Andres Quiroga vs Parsons Hardware Co.
38 Phil. 501
G.R. No. L-11491
Subject: Sales
Doctrine: Contract of Agency to Sell vs Contract of Sale
Facts: On Jan 24, 1911, plaintiff and the respondent entered into a contract making the latter an “agent” of the former. The contract stipulates that Don Andres Quiroga, here in petitioner, grants exclusive rights to sell his beds in the Visayan region to J. Parsons. The contract only stipulates that J.Parsons should pay Quiroga within 6 months upon the delivery of beds.
Quiroga files a case against Parsons for allegedly violating the following stipulations: not to sell the beds at higher prices than those of the invoices; to have an open establishment in Iloilo; itself to conduct the agency; to keep the beds on public exhibition, and to pay for the advertisement expenses for the same; and to order the beds by the dozen and in no other manner. With the exception of the obligation on the part of the defendant to order the beds by the dozen and in no other manner, none of the obligations imputed to the defendant in the two causes of action are expressly set forth in the contract. But the plaintiff alleged that the defendant was his agent for the sale of his beds in Iloilo, and that said obligations are implied in a contract of commercial agency. The whole question, therefore, reduced itself to a determination as to whether the defendant, by reason of the contract hereinbefore transcribed, was a purchaser or an agent of the plaintiff for the sale of his beds.
Issue: Whether the contract is a contract of agency or of sale.
Held: In order to classify a contract, due attention must be given to its essential clauses. In the contract in question, what was essential, as constituting its cause and subject matter, is that the plaintiff was to furnish the defendant with the beds which the latter might order, at the price stipulated, and that the defendant was to pay the