Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, a Philippine Corporation v. Ned Putnam

429 F.2d 1112 RIZAL COMMERCIAL BANKING CORPORATION, a Philippine corporation, Appellant, v. Ned PUTNAM, Appellee. No. 23018. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. July 10, 1970. Alan Hart (argued), of Lindsay, Nahstoll, Hart, Dafoe & Krause, Portland, Or., for appellant. Cleveland C. Cory (argued), Clarence R. Wicks, Don H. Marmaduke, of Davies, Biggs, Strayer, Stoel & Boley, Portland, Or., for appellee. Before HAMLEY and WRIGHT, Circuit Judges, and SMITH, District Judge. * HAMLEY, Circuit Judge: 1 Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (Rizal), a Philippine corporation, brought this diversity suit against Ned Putnam, a citizen of the State of Oregon, in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. Rizal sought to recover $231,142.77 from Putnam under a guaranty undertaking covering a loan on a deferred letter of credit which Rizal had granted to Big Chrome Exploration Co., Inc. (Big Chrome), a Philippine corporation. The jury returned general and specific verdicts for Putnam and judgment was entered thereon. This appeal followed. 2 In March, 1963, Putnam became interested in an effort being made by Big Chrome to finance and develop a refractory…

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (Rizal), a Philippine corporation, brought this diversity suit against Ned Putnam, a citizen of the State of Oregon, in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. Rizal sought to recover $231,142.77 from Putnam under a guaranty undertaking covering a loan on a deferred letter of credit which Rizal had granted to Big Chrome Exploration Co., Inc. (Big Chrome), a Philippine corporation. The jury returned general and specific verdicts for Putnam and judgment was entered thereon. This appeal followed.

In March, 1963, Putnam became interested in an effort being made by Big Chrome to finance and develop a refractory chrome mine a few hours’ drive from Manila, in the Philippines. At this time Jose Robles was president and Bernabé Ang was vice-president of Big Chrome. After conducting studies in the Philippines and the United States, Putnam formulated a mining proposal which he submitted to Robles and Ang. They notified Putnam that Big Chrome was interested in accepting his suggestions. At this point Putnam and Wayne Fogelstrom, vice-president of Discal Corporation (Discal), a San Francisco-based exporter of machinery and equipment,…

(dissenting).

I respectfully dissent. I think that if the whole of the instrument of guaranty is read to determine the intention of the parties (Art. 1370, Civil Code of the Philippines) the defendant did give his advance consent to extensions of time. If the defendant was not discharged by these extensions, then in my opinion there is no real factual issue and defendant is liable as a matter of law.