Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

FOURTH DIVISION [CA-G.R. SP No. 26690. June 21, 1996.] ( C.T.A. Case No. 4028.) ATLAS CONSOLIDATED MINING AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION , petitioner , vs . COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE AND COURT OF TAX APPEALS , respondents . D E C I S I O N SANDOVAL-GUTIERREZ , J p : Petition for review of the decision of the Court of Tax Appeals in C.T.A. Case No. 4028, "Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation vs. Commissioner of Internal Revenue." Petitioner ATLAS CONSOLIDATED MINING & DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (ATLAS for brevity) is engaged in mining copper and selling copper concentrates and minerals in local and foreign markets. ATLAS filed on time its income tax returns. For the years 1975 1 and 1976 2 and its quarterly income tax returns for 1975. In evaluating ATLAS' tax returns, the BIR disallowed several items from the list of deductibles from gross income and included accounts which ATLAS failed to report. The BIR also found that ATLAS failed to withhold the 15% tax-at-source on interest of loans from Mitsubishi Metal Corporation and to pay 15% deficiency interest on the corporate income tax due for the first three quarters of tax year 1975. In recomputing the tax liability of ATLAS, the BIR came up with a total deficiency of P49,603,025.15 . Forthwith, the BIR sent ATLAS a deficiency assessment letter. 3 Upon receipt, ATLAS filed a protest 4 with the BIR but was denied, prompting it to interpose an appeal to the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA), docketed as CTA 4028. On April 28, 1989, the CTA rendered a decision, the dispositive portion of which reads: "WHEREFORE, petitioner Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation, is hereby ordered to pay to respondent Commissioner of Internal Revenue the aggregate amount of P9,409,033.77 as deficiency income tax for the years 1975 and 1976 deficiency corporate quarterly income tax for the first, second and third quarters of 1975, plus surcharges and interest incident to delinquency pursuant to the provisions of Section 51(e) (2) (3) of the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended. (emphasis added) SO ORDERED." Whereupon, ATLAS filed a motion for reconsideration but the same was denied. Hence, ATLAS filed the instant petition for review. For its part, the BIR elevated the case to the Supreme Court, docketed therein as G.R. No. 89395. In its Resolution dated September 27, 1989, the Supreme Court referred the matter to this Court, docketed as CA-G.R. SP No. 19039 and raffled to the Ninth Division. On March 11, 1992, the said Division, through Associate Justice Cezar D. Francisco, 5 modifying the CTA decision and in effect increased the deficiency taxes due from ATLAS from P9,409,033.77 to P11,782,644.00. The dispositive portion of the decision reads: "WHEREFORE, premises considered, the decision of the Court of Tax Appeals is hereby modified in the sense that private respondent Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation is required to pay the Commissioner of Internal Revenue the sum of P11,782,644.00 (not P9,409,033.77 as the CTA had held) comprising the deficiency income tax for the years 1975 and 1976, the deficiency withholding tax-at-source for 1975 and 1976, and deficiency corporate quarterly income tax for the first, second and third quarters of 1975, plus surcharges and interests incident to delinquency pursuant to the provisions of Section 51 (e) (2) (3) of the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended. SO ORDERED." In this petition for review before Us, petitioner ATLAS contends that it is not liable to pay the deficiency taxes in the reduced amount of P9,409,039.77 as determined by respondent CTA. It bears stressing that the issue raised by herein petitioner ATLAS has been resolved by this Court in CA-G.R. SP No. 19039, through Justice Cezar Francisco, in its decision dated March 11, 1992 holding petitioner ATLAS liable for deficiency taxes in the increased amount of P11,782,644.00. We are not unmindful that petitioner ATLAS filed with the Supreme Court a petition for review on certiorari docketed as G.R. No. 104733 assailing this Court's Decision but the same was denied by the Supreme Court (Third Division) in a Minute Resolution dated August 24, 1992, thus: "G.R. No. 104733 (Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation vs. Court of Appeals, et al.). Considering the allegations contained, the issues raised and the arguments adduced in the petition for review on certiorari of the decision of the Court of Appeals, as well as the comment of the respondents, the Court, finding that no reversible error was committed by the appellate court, Resolved to DENY the petition." (emphasis added) The above Minute Resolution has become final and executory as shown by the entry of Judgment dated October 16, 1992. Thus, the question of whether or not petitioner ATLAS is liable to pay the deficiency taxes in the sum of P11,782,644.00 has been laid to rest. Indeed, this Court's Decision in CA-G.R. SP. No. 19039 as upheld by the Supreme Court has become "the law of the case." When an appellate court has once declared the law in a case, such declaration continues to be the law of that case even on subsequent appeal. The rule made by an appellate court cannot be departed from in subsequent proceedings in the same case. Such a rule is necessary to enable an appellate court to perform its duties satisfactorily and efficiently, which would be impossible if a question, once considered and decided by it, were to be litigated anew in the same case upon any and every subsequent appeal. The rule is necessary as a matter of policy in order to end litigation. 6 The doctrine further enunciates that whatever is once irrevocably established as the controlling legal rule of decision between the same parties in the same case continues to be the law of the case, whether correct on general principles or not, so long as the facts on which such decision was predicated continue to be the facts of the case before the court. 7 WHEREFORE, this petition is hereby DENIED DUE COURSE and is DISMISSED. Costs against petitioner. SO ORDERED. Buena and Vasquez, Jr., JJ . , concur. Footnotes 1. Exhibit "B"; Folder II, Records, pp. 1-15. 2. Exhibit "C"; Id ., pp. 1-15. 3. Exhibit "D"; Id ., pp. 177-180. 4. Exhibit "H"; Id ., pp. 203-214. *. now retired. 5. Rollo, pp. 126-146. 6. Ramos vs. Intermediate Appellate Court, 171 SCRA 93, citing National Mines and Allied Workers' Union vs. Cuna, 83 SCRA 607, 612 & 613, citing Zarate vs. Director of Lands, 39 Phil. 747 and other cases. 7. Kilosbayan, Incorporated vs. Morato, 246 SCRA 540 (1995), with citations.