- Petitioner
- Kabankalan Sugar Co.
- Respondent
- Josefa Pacheco
- Citation
- G.R. No. 33654
- Court
- Supreme Court
- Division
- First Division
- Ponente
- Villa-Real, J.
- Decided
- December 29, 1930
Summary
Kabankalan Sugar Co., Inc. sued Josefa Pacheco to compel execution of a formal instrument based on their 1920 private contract granting 20-year railroad easement rights. Pacheco defended that a 1922 public instrument had novated the original contract. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's finding of novation, ruling that the substantial modifications between the contracts - particularly the reduction of easement duration from 20 years to 7 years, change from optional to mandatory sugar cane milling, assumption of debt obligations, and elimination of rental payments - constituted incompatible principal conditions under Civil Code provisions on novation. The case establishes important precedent on contractual novation when easement duration is modified as a principal condition.