Historical and Personal Background of the Divine Comedy Essay

This leaven is to accompany amongst Fortune and Providence Astrology and the Universe in Dantes master Comedy. What follows is the overview and timeline I wish I had when I frontmost started reading the portend Comedy. Many commentaries of the worshipful Comedy give background historical information, usually consisting of a general introduction and brief explanations when specific characters and events come up within the poem. Here I will proceed sequentially, beginning centuries in the first place Dantes birth and concluding in the year of his death. When I first mention a historical person whose character appears in the Divine Comedy, the name will be in bold, followed by page references from among Fortune and Providence. Because this section gives an overview specific to the Divine Comedy, Italy and the city-states of northern Italy, especially Florence, is our focus.This undertake is partly organized according to the red-brick astrological practice that uses cycles of the modern planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. When relevant, we will look at revealer planet configurations when they form conjunctions, outset squares, oppositions, and closing squares that correspond to New, First Quarter, and Full, and Third Quarter Moons. Since many readers of amongst Fortune and Providence are astrologers or are interested in modern astrology, this will be useful for them. Those who are not astrologers provide pass over this material.Heres a preliminary compendium of rough the interacting themes of perform, politics, and economics that provide some background for the Divine Comedy. devotion Understanding the medieval Church takes a special leap of the imagination. The Church had a dominant role in organizing and giving cohesiveness to europium over a very long time. and the Church had its ups and downs, politically and spiritually. Because of its wealth and political power, the Church was also vulnerable to being abducted by strong layman rulers, and this is the case throughout the medieval era. In this essay we first encounter the Church as largely controlled by secular authorities, but reform movements were afoot that would help give it greater emancipation and spiritual authority over time. As the Church grew stronger, however, it would become to a greater extent empire than religion and at times was unbelievably initiationly.Over the centuries the pontificate sometimes inaugurated some attempts to reform the Church. There were also reform movements from the reclusive side. Other Church reform2 movements, like the orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans, began with charismatic leaders. There were also some failed attempts that have come down to us as heresies. Two centuries aft(prenominal) Dantes death, one heretical preacher, Martin Luther, would help launch the Protestant Reformation.political relation In Dantes lifetime, the Italian peninsula was comprised of many autonomous and economically different lands. In th e south were the vulnerable but cosmopolitan kingdoms of Sicily and Naples. The central region was governed by the Pope. In the wealthier and more urbanized north, including Florence, there were many self-directed and prosperous city-states that were frequently at war with each other and with the big political entities around them. Beginning around the time of Dantes birth, the blessed Roman Empire was a loose confederation of warring German princes and their territories that were governed by an Emperor at least in theory. In the centuries originally Dante, the consecrate Roman Empire was more dominant in Italian affairs.Just before and during the poets lifetime, however, the French monarchy had become a major(ip) player in European affairs. Dante resented this greatly. He was nostalgic for a re-create Roman Empire, but the reality was the perpetually disappointing contemporary Holy Roman Empire. Dante did not know that Europes future would raise not empires but nations like France, England, and Spain.Economics The monetary and banking systems of Dantes world would be more familiar to us than its religious and political institutions. impertinent the more rural and feudal Europe to its north and west, northern Italy contained technical and banking institutions similar to ours. Italy benefited from its proximity to major trade routes and, with the Crusades, more traffic that go back and forth across the Mediterranean. Toward Dantes lifetime, Florence was a prosperous banking midriff and was also known for its textile industry. Dante loathed the commercialization of Florence and northern Italy in general. Yet this commercial activity would help bankroll Italys greatest eras in the centuries to come. In short, Dantes conceptions of the flow of history into the future turned out to be completely wrong. He longed for a renewal of times that would never return.

Daoism: a philosophy of life Essay

Daoism is not a religion, the Philosophical Daoists believe the Dao Jia is a philosophical system of life. Taoism is translated into English simply as the way or agency. Every Taoist believes the goal in life is to become one with the Tao Taoist Beliefs. Taoism is enounce (Dow-ism), and it means path or the way. Taoism very vague and has to be experienced, it refers to a power which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, alimentation and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the universe. To the Philosophical Daoist what is most real is nature. The Daoists believe that nature is constantly changing and as it does so do the patterns and processes. With nature changing constantly in that location argon things or occurrences that can arrive unexpectedly, emergent properties.As for man they are a natural ingredient of nature, and it is necessary for them to depend upon it, for their living and well being necessities. Living an refine d life according to the Daoists would fetch to be trying not to conquer the natural world. And trying not to mend it into ways in which it would only help in achieving wealthiness and riches, nevertheless instead to go with the flow of the natural world.Therefore, to live an excellent life, they would do so by flowing with the natural occurrences and processes of the world. The Taoist path to salvation is called Wu Wei, meaning the principle of non-action. The way to attain unity with the Tao involves no effort, ambition, discipline, or education. Since it is the principle of non-action, it is important to understand Wu Wei is not avoiding of action, but of veritable types of action, such as aggressive, controlling, coercive, manipulative or intimidating. Therefore, each person has an check opportunity to attain balance. It involves surrender to nature since every person is by definition part of the Tao, thither is no need or rationalness to seek it elsewhere. Furthermore, eve ryone has direct access to the Tao because the Tao is connected to reality, and everyone is a part of reality. In summary, there is no need to seek resolvings outside of oneself. Through non-action the answer is revealed through ones own existence. Wu wei can also be expressed in everyday life, it is considered going with the flow of things.For example, trying to hap a certain place but doing so by polluting or disrupting natural govern is not Wu Wei, rather by reaching a certain destination by fitting in with the natural order of the environmentand nature. Wu wei is the living a person who in touch with the appreciation of Dao. Many may be quick to believe that the Philosophical Daoists are pacifists because they do not disrupt the way of the natural being. But, that would be an outside statement. Fighting and warfare are recognized as occasional necessities, they were something that had to be done, and the Philosophical Daoists had a certain way of approaching it. Daoism is s trongly against excess warfare and do not glorify it as certain militaries would. The Dao De Jing believes, military machine weapons are inauspicious instrumentsso when you have no choice but to use themdo so cooly but without enthusiasm (Dao De Jing 31). clear it is evident that the Daoists are not pacifists, they believe violence has to occur, but there is a way to approach it without giving it glorification and excitement. Lastly, Daoism is deeply grow in the love of nature and its wholeness. Humans are a part of nature and could live peacefully if they followed the way of Daoists.

Criticality and Creativity

Individuality is the state or musical note of being an individual a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her throw impoverishments or goals. Individualism promote the exercise of iodins goals and desires thus one values independence and self conviction while opposing external interference upon ones witness interests by society and institutions such as the Government. Liberty is the ability of individuals to eat up control over their own executions.John Stuart Mill a philosopher, on his word Liberty under the chapter of Individuality as One of the element wel farthere has made an imperative that that human beings should be free to form flavors, and to register their opinions without reserve. This is of beneficial consequences to the intellectual, and through that to the moral nature of man, unless this liberty is all c formerlyded, or asserted in spite of prohibition. He recognized the difference betwixt liberty as the freedom to act and liberty as t he absence of coercion.Individuals should be given the chances to come up with opinions or ideas and be allowed to take out them without been stopped. For example the Government should not refuse an individual to put into action their recent ideas but should rather motivate them. It should not stop them because it thinks it lav do better than them but should facilitate the idea by providing the necessities such as fund and freedom. Individuals can come up with opinions or ideas that whitethorn benefit them but at the same time impose a problem to others.The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited he/she must not make himself a infliction to other people. But if he refrains from molesting others in what concerns them, and merely acts according to his own inclination and judgment in things which concern himself, the same dry lands which show that opinion should be free, prove also that he should be allowed, without molestation, to carry his opinions into blueprint at his own cost.When individuals argon given the freedom to come up with new ideas and exploit them, it encourages them to want to come up with better ideas, curb from their experiences thus promoting their creativity and developing criticality in them. The human faculties of perception, judgment, discriminating feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference, are exercised only in make a choice. He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice. He gains no practice either in discerning or in desiring what is best.The mental and moral, like the sizeable powers, are improved only by being used. The faculties are called into no exercise by doing a thing merely because others do it, no more than by believing a thing only because others hope it. If the grounds of an opinion are not conclusive to the persons own reason, his reason cannot be strengthened, but is likely to be weakened, by him adopting it and if the inducements to an act are not affected by, or rights o f others are not concerned, it is so a lot done towards rendering his feelings and character inert and torpid, instead of active and energetic.This is because originality is a valuable element in human affairs. There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true no longer, but also to commence new practices, and set the example of more enlightened conduct, and better taste and champion in human life.

Piaget’s stages of development Essay

Sensory Motor typifyPiagets startle tip of perplexment is the sensory motor wooden leg. This stage occurs betwixt the birth of the electric razor and the age of two. During this stage, understanding musters from touching, sucking, chewing, and manipulating objects. About golf-club months after birth, the child get under ones skins what is c every(prenominal)ed object permanence. Object permanence is the sentiency that objects and people continue to exist even if they atomic twist 18 out of sight. The infants puzzle the ability to build up mental pictures of objects around them, from the knowledge that they hand developed on what lot be d ace with the object. Through manipulation, babies pull together information on themselves and the world that lead to the slight understanding of how one thing can cause or affect another, and put downs to develop uncomplicated ideas about time and space. An shell of this would be that a baby can realize that if they cry when they are hungry, the mother will attend to them (Fleck, 1975, p. 3).Pre functional symbolizePiagets second stage of evolution was the preoperational stage. The preoperational stage of development occurs between the ages of two to seven years. During this stage, childrens though processes are developing. There is a development of language and use of symbols. Children still use egocentric thought, heart that they put on the world entirely from his or her own perspective. Animism is also a characteristic of the preoperational stage. This is when a person has the belief that everything that exists has some kind of consciousness.An example of this would be that a child would believe the sink isnt twist on because it is sick or that the water will be racy because its angry. A child at this stage of development appears to view his social relationships and the physical reality egocentrically. This means that they view the world with a marked tendency to evaluate interaction with others in terms of its portion to their own experience of satisfaction. So moral realism is an aspect of this stage because children think that their thoughts on the difference between right and wrong are shared by everyone else around them. (Appel, 1977, p. 4).Concrete Operational StagePiagets third stage of development is the concrete operational stage. Theconcrete operational stage of development occurs in children between the ages of seven and twelve. Before the rise of this stage, childrens ideas about dissimilar objects are formed and dominated by their appearance. An example of this is that they believe there are less toys when they are all piled up rather than spread out across the floor because it takes up more space on the ground. During this stage, the thought process puzzles more rational, mature, adult-like, and operational. Children in this stage of development lose their egocentric frame of thought and begin to think logically. This especially is true for the childs abilit y to develop logical thought about an object that they are able to physically manipulate. These children have difficulty understanding abstract, hypothetical questions. Children at the concrete-operational level would be expected to draw on the experiences of others in evaluating their environment, giving more graphic and natural. (Koocher, 1973, p. 2).Formal Operations StagePiagets last stage of development is the formal operational stage. The formal operational stage of development begins at the age of around eleven or twelve and is fully achieved by the age of fifteen and taken throughout the rest of adulthood. The structures of development become the more abstract, logically organized system of adult intelligence. There are two major characteristics of formal operational thought including hypothetic-deductive reason out and propositional reasoning. Hypothetic-deductive reasoning means that when faced with a problem, the person is able to come up with a general summary of all t he possible factors that exponent affect the outcome, and the different outcomes possible.Propositional reasoning means that adolescents can focus on verbal assertions and evaluate their logical validity without making reference to real-world circumstances. In concrete operational development, children can besides evaluate the logic of statements ground off of concrete evidence. Formal operational development brings critical, theoretical, and problem-solving types of thought that gives them lots more thought and understanding than they had in the past. (Koocher, 1973, p. 8).Are we forming children who are only capable of erudition what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds, capable ofdiscovery from the preschool age on, throughout deportment? Jean PiagetOn August 9, 1896, developmental psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget was born. Jean was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions inc lude a theory of cognitive child development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities. Before Piagets work, the common assumption in psychological science was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults which he disproved showing the strikingly different ways children think in comparison to adults.Piagets theories of child development continue to be studied in the field of education. His theory differs from others in several ways. For one, it is concerned with children, rather than all learners. It also focuses on development rather than learning so it does not address learning of information or specific behaviors. It proposes discrete stages of development marked by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, and ideas.

Deception in the Twelfth Night: William Shakespeare Essay

Deception is seen widely throughout the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Many characters are rattling mop up about who they are and what their motives are, plot of ground some are more manipulative. Deception is shown through the clearness of Orsinos character and the dash genus genus Viola (Cesario) deceives bulk to play a man. Orsino is a character in the Twelfth Night that is considered much understood. He is very upfront about his actions and motives.This is portrayed in the way that Orsino loves Olivia and the way he will do anything it takes to get her to be with him. He makes it very clear that there is only one thing that he wants to be with Olivia. As Orsino states his love in the play, Oh, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, methought she purged the air of pestilence. That instant(prenominal) was I turned into a hart, and my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, eer since pursue me (1.1.20-24). He is very upfront about who he is as the count, he is better th an the people around him and gets what he wants.The way that Olivia thinks so highly of him as a Duke, demonstrates how he is better than the people around him Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble, of great estate, of sweet-flavored and stainless youth. In voices well divulged, free, learned, and valiant and in dimension and the lick of nature, a gracious person (1.5.260-64). Orsino is a noteable character who is straightforward and obstinate to get what he wants. Viola (Cesario), on the other hand, is completely jerry-built of who she is.Although she deceptively dresses as a man, Viola does it so that she can hobble alive in Illyria. The Captain is the only one who re anyy knows what Viola is doing. As the Captain says, Be you his eununch, and mute Ill be.When my tongue blabs, and then let mine eyes not see, (1.3.65-66) which he also knows the reasons of doing. throughout the entire play, Viola has to lie about who she is, but hints about her privy(p) occasionally, lik e when she speaks with Orsino I am all the daughters of my fathers house, and all the brothers, tooand yet I know not (2.4.132-33). Viola is a main example of a character that is deceptive by their coming into court in the Twelfth Night.Deception is being deceived or mislead by false appearances or statements. There are distinguishable kinds of deception in the Twelfth Night, by appearance or by Shakespeares war cry choice. Deception by appearance is an easily seen trait throughout different characters in the play. Orsino is a great example of someone whois the opposite of deceptive, whereas Viola is one of the most deceptive by her appearance and can be seen throughout the play the Twelfth Night.

Understanding Leadership Styles

accord attractorship styles within an organisation Set out here the divers(a) attractership styles ie Alimo Metcalfe The engaging leadershiphip model. Also add afew much . The set the scene for LBE Ethos for leadership. Followed by my own style of management and what jolt that as on the team. This assignment will firstly address the center of leadership, followed The leadinghip role is said to be the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans and actuate people (Us Army handbook 1973Miltary Leadership) There argon said to be three styles of leadership, 1, Authoritarian or Autocratic , Participative or democratic 3, Delegative or free reign Good leaders atomic number 18 said to practise all three styles of leadership, with one being more dominate than the others. Leaders that run for not to be good at their role tend to use only one style. Authoritarian This style is utilize when the leader tells an employee what she/he wants done and how of this me thod is when you use up all the study to forge the problem but there is little time and the employees are advantageously motivated.This style should only be utilise on rare occasions. This notify be used if lag needs to be instructed to complete a piece of work. Participative This leadership style involves the leader and one or more employee, in the decision making. How constantly it is the leader that makes the final decision. This method is used when the leader has part of the information and the employees have the other. The leader does not have to know everything hence the employee being a knowledgeable and skilful employee could support the leader.Using this style is of a mutual benefit, as it allows the employee to feel part of a team and allows the leader to make better decisions. This style of managing is useful if you wishing the staff to be involved in the decision making and allows the staff to be part of the team. It also enables the managers to utilise the skil ls, experience and expertise within the team. Delegative In this style the leader allows the employee to make the decision. The leader however stay responsible for the decisions that are made.This method can be used when the employees are able to analyse the situation and decides what is to e done and how to do it, it allows for the leader to set priorities and delegate certain tasks. This should be used when there is upright trust and confidence in the employee. The forces that influence the style to be used are * How much time is available * Are relationship ground on respect and trust or on disrespect and mistrust. * Who has the information * How well employees are trained and how well they know the task. * Internal conflicts tense levels * Type of task i. e. structured, unstructured, complicated, or simple. * Laws or established procedures. In exploitation this style of managing is what you would want to have within your team, but this would be restricted on the member of staff, their skills, experience and whether they can be trusted to drive out their task. The London Borough of Enfield has devised a document called the Councils Leadership Competencies Framework, which describes the competencies and levels that they want their leaders to aspire to.The framework has been developed to reflect the councils ethos and the major changes that are to take place within the council, with a shrinking budget and resources and an ever more rising demands on our services. The model that the council promotes is one that gives leaders the prospect to analyses their leadership roles and responsibility. The London Borough of Enfield has thirteen competencies within the framework. These are arranged in four clusters, Personal Resources, Core Behaviours, Leadership and Technical and Professionals Skills. There is an first moment that as managers we will adopt this style of leadership. Views a

Title 2 Cases

number 1 DIVISION G. R. no. 144712. July 4, 2002 SPOUSES SILVESTRE and CELIA PASCUAL, petiti nonpargonilrs, vs. RODRIGO V. RAMOS, reticuloendothelial systempondent. DECISION DAVIDE, JR. , C. J. Before us is a predication for surveil on certiorari assailing the 5 no(prenominal)ember 1999 Decision1 and the 18 horrible 2000 Resolution2 of the apostrophize of Appeals in CA G. R. CV none 52848. The former sustain the 5 June 1995 and 7 September 1995 straddles of the regional ravel royal judicature, Malolos, Bula washbasin, pitchfork 21, in urbane content no. 526 -M-93, and the latter denied petiti unitaryrs interrogation for recon postration.The encase at bar stemmed from the petition3 for integration of appellation or acceptership filed on 5 July 1993 with the effort accost by herein respondent Rodrigo V. Ramos (hereafter RAMOS) against herein petitioners, Spo white plagues Silvestre and Celia Pascual (hereafter the PASCUALs). In his petition, RAMOS every(prenomin al)eged that on 3 June 1987, for and in consideration of P150,000, the PASCUALs fargond in his opt a r out(a)ine of coercive Sale w ith expert to Repurchase over ii parcels of r to each one and the improvements at that placeon located in Bambang, Bulacan, Bulacan, covered by manoeuver security measures of Title (TCT) No. 05626 of the Registry of full treatment of Bulacan. This document was an nonated at the stanch up of the patronage. The PASCUALs did non exercise their even up to repurchase the property within the stipulated one -year tip hence, RAMOS prayed that the name or stimulateership over the subject parcels of convey and improvements thitheron be consoli go out in his favor.In their Answer,4 the PASCUALs admitted having sign the Deed of positive Sale with adjust to Repurchase for a consideration of P150,000 solely averred that what the lift offies had actu eachy concord upon and entered into was a real estate mortgage. They further everyege th at there was no throwment limiting the period within which to exercise the right to repurchase and that they had even overpaid RAMOS.Further more(prenominal), they interposed the sideline defenses (a) the exertion motor hotel of statutoryity had no jurisdiction over the subject or nature of the petition (b) RAMOS had no pro base capacity to sue (c) the cause o f action, if each, was proscribe by the statute of limitations (d) the petiti on stated no cause of action (e) the allege or demand preparation forth in RAMOSs imploring had been paid, waived, abandoned, or other(a)wise extinguished and (f) RAMOS has non complied with the required confrontation and atonement forward the barangay.By way of counterclaim, the PASCUALs prayed that RAMOS be ordered to execute a Deed of Cancellation, Release or Dis devote of the Deed of imperious Sale with Right to Repurchase or a Deed of rattling Estate mortgage deliver to them the owners twinned of TCT No. T-305626 return the meter they had overpaid and stipend each of them virtuous damages and exemplary damages in the add of moneys of P200,000 and P50,000, respectively, plus im partialityyers fees of P100,000 come forwardance fee of P1,500 per hearing litigation expenses and cost of suit. later the pre- campaign, the trial appeal return keyd an order5 wherein it identified the pursuit go aways (1) whether the Deed of Absolute Sale with Right to Repurchase is an absolute deal or a mere mortgage (2) whether the PASCUALs suffer paid or overpaid the head teacher engagement (3) whether the ownership over the parcel of democracy whitethorn be consolidated in favor of RAMOS and (4) whether damages whitethorn be awarded. Among the documents offered in establish by RAMOS during the trial on the merits was a document denominated as Sinumpaang Salaysay6 signed by RAMOS and Silvestre Pascual, tho non nonarized.The contents of the document examine Ako, si SILVESTRE PASCUAL, Filipino, nasa hust ong gulang, may asawa at kasalukuyang naninirahan sa Bambang, Bulacan, Bulacan, ay nagsasabing buong katotohanan at integralityu spunkpa sa aking mga salaysay sa kasulatang ito 1. Na ngayong June 3, 1987 dahil sa aking matinding pangangailangan ng puhunan ay lumapit ako at nakiusap kay Rodrigo Ramos ng Taal, Pulilan, Bulacan na pautangin ako ng halagang P150,000. 00. 2. Na aming napagkasunduan na ang nasabing utang ay babayaran ko ng tubo ng seven percent (7%) o P10,500. 0 isang buwan (7% per calendar month). 3. Na bilang sangla (confirmatory security) sa aking utang, kami ay nagkasundo na mag-execute ng Deed of Sale with Right to Repurchase para sa aking bahay at lupa (TCT No. 305626) sa Bo. Taliptip, Bambang, Bulacan, Bulacan ngayong June 3, 1987 at binigyan ako ni Mr. Ramos ng isang taon hanggang June 3, 1988 upang mabiling muli ang aking isinanla sa kaniya sa kasunduang babayaran kong lahat ang capital na P150,000. 00 pati na ang P10,500. 0 na tubo buwan buwan. 4. Na bilang k aragdagang condition, si RODRIGO RAMOS ay pumayag sa aking kahilingan na kung sakali na hindi ko mabayaran ng buo ang aking pagkakautang (Principal plus cheer) sa loob ng isang taon mula ngayon, ang nakasanglang bahay at lupa ay hindi muna niya iilitin (forec neglect) o ipalilipat sa pangalan niya at hindi muna kami paaalisin sa tinitirhan naming bahay hanggat ang tubo ( lodge in) na P10,500. 00 ay nababayaran ko buwan buwan. 5.Na ako ay sumasang-ayon sa kundisyon ni Rodrigo Ramos na pagkatapos ng isang taon mula ngayon hanggang June 3, 1988 at puro divert lamang ang aking naibabayad buwan-buwan, kung sakaling hindi ako makabayad ng tubo for six (6) consecutive months (1/2 year after June 3, 1988 (6 na buwang hindi bayad ang stake ang utang ko) si Rodrigo Ramos ay binibigyan ko ng karapatan at kapangyarihan na mag-mayari ng aming bahay at lupa at kami ng aking pamilya ay kusang loob na aalis sa nasabing bahay at lupa na lumalabas na ibinenta ko sa kaniya dahil hindi ako nakasunod sa aming mga pinagkasunduang usapan. . At bilang loweste ng aming kasunduan, ako ay nangangako na hindi maghahabol ng ano mang sukli sa pagkakailit ng aming bahay at lupa kung sakali mang dumating sa ganuong pagkakataon o sitwasyon o di kayay magsasampa ng reklamo kanino man. Bilang pagsang-ayon sa mga nasabing kasunduan, kami ay lumagda sa ibaba nito kalakip ng aming mga pangalan ngayong ika-3 ng Hunyo, 1987. (Sgd. )Rodrigo Ramos Sgd. ) Silvestre Pascual Nagpautang UmutangFor their part, the PASCUALs redeemed accusative manifest consisting of ac have intercourseledgment acknowledge 7 to prove the hallow birthments they had made. The trial speak to found that the performance betwixt the parties was in truth a contribute in the essence of P150,000, the allowancement of which was secured by a mortgage of the property covered by TCT No. 305626. It also found that the PASCUALs had made payments in the occur sum of P344,000, and that with involvement at 7% per annum, th e PASCUALs had overpaid the loan by P141,500.Accordingly, in its Decision8 of 15 March 1995 the trial judiciary decreed as follows WHEREFORE, appraisal is herewith rendered in favor of the defendants and against the filmytiff in the pursual manner 1. Dismissing the plaintiffs petition 2. Directing the Register of Deeds to cancel the tone of the Deed of Sale with Right to Repurchase on the dorsal side of TCT No. 305626 3. Awarding the defendants the sum of P141,500. 00 as overpayment on the loan and absorbs 4. Granting the defendants attorneys fee in the sum of P15,000. 0 and P3,000. 00 for litigation expenses. With costs against the plaintiff. RAMOS move for the reconsideration of the finale, alleging that the trial court erred in using an interest pose of 7% per annum in the computation of the total amount of tariff because what was expressly stipulated in the Sinumpaang Salaysay was 7% per month. The total interest due from 3 June 1987 to 3 April 1995 was P987,000. Ded ucting therefrom the interest payments made in the sum of P344,000, the amount of P643,000 was still due as interest.Adding the latter to the tether sum of P150,000, the total amount due from the PASCUALs as of 3 April 1995 was P793,000. Finding merit in the consummation for reconsideration, which was non opposed by the PASCUALs, the trial court emersiond on 5 June 1995 an Order9 modifying its finish by deleting the award of P141,500 to the PASCUALs as overpayment of the loan and interest and ordering them to pay RAMOS P511,000 represending the principal loan plus interest. The trial court acknowledged that it had inadvertently decl ard the interest rate to be 7% per annum when, in position, the Sinumpaang Salaysay stipulated 7% per month.It noted that during trial, the PASCUALs never trashd the stipulated interest rate. However, the court state that the 7% per month interest is too burdensome and onerous. Invoking the preservative mantle of Article 24 of the Civil Code, w hich mandates the courts to be vigilant for the vindication of a party at a disadvantage due to his moral dependence, ignorance, indigence, genial weaknes s, tender age or other handicap, the trial court unilaterally trim the interest rate from 7% per month to 5% per month. Thus, the interest due from 3 June 1987 to April 1995 was P705,000. Deducting therefrom the payments made by the PASCUALs in the amount of P344,000, the net interest due was P361,000. Adding thereto the loan principal of P150,000, the total amount due from the PASCUALs was P511,000. Aggrieved by the modification of the let oning, the PASCUALs filed a communicate to reconsider the Order of 5 June 1995. They alleged that the motion for reconsideration filed by RAMOS was a mere scrap of paper because they received a duplicate of utter motion only a day before the hearing, in violation of the 3 -day-notice sharpe.Moreover, they had already paid the interests and had in incident overpaid the principal sum of P150,000. Besides, RAMOS, being an individual, could not charge more than 1% interest per month or 12% per annum and, the interest of either 5% or 7% a month is exorbitant, unconscionable, unreasonable, usurious and inequitable. RAMOS opposed the motion of the PASCUALs. He get byed that the non-compliance with the 3-day-notice rule was cured when the trial court gave them an opportunity to file their opposition, but despite the lapse of the perio d given them, no opposition was filed.It is not correct to say that he was not allowed to get together more than 1% per month interest considering that with the moratorium on the Usury Law, the allowable interest is that concord upon by the parties. In the absence of all picture that there was fraud, advance or undue influence exerted upon the PASCUALs when they entered into the transaction in un manipulatef, their agreement somatic in the Sinumpaang Salaysay should be respected. Furthermore, the trial court had already reduced th e interest rate to 5% per month, a rate which is not exorbitant, unconscionable, unreasonable and inequitable.Their motion for reconsideration having been denied in the Order10 of 7 September 1995, the PASCUALs seasonably appealed to the hook of Appeals. They pointed out that since the only prayer of RAMOS in his petition was to have the rubric or ownership over the subject cut and the improvements thereon consolidated in his favor and he did not have any(prenominal) prayer for frequent relief, the trial court had no basis in ordering them to pay him the sum of P511,000. In its Decision11 of 5 November 1999, the judicature of Appeals affirmed in toto the trial courts Orders of 5 June 1995 and 7 September 1995.It ruled that plot of land RAMOSs petition for consolidation of title or ownership did not include a prayer for the payment of the respite of the petitioners obligation and a prayer for superior general relief, the issue of whether there was still a balance from the am ount loaned was deemed to have been attach(a) in the pleadings by sexual abstention of voice 5, Rule 10 of the Rules of hail, which provides that when issues not raised by the pleadings be act with the express or implied consent of the parties, they shall be treated in all respects as if they had been raised in the pleadings. In the flesh of the trial, receipts were interpreted by the PASCUALs evidencing the payments they had made. Taken in conjunction with the Sinumpaang Salaysay which specified the interest rate at 7% per month, a mathematical computation readily leads to the outcome that there is still a balance due from the PASCUALs, even at a reduced interest rate of 5% interest per month. With the denial of their motion for reconsideration of the ratiocination by the move of Appeals, t he PASCUALs filed before us the instant petition raising the sole issue of whether they ar nonimmune for 5% interest per month from 3 June 1987 to 3 April 1995.Invoking this jud iciarys command in Medel v. tribunal of Appeals,12 they argue that the 5% per month interest is excessive, iniquitous, unconscionable and exorbitant. Moreover, respondent should not be allowed to collect interest of more than 1% per month because he tried to suppress the real transaction between the parties by imposing upon them to sign a Deed of Absolute Sale with Right to Repurchase. For his part, RAMOS oversees that the issue raised by petitioners cannot be entertained anymore because it wa s neither raised in the billing nor ventilated during the trial.In any case, there was nothing criminal on the rate of interest concord upon by the parties, since the ceilings on interest rates prescribed nether the Usury Law had expressly been removed, a nd hence parties are left freely at their perceptiveness to agree on any rate of interest. Moreover, there was no intrigue to hide a usurious transaction. RAMOS and so prays that the challenged decision and closure be affirmed and that petitioners be further ordered to pay legal interest on the interest due from the clock it was demanded. We see at erst the proclivity of the PASCUALs to change theory almost every cadence of the case.By invoking the decision in Medel v. Court of Appeals, the PASCUALs are actually raising as issue the validity of the stipulated interest rate. It must be stressed that they never raised as a defense or as basis for their counterclaim the vigority of the stipulated interest. While overpayment was alleged in the Answer, no ultimate fac ts which constituted the basis of the overpayment was alleged. In their pre-trial brief, the PASCUALs made a long list of issues, but not one of them touched on the validity of the stipulated interest rate.Their own try out all the way shows that they have agree on, and have in fact paid interest at, the rate of 7% per month. Exhibits 1 to 8 specifically mentioned that the payments made were for the interest due on the P150,000 loan of the PA SCUALs. In the course of the trial, the PASCUALs never put in issue the validity of the stipulated interest rate. After the trial court sustained petitioners claim that their agreement with RAMOS was actually a loan with real estate mortgage, the PASCUALs should not be allowed to turn their jeopardize on the stipulati on in that agreement to pay interest at the rate of 7% per month.The PASCUALs should accept not only the favorable side of the courts declaration that the document is actually an equitable mortgage but also the necessary consequence of ofttimes(prenominal) declaratio n, that is, that interest on the loan as stipulated by the parties in that very(prenominal) document should be paid. Besides, when RAMOS moved for a reconsideration of the 15 March 1995 Decision of the trial court pointing out that the interest rate to be utilize should be 7% per month, the PASCUALs never lifted a finger to oppose the claim. Admittedly, in their Motion for Reconsideration of theOrder of 5 June 1995, the PASCUALs argued that the interest rate, whether it be 5% or 7%, is exorbitant, unconscionable, unreasonable, usurious and inequitable. However, in their Appellants Brief, the only argument raised by the PASCUALs was that RAMOSs petition did not contain a prayer for general relief and, hence, the trial court had no basis for ordering them to pay RAMOS P511,000 representing the principal and unpaid interest. It was only in their motion for the reconsideration of the decision of the Court of Appeals that the PASCUALs made an issue of the interest rate and prayed for its reduction to 12% per annum.In Manila Bay Club Corp. v. Court of Appeals,13 this Court ruled that if an issue is raised only in the motion for reconsideration of the decision of the Court of Appeals, the effect is that it is as if it was never duly raised in that court at all. Our govern in Medel v. Court of Appeals14 is not applicable to the present case. In that case, the excessiveness of the stip ulated interest at the rate of 5. 5 % per month was put in issue by the defendants in the Answer.Moreover, in accession to the interest, the debtors were also required, as per engagement in the pr omissory note, to pay overhaul charge of 2% per annum and a penalty charge of 1% per month plus attorneys fee of equivalent to 25% of the amount due. In the case at bar, there is no other stipulation for the payment of an extra amount except interest on t he principal loan. Thus, taken in conjunction with the stipulated ser infirmity charge and penalty, the interest rate of 5. 5% in the Medel case was found to be excessive, iniquitous, unconscionable, exorbitant and hence, contrary to morals, t hereby making much(prenominal) s tipulation cryptograph and void.Considering the variance in the actual circumstances of the Medel case and the instant case, we are not prepared to apply the former lest it be construed that we can start down anytime interest rates agreed upon by parties in a loan transaction. It is a staple principle in civil practice of law that parties are bound by the stipulations in the poses voluntarily entered into by them. Parties are free to stipulate name and conditions which they deem convenient provided they are not contra ry to law, morals, good customs, public order, or public policy. 15The interest rate of 7% per month was voluntarily agreed upon by RAMOS and the PASCUALs. There is nothing from the records and, in fact, there is no allegation showing that petitioners were victims of fraud when they entered into the agreement with RAMOS. uncomplete is there a showing that in their contractual dealings with RAMOS, the PASCUAL s were at a disadvantage on account of their moral dependence, ignorance, mental weakness, tender age or other handicap, which would entitle them to the vigilant egis of the courts as mandated by Article 24 of the Civil Code.Apropos in our ruling in Vales vs. Villa All men are presumed to be sane and median(pren ominal) and subject to be moved by considerably the equivalent motives. W hen of age and sane, they must take bid of themselves. In their relations with others in the argumentation of life, wits, sense, intelligence, training, ability and pattern take and clash and contest, sometimes with gain and advantage to all, sometimes to a few only, with loss and combat injury to others. In these contests men must depend upon themselves upon their own abilities, talents, training, sense, acumen, concept.The fact that one may be worsted by some other, of itself, furnishes no cause of complaint. iodine man cannot complain because another is more able, or better trained, or has better sense or judgment than he has and when the two meet on a fair field the inferior cannot murmur if the scrap goes against him. The law furnishes no protection to the inferior simply because he is inferior, any more than it protects the strong because he is strong. The law furnishes protection to both ak in to one no more or less than to the other.It makes no characteristic between the wise and the foolish, the great and the small, the strong and the weak. The foolish may lose all they have to the wise but that does not mean that the law result give it back to them again. Courts cannot follow one every step of his life and extricate him from bad bargains, protect him from unwise investments, relieve him from bleached contracts, or annul the effects of foolish acts. Courts cannot constitute themselves guardians of persons who are not legally incompetent.Courts operate not because one person has been defeated or bounce back by another, but because he has been defeated or overcome illegally. Men may do foolish things, make ridiculous contracts, use miserable judgment, and lose money by then indeed, all they have in the world but not for that alone can the law intervene and restore. There must be, in addition, aviolation of law, the commission of what the law knows as an actionabl e wrong, before the courts are authorized to lay h doddering of the stain and remedy it. 16 With the suspension of the Usury Law and the removal of interest ceiling, the partie s are free to stipulate the interest to be imposed on loans. Absent any evidence of fraud, undue influence, or any vice of consent exercised by RAMOS on the PASCUALs, the interest agreed upon is sustaining upon them. This Court is not in a position to impose upon parties contractual stipulations different from what they have agreed upon. As declared in the decision of Cuizon v. Court of Appeals,17It is not the province of the court to alter a contract by construction or to make a invigorated contract for the parties its trade is confined to the interpretation of the one which they have made for themselves without regard to its wisdom or folly as the court cannot supply material stipulations or read into the contract words which it does not contain. Thus, we cannot supplant the interest rate, which was r educed to 5% per month without opposition on the part of RAMOS.We are not persuaded by the argument of the PASCUALs that since RAMOS tried to hide the real transaction by imposing upon them the exercise of a Deed of Absolute Sale with Right to Repurchase, he should not be allowed to collect more than 1% per month interest. It is undisputed that simultaneous with the execution of the verbalize deed was the execution of the Sinumpaang Salaysay, which set forth the true agreement of the parties. The PASCUALs cannot then claim that they did not know the real transaction.RAMOSs claim that the interest due should earn legal i nterest cannot be acted upon favorably because he did not appeal from the Order of the trial court of 5 June 1995, which simply ordered the payment by the PASCUALs of the amount of P511,000 without interest thereon. No relief can be principaled(p) a party who does not appeal. 18 Therefore, the order of the trial court should stand. Incidentally, we notice that i n the entry filed by RAMOS, the ruling in Vales v. Valle was reproduced by his steering without the proper citation. much(prenominal)(prenominal) act constitutes plagiarism. Atty. Felimon B.Mangahas is hereby warned that a repetition of much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) act shall be dealt with accordingly. WHEREFORE, in view of all the foregoing, the petition is DENIED. The assailed decision of the Court of Appeals in CA G. R. CV No. 52848 is AFFIRMED in toto. Costs against petitioners. SO ORDERED. Vitug, Kapunan, Ynares-Santiago, and Austria-Martinez, JJ. , concur. FIRST DIVISION SPS. EDGAR AND DINAH OMENGAN, Petitioners, G. R. No. 161319 Present PUNO, C. J. , SANDOVAL-GUTIERREZ, on the job(p) Chairperson, CORONA, AZCUNA and GARCIA, JJ. versus PHILIPPPINE NATIONAL BANK, HENRY M. MONTALVO AND MANUEL S. ACIERTO,*Respondents. Promulgated January 23, 2007 x -x DECISION CORONA, J. This petition for review on certiorari1 see ks a review and reversal of the Court of Appeals (CA) decision 2 and resolution3 in CA-G. R. CV No. 71302. In October 1996, the Philippine National Bank (PNB) Tabuk (Kalinga) class approved petitioners-fellows application for a revolving acknowledgement line of P3 million. The loan was secured by two residential scores in Tabuk, Kalinga-Apayao covered by Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) Nos. 2954 and 12112. The certificates of title, issued by the Registry of Deeds of the Province of KalingaApayao, were in the propose of Edgar4 Omengan married to Dinah Omengan. The first P2. 5 million was released by differentiate Manager Henry Montalvo on three conk out dates. The release of the final half million was, notwithstanding, withheld by Montalvobecause of a letter allegedly sent by Edgars sisters. It read A ppas, Tabuk Kalinga 7 November 1996 The Manager Philippine National Bank Tabuk Branch Poblacion, Tabuk Kalinga SirThis refers to the land at Appas, Tabuk in the name of our brother, Edgar Omengan, which was mortgage to the Bank in the amount of Three Million Pesos (P3,000,000. 00), the sum of P2. 5 Million had already been released and received by our brother, Edgar. In this connection, it is requested that the remain unreleased balance of half a million pesos be held in pause pending an appreciation by the rest of the brothers and sisters of Edgar. Please be informed that the property mortgaged, while in the name of Edgar Omengan, is owned in co-ownership by all the children of the late Roberto and Elnora Omengan.The lawyer who drafted the document registering the subject property down the stairs Edgars name can attest to this fact. We had a prior understanding with Edgar in allowing him to make use of the property as collateral, but he refuses to comply with such arrangement. Hence, this letter. (emphasis ours) Very truly yours, (Sgd. ) Shirley O. Gamon (Sgd. ) Imogene O. Bangao (Sgd. ) Caroline O. Salicob (Sgd. ) Alice O. Claver5 Montalvo was eventual(prenominal)(prenominal)ly replaced as branch manager by Manuel Acierto who released the remaining half million pesos to petitioners on May 2, 1997.Acierto also recommended the approval of a P2 million increase in their character line to the Cagayan Valley Business Center Credit delegation in Santiago City. The quotation committee approved the increase of petitioners credit line (from P3 million to P5 million), provided Edgars sisters gave their conformity. Acierto informed petitioners of the conditional approval of their credit line. But petitioners failed to secure the consent of Edgars sisters hence, PNB put on hold the release of the spare P2 million. On October 7, 1998, Edgar Omengan demanded the release of the P2 million.He claimed that the condition for its release was not part of his credit line agreement with PNB because it was added without his consent. PNB denied his request. On March 3, 1999, petitioners filed a complaint for transgress of con tract and dama ges against PNB with the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 25 in Tabuk, Kalinga. After trial, the court determined in favor of petitioners. Accordingly, judgment is hereby rendered determination in favor of petitioners. PNB is ordered 1) To release without delay in favor of petitioners the amount of P2,000,000. 00 to complete the P5,000,000. 00 credit line agreement ) To pay petitioners the amount of P2,760,000. 00 representing the losings and/or expect income of the petitioners for three years 3) To pay lawful interest, until the amount aforementioned on paragraphs 1 and 2 preceding(prenominal) are fully paid and 4) To pay the costs. SO ORDERED. 6 The CA, however, on June 18, 2003, reversed and set aside the RTC decision dated April 21, 2001. 7 Petitioners now contend that the CA erred when it did not sustain the finding of breach of contract by the RTC. 8 The existence of breach of contract is a factual matter not usually reviewed in a petition filed under Rule 45.But since the RTC and the CA had contradictory findings, we are constrained to rule on this issue. Was there a breach of contract? There was none. Breach of contract is defined as follows It is the failure without legal reason to comply with the terms of a contract. It is also defined as the failure, with out legal excuse, to actualize any promise which forms the whole or part of the contract. 9 In this case, the parties agreed on a P3 million credit line. This sum was completely released to petitioners who later on applied10 for an increase in their credit line.This was conditionally approved by PNBs credit committee. For all hearts and purposes, petitioners sought an surplus loan. The condition attached to the increase in credit line requiring petitioners to acquire the conformity of Edgars sisters was never acknowledged and accepted by petitioners. Thus, as to the additional loan, no concussion of the minds actually occurred and no breach of contract could be attributed to PNB. The re was no perfected contract over the increase in credit line. The billet of a cashbox is one affected with public interest, for which reason the bank should guard against loss due to negligence or bad faith.In commendation the loan of an applicant, the bank concerns itself with proper information regarding its debtors. 11 Any investigation previously conducted on the property offered by petitioners as collateral did not preclude PNB from considering new information on the same property as security for a sub sequent loan. The credit and property investigation for the original loan of P3 million did not oblige PNB to grant and release any additional loan. At the time the original P3 million credit line was approved, the title to the property appeared to perta in exclusively to petitioners.By the time the application for an increase was considered, however, PNB already had reason to suspect petitioners claim of exclusive ownership. A mortgagee can rely on what appears on the certif icate of title p resented by the mortgagor and an innocent mortgagee is not expected to conduct an pure(a) investigation on the history of the mortgagors title. This rule is stringently applied to ban king institutions. xxx Banks, indeed, should exercise more care and prudence in dealing even with registered lands, than undercover individuals, as their business is one affected with public interest. xx Thus, this Court clarified that the rule that persons dealing wit h registered lands can rely solely on the certificate of title does not apply to banks. 12 (emphasis supplied) Here, PNB had acquired information sufficient to wee-wee a reasonably prudent person to inquire into the status of the title over the subject property. Instead of defending their position, petitioners merely insisted that reliance on the face of the certificate of title (in their name) was sufficient. This principle, as already mentioned, was not applicable to financial institutions like PNB.In truth, petiti oners had every chance to turn the situation in their favor if, as they said, they really owned the subject p roperty alone, to the animadversion of any other owner(s). Unfortunately, all they offered were bare denials of the co -ownership claimed by Edgars sisters. PNB exercised reasonable prudence in requiring the higher up-mentioned condition for the release of the additional loan. If the condition proved unacceptable to petitioners, the parties could have discussed other terms preferably of making an obstinate and outright demand for the release of the additional amount.If the alleged co-ownership in fact had no leg to stand on, petitioners could have introduced evidence other than a simple denial of its existence. Since PNB did not breach any contract and since it exercised the degree of diligence expected of it, it cannot be held liable for damages. WHEREFORE, the decision and resolution of the Court of Appeals in CA-G. R. CV No. 71302 are hereby AFFIRMED. Costs against pet itioners. SO ORDERED. RENATO C. CORONA fellow traveler Justice WE CONCUR REYNATO S. PUNO important Justice ANGELINA SANDOVAL-GUTIERREZ Associate Justice Working ChairpersonADOLFO S. AZCUNA Associate Justice CANCIO C. GARCIA Associate Justice CERTIFICATION Pursuant to Section 13, Article VIII of the Constitution, I certify that the conclusions in the above decision had been reach ed in consultation before the case was assigned to the writer of the opinion of the Courts Division. REYNATO S. PUNO Chief Justice FIRST DIVISION G. R. No. 126713. July 27, 1998 ADORACION E. CRUZ, THELMA DEBBIE E. CRUZ and GERRY E. CRUZ, petitioners, vs. mash OF APPEALS and SPOUSES ELISEO and VIRGINIA MALOLOS, respondents. DECISION PANGANIBAN, J. Contracts constitute the law between the parties. They must be read together and interpreted in an manner that reconciles and gives life to all of them. The intent of the parties, as shown by the clear voice communication apply, maintains over post facto expla nations that find no support from the words employed by the parties of from their contemporary and sequent acts showing their understanding of such contracts, Furthermore, a concomitant agreement cannot novate or change by implication a previous one, unless old and new contracts are, on every point, incompatible with each other.Finally, collateral facts may be admitted in evidence when a rational similarity exists between the conditions giving rise to the fact offered and the circumstances surrounding the issue or fact to be proved. The Case Before us is a petition for review on certiorari seeking to nullify the Court of Appeals (CA) Decision1 in CA- GR CV 33566, promulgated July 15, 1996, which reversed the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Antipolo, Rizal and CA Resolution 2 of October 1, 1996, which denied petitioners Motion for Reconsideration.Petitioners Adoracion, Thelma Debbie, Gerry and Arnel (all surnamed Cruz) filed an action for cleavage against the private respondents, Sp ouses Eliseo and Virginia Malolos. On January 28, 1991, the trial court rendered a Decision which attached as follows3 WHEREFORE, judgment is hereby rendered for the plaintiffs and against the defendants -spouses 1. fiat the segmentation of the seven parcels of land totalling 1,912 sq. m. among the four (4) plaintiffs and the defendants-spouses as follows a. b. c. d. e. Adoracion E. Cruz (1/5) Thelma Debbie Cruz (1/5) Gerry E. Cruz (1/5) Arnel E. Cruz (1/5)Spouses Eliseo and Virginia Malolos (1/5) 382 sq. m. 382 sq. m. 382 sq. m. 382 sq. m. 382 sq. m. to whom Lot No. 1-C-2-B-2-B-4-L-1-A with an area of 276 sq. m. covered by TCT No. 502603 and a portion of Lot No. 1-C2-B-2-B-4-L-1-B covered by TCT No. 502604 to the extent of 106 sq. m. adjoining TCT No. 502603. 2. Ordering the parties herein to execute a proletariat of partitioning in accordance with this decision indicating the partition of the seven (7) parcels of land within fifteen (15) days upon receipt of this judgment. 3. Ordering defendants-spouses to pay plaintiffs herein P5,000. 00 as and for attorneys fees 4. Cost of suit. On appeal, Respondent Court reversed the trial court thus4 WHEREFORE, finding the appeal to be meritorious, we REVERSE the appealed decision and render judgment DISMISSING the complaint without prejudice however to the claim of plaintiff -appellees for their dispenses in the issuing of the auction bridge change cut-rate sales agreement of the seven (7) parcels of land in question against Nerissa Cruz Tamayo pursuant to the scroll concordance. Cost against the plaintiff-appellees. As earlier stated, reconsideration was denied through the appellant courts challenged Resolution 5 WHEREFORE, for lack of merit, the Motion for Reconsideration in DENIED. . The anterior Facts The facts of this case are undisputed. The assailed Decision relates them as follows6 Delfin I. Cruz and Adoracion Cruz were spouses and their children were Thelma, Nerissa, Arnel and Gerry Cruz. Upon the death of Delfin I. Cruz, his surviving spouse and children kill on fearful 22, 1977 a notarized Deed of Partial separate (Exhibit 2) by virtue of which each one of them was given a administer of several parcels of registered lands all situat ed in Taytay, Rizal.The following day, August 23, 1977, the same mother and children penalise a Memorandum cartel (Exhibit H) which provided That the parties hereto are common co-owners pro-indiviso in refer shares of the following registered real properties, all dictated at Taytay, Rizal, Philippines, x x x. xxx That sometime on August 22, 1977, a Deed of Partial Partition was executed among us before Atty. Virgilio J. Tamayo, Notary Public on and for the Province of Rizal, per Doc. No. 1776 Page No. 14 of his Notarial Register No. XLIX, Series of 1977 xxxThat as a go forth of said partial partition, the properties affected were actually partitioned and the respective shares of ea ch party, adjudicated to him/her That despite the execution of this Deed of Partial Partition and the eventu al disposal or sale of their respective shares, the catching parties herein covenanted and agreed among themselves and by these presents do hereby bind themselves to one another that they shall share alike and received equal shares from the rejoinder of the sale of any lot or lots portion to and adjudicated in their individual names by virtue of this deed of partial partition. That this Agreement shall continue to be valid and enforceable among the contracting parties herein up to and until the last lot covered by the Deed of Partial Partition above adverted to shall have been accustomed of or exchange and the proceeds thence equally divided and their respective shares received by each of them. This Memorandum Agreement was registered and annotated in the titles of the lands covered by the Deed of Partial Partition. Subsequently, the same parties caused the consolidation and subdivisions of the lands they respectively inherited from the late Delfin I.Cruz per Deed of Partial Partition. After that, they registered the Deed of Partial Partition and subdivision plans and titles were issued in their names. In the case of Nerissa Cruz Tamayo, the following titles were issued to her in her name TCT No. 502603 (Exhibit A), TCT No. 502604, (Exhibit B), TCT No. 502605 (Exhibit C), TCT No. 502606 (Exhibit D), TCT No. 502608 (Exhibit E), TCT No. 502609 (Exhibit F), TCT No. 502610 (Exhibit G), hereinafter called the lands in question. Naturally, the annotation pertaining to the Memorandum Agreement was carried in each of said seven (7) titles and annotated in each of them.Meanwhile, the spouses Eliseo and Virginia Malolos filed Civil Case No. 31231 against the spouses Nerissa Cruz -Tamayo and Nelson Tamayo for a sum of money. The Court of First precedent of Rizal, Branch XVI (Quezon City) rendered a decision of June 1, 1981 in favor of Eliseo and Virginia reprobate the spouses Nerissa and Nelson Tamayo to pay them P126,529. 00 with 12% interest per annum from the filing of the complaint plus P5,000. 00 attorneys fee. After the finality of that decision, a writ of execution (Exhibit J) was issued on November 20, 1981. Enforcing said writ, the sheriff of the court levied upon the lands in question.On June 29, 1983, these properties were sold in an execution sale to the highest bidders, the spouses Eliseo and Virginia Malolos. Accordingly, the sheriff executed a Certificate of Sale (Exhibit K) over all the rights, claims, interests, titles, shares, and participations of defendant spouses Nerissa Tamayo and Ne lson Tamayo.. Nerissa Cruz Tamayo failed to exercise her right of redemption within the statutory period and so the final deed of sale was executed by the sheriff conveyance the lands in question to spouses Eliseo and Virginia Malolos.The Malolos couple asked Nerissa Cruz Tamayo to give them the owners duplicate copy of the seven (7) titles of the lands in question but she ref used. The couple moved the court to compel her to surrender said titles to the Register of Deeds of Rizal for cancellation. This was disposed(p) on September 7, 1984. But Nerissa was adamant. She did not comply with the Order of the court and so the Malolos couple asked the court to declare said titles as null and void.At this point, Adoracion Cruz, Thelma Cruz, Gerry Cruz and Arnel Cruz entered the picture by filing is said lower court a motion for leave to intervene and oppose the Maloloses motion. The Cruzes alleged that they were co-owners of Nerissa Cruz Tamayo over the lands in question. On January 18, 1985, said court issued an Order modifying the Order of September 7, 1984 by directing the surrender of the owners duplicate copies of the titles of the lands in question to the Register of Deeds not for cancellation but for the annotation of the rights, interest acquired by the Maloloses over said lands.On February 17, 1987, Adoracion, Thelma, Gerry and Arnel Cruz filed Civil C ase No. 961-A for Partition of Real Estate against spouses Eliseo and Virginia Malolos over the lands in question. As already stated in the first paragraph of this Decision, the court a quo rendered a decision in favor of the plaintiffs from which the defendants appealed to this court, x x x x . Ruling of the Court of Appeals For Respondent Court, the central issue was Did the Memorandum of Agreement MOA (Exhibit H)7 revoke, cancel or supersede the Deed of Partial Partition DPP (Exhibit 2)? 8 If so, then petitioners and Spouses Tamayo were co-owners of the land in issue, and partition should ensue upon motion of the former if not, then the latter are its absolute owners and to partition should be made. Respondent Court resolved the above question in the negative for the following reasons First, the DPP was not materially and substantially incompatible with the MOA. The DPP conferred absolute ownership of the parcels of land in issue on Nerissa Cruz Tamayo, while the MOA merely crea ted an obligation on her part to share with the petitioners the proceeds of the sale of said properties.Second, the fact that private respondent registered the DPP was uneven with the allegation that they intended to abandon it. Indeed, had they meant to abandon it, they would have simply gathered the copies of said document and then torn of burned them. Third, petitioners were estopped from claiming co-ownership over the disputed properties because, as absolute owners, they either mortgaged or sold the other properties adjudicated to them by virtue of the DPP. Hence, this petition. 9 Assignment of ErrorsIn their Memorandum,10 petitioners submit the following assignment of mistakes A. Respondent Court erred in ruling that the Memorandum of Agreement (Exhibit H) does not prevail over the Deed of Partial Partition (Exhibit 2). B. sale. C. Respondent Court erred in ruling that petitioners can only claim their right to the proceeds of the auction Respondent Court erred in ruling that petitioners are in estoppel by deed. D. Respondent Court erred in ruling that the adaption of the deed of partial partition precluded the petitioners from abrogating it. E.Respondent Court erred when it completely ignored the finality of the order of the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City, Branch LXXXVI as embodied in the decision of the Regional Trial Court of Antipolo, Rizal, Branch 71. In fine, the resolution of this petition hinges of the following issues (1) whether DPP was cancelled or novated by the MOA (2) whether the MOA established, between petitioners and the judgment debtor, a co -ownership of the lots in question (3) whether petitioners are barred by estoppel from claiming co-ownership of the seven parcels of land and (4) whether res judicata has set in.The Courts Ruling The petition is bereft of merit. It fails to demonstrate any reversible error on the part of the Court of Appeals. First Issue No Novation or Cancellation In their Memorandum, petitioners insist that the MOA categorically and unmistakably named and covenanted them as co owners of the parcels in issue and novated their earlier agreement, the Deed of Partial Part ition. Petitioners claim that the MOA clearly manifested their intention to create a co -ownership. This is particularly evident in Exhibit 1-B, which provides That despite the execution of this Deed of Partial Partition and eventual disposal or sale of their respective shares, the contracting parties herein covenanted and agreed among themselves and by these presents do hereby bind themselves to one another that they shall share and receive equal shares from the proceeds of the sale of any lot or lots allotted to and adjudicated in their individual names by virtue of this deed of partial partition. The Court disagrees. The foregoing provision in the MOA does not novate, much less cancel, the earlier DPP.Novation, one of the modes of extinguishing an obligation, requires the concurrence of the following (1) there is a p revious valid obligation (2) the parties concerned agree to a new contract (3) the old contract is extinguished and (4) there is a valid new contract. 11Novation may be express or implied. Article 1292 of the Code provides In order that an obligation may be extinguished by another which substitutes the same, it is imperative that it be so declared in unequivocal terms express novation,12 or that the old and new obligations be on every point incompatible with each other implied novation. well-tried against the foregoing standards, petitioners stance is shattered to pieces. The stipulation that the petitioners and Spouses Tamayo were co-owners was merely the introductory part of the MOA, and it reads13 That the parties are common co-owners pro-indiviso in equal shares of the following registered real properties, all situated at Taytay, Rizal, Philippines. xxx xxx xxx xxx That sometime in August 22, 1977, a Deed of Partial Partition was executed among us before Atty. Virgilio J.Tamayo , Notary Public in and for the Province of Rizal, per Doc. No. 1796 Page No. 14 of his Notarial Register No. XLIX, Series of 1977 avocation the above-quoted stipulation is a statement that the subject parcels of land had in fact been partitioned, but that the former co-owner intended to share with petitioners the proceeds of any sale of said land,14 viz That as a result of said partial partition, the properties affected were actually partitioned and the respe ctive shares of each party, adjudicated to him/herThat despite the execution of this Deed of Partial Partition and the eventual disposal or sale of their respective shares, th e contracting parties herein covenanted and agreed among themselves and to one another that they shall do sic hereby bind themselves to one another that they shall share alike and receive equal shares from the proceeds of the sale of any lot or lots allotted to and adjudicated in their individual names by virtue of this deed of p artial partition That th is Agreement shall continue to be valid and enforceable among the contracting parties herein up to and until the last lot covered by the deed or partial partition above adverted to shall have been disposed of or sold and the procee ds thereof equally divided and their respective shares received by each of them. xxx xxx xxxThe MOA waterfall short of producing a novation, because it does not express a clear int ent to dissolve the old obligation as a consideration for the emergence of the new one. 15 Likewise, petitioners fail to show that the DPP and the MOA are materially and substantially incompatible with each other. Petitioners admit that, under the MOA, they and the Tamayo spouses agreed to equally share in the proceeds of the sale of the lots. 16 Indeed, the DPP granted title to the lots in question to the co-owner to whom they were assigned, and the MOA created an obligation on the part of such co -owner to share with the others the proceeds of the sale of such parcels. There is no incompatibility between these two contracts. Verily, the MOA cannot be construed as a repudiation of the earlier DPP.Both documents can exist together and must be so interpreted as to give life to both. Respondent Court competently explained17 The Deed of Partition conferred upon Nerissa Cruz Tamayo absolute ownership over the lands in question. The Memorandum of Agreement merely created an obligation on the part of absolute owner Nerissa Cruz Tamayo to share with the appellees with sic the proceeds of the sale of said properties. The obligation of the owner of a piece of land to share with somebody with sic its fruits or the proceeds of its sale does not necessarily impair his dominion over the property much less make the beneficiary his co -owner thereof. All in all, the basic principle underlying this ruling is simple when t he text edition of a contract is explicit and leaves no doubt as to its intention, the court may not read into it any intention that would contradic t its plain import. 18 The hornbook rule on interpretation of contracts gives primacy to the intention of the parties, which is the law among them. Ultimately, their intention is to be deciphered not from the unilateral post facto assertions of one of the parties, but from the language used in the contract. And when the terms of the agreement, as expressed in such language, are clear, they are to be understood literally, just as they appear on the face of the contract. Indeed, the legal effects of a contract are determined by extracting the intention of the parties from the language they used and from their contemporaneous and subsequent acts. 19 This principle gains more force when third parties are concerned. To require such persons to go beyond what is clearly written in the document is unsportsmanlike and unjust. They cannot possibly delve into the contracting parties minds and suspect that something is amiss, when the language of th e instrument appears clear and unequivocal. Second Issue No Co-ownership in the MOA Petitioners contend that they converted their separate and individual ownership over the lands in dispute into a co ownership by their execution of the MOA and the annotation thereof on the separate titles. The Court is not convinced. The very aliment of the MOA belie the existence of a co -ownership.First, it retains the partition of the properties, which petitioners supposedly placed in co -ownership and, consequence, it vests in the registered owner the power to dispose of the land adjudicated to him or her under the DPP. These are antithetical to the petitioners contention. In a co-ownership, an undivided thing or right belongs to two or more persons. 20 Put differently, several persons hold common dominion over a spiritual (or ideal) part of a thing, which is not physically divided. 21 In the present case, however, the parcels of land in the MOA have all been partitioned and titled under separate and individual names. More important, th e MOA stipulated that the registered owner could sell the land without the consent of the other parties to the MOA.Jus disponendi is an attribute of ownership, and only the owner can dispose of a property. 22 opposed to petitioners claim, the annotation of the MOA in the certificate of title did not engender any co -ownership. W ell settled is the doctrine that registration merely confirms, but does not confer, title. 23 It does not give the holder any better title than what he actually has. As earlier observed, the MOA did not make petitioners co-owners of the disputed parcels of land. Hence, the annotation of this document in the separate certificates of title did not grant them a greater right over the same property. Third Issue Estoppel by DeedRespondent Court found that several deeds of sale and real estate mortgage, which petitioners executed when they sold or mortgaged some parcels adjudicated to them under the DPP, contained the statement that the vendor/mortgagor was the a bsolute owner of the parcel of residential land and that he or she represented it as free from liens and encumbrances. On the basis of these pieces of evidence, respondent Court held that petitioners were estopped from claiming that there was a co-ownership over the disputed parcels of land which were also covered by the DPP. Petitioners contend that Respondent Court , in so ruling violated the res inter alios acta rule. Petitioners contentions is untenable.Res inter alios acta, as a general rule, prohibits the admission of evidence that tends to show that what a person has done at one time is probative of the contention that he has done a similar as act at another time. 24 proof of similar acts or occurrences compels the qualified to meet allegation s that are not mentioned in the complaint, confuses him in his defense, raises a variety of irrelevant issues, and diverts the attention of the court from th e issues immediately before it. Hence, this evidentiary rule guards against the practical inconven ience of trying collateral issues and protracting the trial and prevents surprise or other mischief prejudicial to litigants. 25 The rule, however, is not without exception.W hile impermissible in general, collateral facts may be received as evidence under exceptional circumstances, as when there is a rational similarity or resemblance between the conditions giving rise to the fact offered and the circumstances surrounding the issue or fact to be proved. 26 Evidence of similar acts may frequently become relevant, especially in actions found on fraud and deceit , because it sheds light on the state of mind or knowledge of a persons it provides insight into such persons motive or intent it uncovers a scheme, physique or plan or it reveals a mistake. 27 In this case, petitioners argue that legal proceeding relating to the other parcels of land they entered into, in the concept of absolute owners, are inadmissible as evidence to show that the parcels in issue are not co -owned.The court is not persuaded. Evidence of such transactions falls under the exception to the rule on the res inter alios acta. Such evidence is admissible because it is relevant to an issue in the case and collateral of evidence already received. 28 The relevancy of such transactions is readily apparent. The nature of ownership of said property should be the same as that of the lots on question since they are all subject to the MOA. If the parcels of land were held and disposed by petitioners in fee simple, in the concept of absolute owners, then the lots in question should similarly be treated as absolutely owned in fee simple by the Tamayo spouses.Unmistakably, the evidence in dispute manifests petitioners common purpose and design to treat all the parcels of land covered by the DPP as absolutely owned and not subject to co -ownership. 29 Under the principle of estoppel, petitioners are barred from claiming co-ownership of the lands in issue. In estoppel, a person , who by his deed or conduct has introduced another to act in a particular m anner, is barred from adopting an inconsistent position, attitude or course of conduct that thereby causes loss or injury to another. 30 It further bars him from denying the truth of a fact which has, in the contemplation of law, become settled by the acts and proceedings of judicial or legislative officers or by the act of the party himself, either by conventional writing or by representations, express or im plied or in pairs. 31In their transaction with others, petitioners have declared that the other lands covered by the same MOA are absolutely owned, without indicating the existence of a co-ownership over such properties. Thus, they are estopped from claiming otherwise because, by their very own acts and representations as testify by the deeds of mortgage and of sale, they have denied such co-ownership. 32 FOURTH ISSUES No Res Judicata On Co-ownership Petitioners argue that the Order (Exhibit J)33 date d January 18, 1985, issued by the RTC of Quezon City, Branch 86, which had long become final and executory, confirmed their co-ownership. Thus, they claim that Respondent Courts reversal of the ruling of the RTC of Antipolo, Rizal, is a violation of the rule on res judicata. This contention is equally untenable.The elements of res judicata are (1) the former judgment was final (2) the court which rendered it had jurisdiction over the subject matter and the parties(3) the judgment was on the merits and (4) the parties, subject matters and causes of action in the first and second actions are identical. 34 The RTC of Quezon City had no jurisdiction to decide on the merits of the present case or to entertain questions regarding the existence of co-ownership over the parcels in dispute, because the suit pending before it was only for the collection of a sum of money. Its disquisition on co-ownership was merely for the levy and the execution of the properties of the Tamayo spouses, in sat isfaction of their judgment debt to the private respondents. Perhaps more glaring is the lack of identity between the two actions.The first action before the RTC of Quezon City was for the collection of money, while the second before the RTC of Antipolo, Rizal, was for partition. There being no concurrence of the elements of res judicata in this case, the Court finds no error in Respondent Courts ruling. No further discussion is needed to show the glaring departure between the two controversies. WHEREFORE, the petition is hereby DENIED and the assailed Decision is Affirmed. Cost against petitioners. SO ORDERED. Davide, Jr. , (Chairman), Bellosillo, Vitug, and Quisumbing, JJ. , concur. THIRD DIVISION G. R. No. 134559. December 9, 1999 ANTONIA TORRES, assisted by her husband, ANGELO TORRES and EMETERIA BARING, petitioners, vs.COURT OF APPEALS and MANUEL TORRES,respondents. DECISION PANGANIBAN, J. Courts may not extricate parties from the necessary consequences of their acts. That th e terms of a contract turn out to be financially disadvantageous to them give not relieve them of their obligations therein. The lack of an inventory of real property will not ipso facto release the contracting partners from their respective obligations to each other arising from acts executed in accordance with their agreement. The Case The Petition for Review on writ of certiorari before us assails the March 5, 1998 Decision 1 Second Division of the Court of Appeals2 (CA) in CA-GR CV No. 2378 and its June 25, 1998 Resolution denying reconsideration. The assailed Decision affirmed the ruling of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Cebu City in Civil Case No. R -21208, which disposed as follows WHEREFORE, for all the foregoing considerations, the Court, finding for the defendant and against the plaintiffs, orders the dismissal of the plaintiffs complaint. The counterclaims of the defendant are in any case ordered dismissed. No pronouncement as to costs. 3 The Facts Sisters Antonia T orres and Emeteria Baring, herein petitioners, entered into a sound out hazard agreement with Respondent Manuel Torres for the development of a parcel of land into a subdivision.Pursuant to the contract, they executed a Deed of Sale covering the said parcel of land in favor of respondent, who then had it registered in his name. By mortgaging the property, respondent obtained from Equitable Bank a loan ofP40,000 which, under the vocalise Venture Agreement, was to be used for the development of the subdivision. 4 All three of them also agreed to share the proceeds from the sale of the subdivided lots. The image did not push through, and the land was subsequently foreclosed by the bank. According to petitioners, the project failed because of respondents lack of funds or means and skills. They add that respondent used the loan not for the development of the subdivision, but in furtherance of his own company, Universal Umbrell a Company.On the other hand, respondent alleged that he used the loan to implement the Agreement. With the said amount, he was able to effect the see and the subdivision of the lots. He secured the Lapu Lapu City Councils approval of the subdivision project which he advertised in a local newspaper. He also caused the construction of roads, curbs and gutters. Likewise, he entered into a contract with an engineering firm for the building of sixty low -cost housing units and actually even set up a model house on one of the subdivision lots. He did all of these for a total expense of P85,000. Respondent claimed that the subdivision project failed, however, because petitioners and their relatives had separately cause d the annotations of dverse claims on the title to the land, which eventually scare away prospective buyers. Despite his requests, petitioners refused to cause the clearing of the claims, thereby forcing him to give up on the project. 5 Subsequently, petitioners filed a criminal case for estafa against respondent and his wife, who were however acquitted. Thereafter, they filed the present civil case which, upon respondents motion, was later dismissed by the trial court in an Order dated September 6, 1982. On appeal, however, the appellate court remanded the case for further proceedings. Thereafter, the RTC issued its assailed Decision, which, as earlier stated, was affirmed by the CA. Hence, this Petition. 6 Ruling of the Court of AppealsIn affirming the trial court, the Court of Appeals held that petitioners and respondent had formed a alliance for the development of the subdivision. Thus, they must bear the loss suffered by the partnership in the same proportion as their share in the bread stipulated in the contract. Disagreeing with the trial courts pronouncement that losses as well as profits in a articulate venture should be distributed equally,7 the CA invoked Article 1797 of the Civil Code which provides Article 1797 The losses and profits shall be distributed in conformity with the agreement. If only the share of each partner in the profits has been agreed upon, the share of each in the losses shall be in the same proportion. The CA elucidated further In the absence of stipulation, the share of each partner in th e profits and losses shall be in proportion to what he may have contributed, but the industrial partner shall not be liable for the losses. As for the profits, the industrial partner shall receive such share as may be just and equitable under the circumstances. If besides his work he has contributed capital, he shall also receive a share in the profits in proportion to his capital. The Issue Petitioners impute to the Court of Appeals the following error x x x The Court of Appeals erred in conclud ing that the transaction x x x between the petitioners and respondent was that of a joint venture/partnership, ignoring outright the provision of Article 1769, and other related provisions of the Civil Code of the Philippines. 8 The Courts RulingThe Petition is beref t of merit. primary(prenominal) Issue Existence of a Partnership Petitioners deny having formed a partnership with respondent.

Lvmh in the Recession the Substance of Style

http//www. economist. com/node/14447276 LVMH in the recession The substance of style The creations biggest luxury- easilys conclave is benefiting from a flight to forest, simply the recession is too prompting questions tight the beau mondes breadth and balance Sep 17th 2009 genus Paris from the scar edition * * Bloomberg THERE ar four main elements to our subscriber line seatproduct, distribution, communication and price, explains an decision maker at LVMH, the worlds largest luxury-goods separate. Our job is to do such(prenominal) a fantastic job on the first three that lot bequeath all about the fourth. For decades LVMHs formula has worked like a spell seduced by beautiful status-symbols, perfect shops and clever advertising, millions of mess gull swooned forgetfully towards the firms immediate knuckle underment registers. At Louis Vuitton, LVMHs star conjunction, the models pricing power has yielded consistent profit margins of well-nigh 40-45%, the highest of any luxury-goods brand. These days customers ar finding it further harder to forget about price. The seriously rich, of course, argon still spending freely.But much of the intentnesss rapid produce in the past decade came from middle-class people, often buying on credit or on the back of rising house prices. match to Luca Solca of Bernstein Research, 60% of the luxury market is now based on look at from aspirational customers rather than from the wealthy elite. The recession has quickly reversed the trend to flip-flop up, and people are delaying expensive purchases. Bain & Company, a consulting firm, expects the industrys sales to fall by a tenth in 2009, to 153 billion ($225 billion).Some executives even expect a lasting shift in customers preferences, towards discretion and value. Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH, believes that the whole industry needs to rebrand itself. The word luxury suggests triviality and presentation stumble, and the time f or all that has gone, he says. Brands which sold blingy clear-to- grass products, milking old names, he says, depart fare especially badly in the invigorated environment. LVMH, by contrast, has never taken such an approach, he says, instead emphasising quality, innovation and creativity.To infraline these values, the group is going back to basics in its daily operations. Before the crisis, we were put a lot of energy into beautiful stores, but now we anxiety a bit less about expanding our network and even to a greater extent about construct and price, says an executive. A few years ago, for instance, at the altitude of the boom, one LVMH brand was putting diamonds all over its watches, so that it was roughly difficult to tell the time. Now we are getting back to what sincerely matters, which is nice movements and design, he says.For some luxury firms, the recessions effects rush already been brutal. Private-equity firms and some other outdoor(a) investors which rushed into the industry at its peak have suffered just about. At the top of the market this industry was perceived as easy by internationalrs, says Mr Arnault. You borrowed 80% of a organizes asking price and hired a good causality, but the strategy has not been successful in some(prenominal) cases. Lenders to Valentino, an Italian sort house, are reportedly trying to renegotiate its debt. Permira, a private-equity group, bought the firm in 2007 in a deal valuing it at 5. billion. Permira has since create verbally down its equity investment of about 900m by more than half. Prada Holding, through with(predicate) which Miuccia Prada and her husband control Prada Group, some other Italian house, recently restructured its loans in fiat to defer payment to banks. Prada Group has denied that there are talks to fiddle in a minority shareholder. Two particularly weak firms, Christian Lacroix, a Paris-based ready-to-wear and haute couture label which used to be part of LVMH, and Escad a, a German maker of luxury womenswear, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.Amid this turmoil, LVMH is performing comparatively well ( fulfill chart 1). It has benefited from an found pattern in the luxury industry when people have less, they spend what they do have on the exceed quality. Shoppers are going for fewer, classic itemsone Burberry raincoat, rather than three designer dresses, or a single Kelly bag by Hermes, a french luxury-goods group, instead of four bags from various lesser designers. For this creator, says Yves Carcelle, chief executive of Louis Vuitton and chair of sort and leather goods for LVMH, Vuitton always gains market share in crises. As reliable and sturdy as one of its own handbags, thence, Vuitton is carrying LVMH fairly well through the recession. In the first half of 2009 the groups taxations were about the same as a year before, though sugar were 12% lower. Two divisions booze and liquor, and watches and jewellerywere the worst affected th eir revenues from each one fell by 17% and their profits by 41% and 73% respectively ( stick out chart 2). quick de- shopworning by retailers exacerbated the effect of falling demand.But the falls were offset by Vuitton, where revenue rose by a double-digit percentage, registering gains in every market. It is incredible that in a downturn the consumer still buys so many Louis Vuitton bags, but she or he does, says Melanie Flouquet, luxury-goods analyst at JPMorgan in Paris. Vuittons performance, and the overall robustness of LVMH, a world-wide conglomerate with more than 50 brands and revenues of 17. 2 billion in 2008, should allow it to take advantage of its competitors weakness in the recession. In the bordering few years we expect several failures in the industry and good opportunities to acquire assets at attractive prices, says Mr Arnault. Shareholders in the firm are particularly preoccupied by what he might buy and sell in the next few years. What explains Vuittons resili ence? Beneath the gloss of advertising campaigns, catwalk shows and each seasons fleeting trends, Vuitton brings a machine-like discipline to the selling of fancy leather goods and fashion. It is the entirely leather-goods firm, for instance, which never puts its products on sale at a discount.It destroys stock instead, property a close eye on the proportion it ends up scrapping (which it calls the ending margin). In 2005, when Maurizio Borletti, owner of several prominent department stores in Italy and France, was preparing for the opening of a refurbished La Rinascente department store in Milan, he recalls, the Vuitton people built a scale model of the building in their offices to understand customer flows and get the best positioning. In this theyre the most original in the industry, he says.Unlike most other luxury marques, Vuitton never gives licences to outside firms, to avoid brand degradation. Its factories use techniques from other industries, notably car qualification, to push cost down ruthlessly and to allow teams of workers to be switched from one product to other as demand dictates. It has adopted methods of quality control, too one quality supervisor came from Valeo, a French auto-parts supplier. The result is long-lasting utility, beyond show, which is valuable in difficult times. Owning shops gives Vuitton control over levels of stock, presentation and pricing.It was not therefore affected by the panicked price-slashing of up to 80% by American luxury department stores in the run-up to Christmas last yeara catastrophe for others in the industry, fit to Mr Arnault. Although other LVMH divisions have been hit by outside retailers de-stocking during the crisis, Vuitton has managed its own inventory, with no competition for space from other brands. With a global network, says Mr Carcelle, the firm can move poorly selling stock to shops where it has performed better. The luxury of diversityVuittons ability to offset the steep falls in other divisions shows the value of the diversified conglomerate model in luxury goods. Richemont, the industrys second-largest company, has a less varied portfolio and greater exposure to watches and jewellery, demand for which has been especially weak. fit to a recent trading statement, its sales fell by 16% in the tailfin months to the end of August. A group structure in any case yields savings when negotiating deals for advertising space, property and credit-card fees. It helps to have a specialist smasher retailer, Sephora, and a chain of airport shops, DFS, to sell perfumes and cosmetics.When Vuitton develops watches, say, it can call on the talents of TAG Heuer. But LVMHs breadth also comes in for criticism. Although there is doubtless value in some diversification, some people ask whether 50-odd brands under one roof are too many. Vuitton, for instance, would doubtless like to see disposals of weaker brands as a result of the crisis, and a greater concentration of resources on the groups describe businesses. The groups executives devote the bulk of their attention to the most important of these Louis Vuitton, Moet Hennessy in drinks, TAG Heuer in watches, Christian Dior in perfumes and cosmetics, Sephora and DFS.The group has many small businesses, and these get much less attention in such a big group. LVMH does not disclose financial figures for individual brands, but at its presentation of first-half results the groups finance theatre director replied to an analyst asking about fashion and leather-goods that a handful had lost property somewhere. There is possibility that Celine, a ready-to-wear clothing and accessories label, Kenzo, a fashion brand which analysts have long suggested LVMH dispose of, or Loewe, a Spanish leather-goods brand which has so far failed o win much of a following outside Spain and Japan, are among the less profitable. Nevertheless, the group can use the might of Vuitton to clog up its smaller, upcoming brands. A departme nt store, for instance, may be asked to take Loewe or Celine in order to get Vuitton. That often frustrates people at Vuitton, however, who would prefer to use the power of the brand for its own benefit, says a person who knows the company well. Theyve never heard of another of LVMHs brands saying, Either give this to Vuitton or I wont come, he says.Apart from the synergy in watch design, Vuitton does not find that it benefits much from the rest of the group. The reason why LVMH has many small brands which arent quite making it, says another person familiar with the company, is that Mr Arnault is an optimist who believes that every property can at some point be turned around. That can pay off some years ago Mr Arnault halted the imminent sale of a placate line. Thanks to the distribution muscle of Sephora, it has since turned into a bestseller in America.Investors, however, are nevertheless wary of what they see as Mr Arnaults tendency to collect brands. The crisis has also underl ined the fact that Vuitton dominates the groups results. Were it not for Vuitton, estimates one analyst, LVMHs sales would have fallen by 3% in the first half of 2009 and profits would have plunged by 40%. In normal times Vuitton contributes about half of the groups profits, and most of the rest comes from Moet Hennessy. In the first half of this year, however, Vuitton contributed an estimated 70% of profit.That leads some people to question whether LVMH is overly dependent on the leather-goods firm. You can argue that theres cipher as good as Vuitton in LVMHs portfolio, says Pierre Mallevays of Savigny Partners, who was formerly director of acquisitions at LVMH, but that simply states the fact that LVs business model is the meretricious standard of luxury brands no other brand in the world compares to it. The biggest risk to LVMH is Vuitton, argues Ms Flouquet, since it accounts for such a big proportion of profits the company depends on it, she says.The risk to Vuitton, in turn , is that it could fall out of fashion or lose its exclusivity in the eyes of consumers. So far there is no sign of fatigue with the brand. LVMHs senior managers have devised ways to call up it. In the late 1990s, for example, Mr Arnault saw that there was a risk that as a maker of leather goods alone, Vuitton could be perceived as boring. In 1997 he hired Marc Jacobs, then a comparatively unknown designer, to design a fashion line. The aim was to generate seasonal buzz and charge coverage.Vuittons senior executives at the time were against the idea, fearing that adding fashion could undermine a endless image, but Mr Arnaults move proved successful. To avoid overexposure of its signature Monogram print, Vuitton has taken billing to develop a wide range of products and other patterns. We increase the second of product lines and we are careful to have several different colors and shapes, says Mr Arnault. Thus Vuitton sells reasonably priced handbagsthe smallest Speedy Bag costs 430 in Parisbut also wildly expensive custom-made luggage, reinforcing its exclusive image.Another strong tactic is to make limited-edition handbags which are hard to get hold of. vanadium or so years ago Vuitton depended to a large microscope stage on one market, Japan. Most Japanese women owned at least(prenominal) one Vuitton productand hence provided a large proportion of Vuittons profits, which discerning analysts at the time. Yet the Japanese market for luxury goods was souring. Spending on such items in Japan has fallen sharply since the end of 2005, according to a recent report by McKinsey, a consulting firm. Young women are more individualistic than their mothers, and are seeking out lesser-known brands. You used to see thousands of Vuitton bags coming at you in the Ginza shopping district but far fewer now, says Radha Chadha, author of a book, The Cult of the Luxury Brand at heart Asias Love Affair with Luxury. That reliance on one republic is no longer so marked (s ee chart 3). Fortunately, Vuitton has since rapidly established a strong position in what it hopes lead become another Japan China. The Chinese consumer is in a love affair with the Vuitton brand, says Ms Flouquet. According to LVMH, in the first half of 2009 sales to Chinese people (at home and travelling) made up 18% of Vuittons revenue.Despite widespread concerns about counterfeiting in the country, the Chinese are now Vuittons biggest customer base after the Japanese. The key to the firms success, says Mr Arnault, has been approaching the market exactly as if it were a developed market. We act the Chinese customer as being very sophisticated. Many competitors, by contrast, have at times lowered their standards for shops in China, he says, apply inferior furniture or positioning their stores poorly. Going into new markets and develop new product lines will enable Vuitton o put out producing double-digit product for years to come, says Mr Carcelle. On every trip to mainland Chinahe makes five or six a yearhe tries to discover a new city and meet its mayor. Mr Carcelle is also tackling other new frontiers in October he will open a shop in Sukhbaatar neat in Ulan Bator. Already if you go to an upmarket disco in Ulan Bator you will see a significant number of our bags, he says. Vuittons expansion into China, Mongolia and new product lines such as watches and shoes, suggest that the leather-goods firm will continue to be LVMHs main source of growth.However, it also means that the group may become more rather than less reliant on Vuitton. In theory, the answer could lie in strengthening some of LVMHs smaller names, such as Fendi, a fashion and leather-goods brand. But buying a big, established, global brand with potential for growth could be both a quick and a surer route. Or maybe that oneImagineChina A new collection? Analysts and bankers are convinced that Mr Arnault indigences to buy the Hermes Group, a producer of leather goods and fashion which ma tches Vuitton for quality and design.Because Hermes is run so conservatively, says an investment banker who knows LVMH well, it is only a quarter of the sizing that it could be. Mr Arnault would grow it while preserving its values, he says. Earlier this year, there were rumours that LVMH would sell Moet Hennessy to Diageo, the worlds biggest spirits group, which already owns 34% of the business. much(prenominal) a sale could raise money to buy Hermes. Mr Arnault, however, refuses to be drawn into commenting. For the moment, such an acquisition is impossible, since the family which controls Hermes does not want to sell, and the firm is strongly defended against takeover.Nevertheless, says the banker, the family which controls it has several branches, all with different views. Its a printing press cooker and some day it will blow up, he says. Chanel, another closely held global luxury brand, could also make a desirable target for LVMH. Some people recommend a merger with Richemont, which, Mr Solca argues, would address LVMHs relative weakness in watches and jewellery. Any such deals, or selling Moet Hennessy, would radically change the balance of the group. I would be surprised if LVMH sold Moet Hennessy. The business has high margins, high ashflow and it is well managed, says Ms Flouquet. They would belike only sell it if they had a large deal ahead. Shareholders are nervous that LVMH will pay too high a price for a large acquisition. For this reason the groups valuation may not fully reflect its performance during the crisis. Such concerns are not likely to deter Mr Arnault, who has demonstrated his confidence in LVMHs prospects in luxury by raising his stake in the group over time he owns 47%. If LVMH does go shopping, it will probably behave like one of its best customers with price in mind, but willing to spend on enduring prestige.