Case Digest in Evidence (Remedial Law): BPI vs. Reyes

BANK OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS vs. JESUSA P. REYES and CONRADO B. REYES

[G.R. No. 157177, February 11, 2008]

FACTS:

On December 7, 1990, respondent Jesusa Reyes together with her daughter, went to BPI Zapote Branch to open an ATM account.

Respondent informed one of petitioners employees, Mr. Capati, that they wanted to open an ATM account for the amount of P200,000.00, P100,000.00 of which shall be withdrawn from her exiting savings account with BPI bank which is account no. 0233-2433-88 and the other P100,000.00 will be given by her in cash.

Capati allegedly made a mistake and prepared a withdrawal slip for P200,00.00 to be withdrawn from her existing savings account with said bank and the respondent believing in good faith that Capati prepared the papers with the correct amount signed the same unaware of the mistakes in figures.

Minutes later after the slips were presented to the teller, Capati returned to where the respondent was seating and informed the latter that the withdrawable balance could not accommodate P200,000.00.

Respondent explained that she is withdrawing the amount of P100,000.00 only and then changed and correct the figure two (2) into one (1) with her signature super-imposed thereto signifying the change, afterwhich the amount of P100,000.00 in cash in two bundles containing 100 pieces of P500.00 peso bill were given to Capati with her daughter Joan witnessing the same. Thereafter Capati prepared a deposit slip for P200,000.00 in the name of resondent Jesusa Reyes with the new account no. 0235-0767-48 and brought the same to the teller's booth.

After a while, he returned and handed to the respondent her duplicate copy of her deposit to account no. 0235-0767-48 reflecting the amount of P200,000.00 with receipt stamp showing December 7, as the date.

Later on, respondent would become aware that her ATM account only contained the amount of P100,000.00 with interest. Hence, she filed an action before the RTC.

Petitioner claimed that there was actually no cash involved with the transactions which happened on December 7, 1990 as contained in the bank’s teller tape.

On August 12, 1994, the RTC issued a Decision upholding the versions of respondents.

Aggrieved, petitioner appealed to the CA which affirmed the RTC decision with modification

ISSUE:

Whether the CA erred in sustaining the RTC's finding that respondent Jesusa made an initial deposit of P200,000.00 in her newly opened Express Teller account on December 7, 1990.

HELD:

It is a basic rule in evidence that each party to a case must prove his own affirmative allegations by the degree of evidence required by law. In civil cases, the party having the burden of proof must establish his case by preponderance of evidence, or that evidence which is of greater weight or is more convincing than that which is in opposition to it. It does not mean absolute truth; rather, it means that the testimony of one side is more believable than that of the other side, and that the probability of truth is on one side than on the other.

For a better perspective on the calibration of the evidence on hand, it must first be stressed that the judge who had heard and seen the witnesses testify was not the same judge who penned the decision. Thus, not having heard the testimonies himself, the trial judge or the appellate court would not be in a better position than this Court to assess the credibility of witnesses on the basis of their demeanor.

Hence, to arrive at the truth, we thoroughly reviewed the transcripts of the witnesses' testimonies and examined the pieces of evidence on record.

After a careful and close examination of the records and evidence presented by the parties, we find that respondents failed to successfully prove by preponderance of evidence that respondent Jesusa made an initial deposit of P200,000.00 in her Express Teller account.