- Petitioner
- Philippine Commercial International Bank (Formerly Philippine Commercial & Industrial Bank)
- Respondent
- Intermediate Appellate Court
- Citation
- G.R. No. 73610
- Court
- Supreme Court
- Division
- First Division
- Ponente
- Medialdea, J.
- Decided
- April 19, 1991
Summary
PCIB filed simultaneous collection suit and foreclosure proceedings against Spouses Salgado for a P1.3 million promissory note secured by real estate mortgages. The bank obtained a writ of attachment by falsely representing the note as unsecured, deliberately deleting 'REM' notation from documents. The Supreme Court held this violated the rule against splitting a single cause of action and constituted bad faith in obtaining the attachment. The Court applied Article 1252 of the Civil Code, allowing foreclosure proceeds to be applied to the most onerous debt first. While affirming the bank's liability for wrongful attachment, the Court significantly reduced the excessive damages awarded by the appellate court to reasonable amounts reflecting the actual harm suffered.