This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2002-07-03 |
BELLOSILLO, J. |
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| Not only was Gene Maga an incompetent person to receive the summons, he was also, more plainly, not in charge of petitioner's office. To be "in charge" means to have "care and custody of, under control of, or entrusted to the management or direction of."[35] Applied to the instant case, Maga had obviously no control and management of the district office as noticeably shown by his occupation as "maintenance" man. While it is not necessary that the person in charge of a defendant's regular place of business be specially authorized to receive summons, it being enough that he appears to be in charge,[36] we do not think that anyone, more so the process server, would be led to believe that Maga has been entrusted the management of office records to ensure the smooth flow of important documents therein. As in Far Corporation v. Francisco,[37] no one would think that Maga was so "integrated" in the responsibilities and duties of petitioner as Congressman for Malabon-Navotas to make it a priori supposable that he would realize and know what should be done with any legal papers served on him. We would not dare establish a precedent whereby any employee or anyone who pretends to be an employee, although found in the office of his employer, could validly receive summons for him. | |||||