48.

GONZALEZ and GOMEZ vs HABERER Topic: Rights and Obligations of the Principal Nature: Appeal from a judgment of the Court of First Instance of Manila Facts: The plaintiff spouses executed a deed of sale over a tract of land with the defendant. It was stipulated in their contract that if the plaintiffs were found by court to not be the owners of the land, they would return any amount that the defendant had paid. It was also stipulated that Gomez gave his wife Gonzalez the marital license to execute the deed. However, after making an initial payment of Php30,000, the defendant found that the land was in the adverse possession of many others. Thus, he stopped making payments. The plaintiffs then filed an action to recover the sum of unpaid balance. The defendant claimed that when they entered into this contract, the plaintiffs made false representations and mislead him into thinking they had full ownership of the land. Issue: WON Gonzalez was free of the liabilities that her husband incurred from the misrepresentations in the sale of the land Held: NO Rationale: As to the plaintiffs contention that Gonzales cannot be charged by her husbands misrepresentation, it is sufficient to say that the latter in negotiating for the sale of the land acted as an agent and representative of his wife; having accepted the benefit of the representations of her agent she cannot, of course, escape liability for them. The latter cannot accept such benefits and at the same time deny the responsibility for them.