FACTS:
Private respondent and one other, both officers of Worldwide Garment Manufacturing, Inc., were authorized to apply for credit facilities with petitioner Bank, which issued nine promissory notes uniformly worded except for the dates and amounts in the following manner:
____, after date, for value received, I/we, jointly and severally promise to pay to the ORDER of the REPUBLIC PLANTERS BANK, at its office in Manila, Philippines, the sum of _____ PESOS (…) Philippine Currency…
On the right bottom margin of the promissory notes appeared the signatures of both officers above their names with the phrase “and (in) his personal capacity” typewritten.
ISSUE(S):
Whether or not private respondent is solidarily liable on the nine promissory notes.
HELD:
YES. Where an instrument containing the words “I promise to pay” is signed by two or more persons, they are deemed to be jointly and severally liable thereon. An instrument which begins with “I”, “We”, or “Either of us” promise to pay, when signed by two or more persons, makes them solidarily liable. The fact that the singular pronoun is used indicates that the promise is individual as to each other; meaning that each of the co-signers is deemed to have made an independent singular promise to pay the notes in full.
