SECOND DIVISION

[G.R. No. L-6114. October 30, 1954.]

SOUTHERN LUZON EMPLOYEES' ASSOCIATION, plaintiff, vs.

JUANITA GOLPEO, ET AL., defendants and appellants;
AQUILINA MALOLES, ET AL., defendants and appellees;
ELSIE HICBAN, ET AL., defendants; MARCELINO
CONCEPCION, ET AL., intervenor and appellants.

Enrique Al. Capistrano, Pio O. Golfeo, Jose E. Erfe and Hilario Mutuc
for appellants.
Manuel Alvero and Eden B. Brion for appellees.
Juan A. Baes for defendant Elsie Hicban.

SYLLABUS

ASSOCIATIONS; MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATIONS; DEATH BENEFIT

ANALOGOUS TO INSURANCE. — The plaintiff association is composed of
laborers and employees and one of its purposes is mutual aid of its members
and their dependents in case of death. The association adopted a resolution
allowing a member to name as his beneficiaries his common law wife and/or
children had with her. In this case, the deceased member listed as his
beneficiaries his common law wife and the latter's children. Held, that said
beneficiaries are exclusively entitled to the death benefit, the agreement
between the deceased member and the association being analogous to
insurance.

DECISION

PARAS, C. J : p

The plaintiff, Southern Luzon Employees' Association, is composed

of laborers and employees of Laguna Tayabas Bus Co., and Batangas
Transportation Company, and one of its purposes is mutual aid of its
members and their dependents in case of death Roman A. Concepcion
was a member until his death on December 13, 1950. The association
adopted on September 17, 1949 the following resolution:
"RESOLVED: That a family record card of each member be
printed wherein the members will put down his dependents and/or
beneficiaries.
"BE IT RESOLVED, FURTHER, that a member may, if he chooses,
put down his common-law wife as his beneficiary and/or children had
with her as the case may be; that in case of a widower, he may put
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 down his legitimate children with the first marriage who are below 21
years of age, single, and may at the same time, also name his
common-law wife, if he has any, as dependents and/or beneficiaries;
and
"BE IT RESOLVED: That such person so named by the
member will be the sole persons to be recognized by the Association
regarding claims for condolence contributions."
In the form required by the association to be accomplished by its
members, with reference to the death benefit, Roman A. Concepcion
listed as his beneficiaries Aquilina Maloles, Roman M. Concepcion, Jr.,
Estela M. Concepcion, Rolando M. Concepcion and Robin M. Concepcion.
After the death of Roman A. Concepcion, the association was able to
collect voluntary contributions from its members amounting to P2,505.
Three sets of claimants presented themselves, namely, (1) Juanita
Golpeo, legal wife of Roman A. Concepcion, and her children; (2)
Aquilina Maloles, common law wife of Roman A. Concepcion, and her
children, named beneficiaries by the deceased; and (3) Elsie Hicban,
another common law wife of Roman A. Concepcion, and her child. The
plaintiff association was accordingly constrained to institute in the Court
of First Instance of Laguna the present action for interpleading against
the three conflicting claimants as defendants. Marcelino and Josefina
Concepcion, children of the deceased Roman A. Concepcion with Juanita
Golpeo, intervened in their own rights, aligning themselves with the
defendants Juanita Golpeo and her minor children. After hearing, the
court rendered a decision, declaring the defendants Aquilina Maloles
and her children the sole beneficiaries of the sum of P2,505.00, and
ordering the plaintiff to deliver said amount to them. From this decision
only the defendants Juanita Golpeo and her minor children and the
intervenors Marcelino and Josefina Concepcion have appealed to this
court.
The decision is based mainly on the theory that the contract
between the plaintiff and the deceased Roman A. Concepcion partook of
the nature of an insurance and that, therefore, the amount in question
belonged exclusively to the beneficiaries, invoking the following
pronouncements of this Court in the case of Del Val vs. Del Val, 29 Phil.,
534:
"With the finding of the trial court that the proceeds of the
life-insurance policy belongs exclusively to the defendant as his
individual and separate property, we agree. That the proceeds of
an insurance policy belong exclusively to the beneficiary and not
to the estate of the person whose life was insured, and that such
proceeds are the separate and individual property of the
beneficiary and not of the heirs of the person whose life was
insured, is the doctrine in America. We believe that the same
doctrine obtains in these Islands by virtue of section 428 of the
Code of Commerce, which reads:.
"'The amounts which the underwriter must deliver to the
person insured, in fulfillment of the contract, shall be the property
of the latter, even against the claims of the legitimate heirs or
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 creditors of any kind whatsoever of the person who effected the
insurance in favor of the former.'.
"It is claimed by the attorney for the plaintiffs that the
section just quoted in subordinated to the provisions of the Civil
Code as found in article 1035. This article reads:.
"'An heir by force of law surviving with others of the same
character to a succession must bring into the hereditary estate the
property or securities he may have received from the deceased
during the life of the same, by way of dowry, gift, or for any good
consideration, in order to compute it in fixing the legal portions
and in the account of the division.'.
"Counsel also claims that the proceeds of the insurance
policy were a donation or gift made by the father during his
lifetime to the defendant and that, as such, its ultimate destination
is determined by those provisions of the Civil Code which relate to
donations, especially article 819. This article provides that 'gifts
made to children which are not betterments shall be considered as
part of their legal, portion.'
"We cannot agree with these contentions. The contract of
life insurance is a special contract and the destination of the
proceeds thereof is determined by special laws which deal
exclusively with that subject. The Civil Code has no provisions
which relate directly and specifically to life-insurance contracts or
to the destination of life-insurance proceeds. That subject is
regulated exclusively by the Code of Commerce which provides for
the terms of the contract, the relations of the parties and the
destination of the proceeds of the policy." (Supra, pp. 540-541.)
It is argued for the appellants, however, that the Insurance Law is
not applicable because the plaintiff is a mutual benefit association as
defined in section 1628 of the Revised Administrative Code. This
argument evidently ignores the fact that the trial court has not
considered the plaintiff as a regular insurance company but merely
ruled that the death benefit in question is analogous to an insurance.
Moreover, section 1628 of the Revised Administrative Code defines a
mutual benefit association as one, among others, "providing for any
method of accident or life insurance among its members out of dues or
assessments collected from the membership." The comparison made in
the appealed decision is, therefore, well taken.
Appellants also contend that the stipulation between the plaintiff
and the deceased Roman A. Concepcion regarding the specification of
the latter's beneficiaries, and the resolution of September 17, 1949, are
void for being contrary to law, moral or public policy. Specifically, the
appellants cite article 2012 of the new Civil Code providing that "Any
person who is forbidden from receiving any donation under article 739
cannot be named beneficiary of a life insurance policy by the person
who cannot make any donation to him, according to said article."
Inasmuch as, according to article 739 of the new Civil Code, a donation
is void when made "between persons who are guilty of adultery or
concubinage at the time of the donation," it is alleged that the
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 defendant-appellee, Aquilina Maloles, cannot be named a beneficiary,
even assuming that the insurance law is applicable. Without considering
the intimation in the brief for the defendants-appellees that appellant
Juanita Golpeo, by her silence and actions, had acquiesced in the illicit
relations between her husband and appellee Aquilina Maloles,
appellants' argument would certainly not apply to the children of
Aquilina, likewise named beneficiaries by the deceased Roman A.
Concepcion. As a matter of fact the new Civil Code recognizes certain
successional rights of illegitimate children. (Article 287.)
The other contentions advanced rather exhaustively by counsel for
appellants, and the citations in support thereof, are either negatived or
rendered inapplicable by the decisive considerations already stated. In
this connection it is noteworthy that the estate of the deceased Roman
A. Concepcion was not entirely left without anything legally due it, since
it is an admitted fact that the sum of P2,500 was paid by Laguna
Tayabas Bus Co., employer of the deceased, to the appellants under the
Workmen's Compensation Act.
Wherefore, the appealed decision is affirmed, and it is so ordered
without costs. Bengzon, Jugo, and Bautista Angelo, JJ., concur. .
Padilla and Reyes, A., JJ., concur in the result.
REYES, J. B. L., J., concurring:
I concur in the result for the reason that the contract here involved
was perfected before the new Civil Code took effect, and hence its
provisions cannot be made to apply retroactively.
Concepcion and Montemayor, JJ., concur.

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