compensation under the Civil Code. The decision reinforces that compensation requires mutual debtor-creditor relationships between the same parties and that corporate separateness will be respected unless exceptional circumstances justify piercing the corporate veil.