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Oblicon Case #2
Oblicon Case #2
BACUS vs. CA GR# 127695, December 03, 2001 FACTS: Petitioners entered into a lease
contract with option to buy with respondents. The private respondents communicated to
petitioners’ their intention to buy the property prior to the expiration of their contract. However,
petitioners refused to execute the deed of sale and demanded respondents to first deliver the
money before they would execute the same. The respondents filed a case for specific
performance in the RTC. Before the RTC rendered its decision, respondents issued a cashier’s
check in petitioners’ favor purportedly to bolster their claim that they were ready to pay the
purchase price. Asserting that the respondents were in delay when they issued the cashier’s
check after the contract expired, petitioners filed this petition. HELD: Obligations under an
option to buy are reciprocal obligations. In an option to buy, the payment of the purchase price
by the creditor is contingent upon the execution and delivery of a deed of sale by the debtor. In
the case at bar, when the respondents opted to buy the property, their obligation was to advise
petitioners of their decision and their readiness to pay the price. They were not yet obliged to
make actual payment. Only upon petitioners’ actual execution and delivery of the deed of sale
were acquired to pay. Respondents did not incur in delay when they did not yet deliver payment
nor make a consignation before the expiration of the contract. In reciprocal obligations, neither
party incurs in delay if the other does not comply or is not ready to comply in a proper manner
with what is incumbent upon him. Only from the moment one of the
parties fulfills his obligation, does delay by the other begin. Accordingly, as there was no
compliance yet with what was incumbent upon petitioners under the option to buy, respondents
had not incurred in delay when the cashier’s check was issued even after the contract expired.