LA CAMPANA COFFEE FACTORY vs KAISAHAN NG MANGGAGAWA

Facts:
Tan Tong since 1932 has been engaged in the buying and selling gawgaw under the trade
name La Campana Gawgaw Packing. In 1950, Tan Tong and members of his family
organized
the family corporation. La Campana Coffee Factory with its principal office located in
Gawgaw
Packing. Prior to said information, Tan Tong entered into a CBA with the labor union of La
Campana Gawgaw. Later on, his employees formed Kaisahan ng mga Manggagawa ng La
Campana with an authorization from the DOLE to become an affiliate of the larger union.

Kaisahan with 66 members presented a demand for higher wages and more privileges to
La
Campana Starch and Coffee Factory. The demand was not granted and the DOLE certified
the
issue to the CIR. La Campana filed a motion to dismiss alleging that the action was
directed
against two different entities with distinct personalities. This was denied, hence this
petition.

Issue: W/N the CIR has jurisdiction over the case.

Held:
YES. La Compana Gawgaw and La Campana Factory are operating under one single
management or as
one business though with two trade names. The coffee factory is a corporation and by
legal fiction,
an entity separate and apart from the persons composing it namely, Tan Tong and his
family.
However, the concept of separate corporate personality cannot be extended to a point
beyond
reason and policy when invoked in support of an end subversive of this policy and will be
disregarded
by the courts.
A subsidiary company which is created merely as an agent for the latter may sometimes
be regarded as identical with the parent corporation especially if the stockholders or
officers
of the two corporations are substantially the same or their systems of operation unified.
The
facts showed that they had one management, one payroll prepared by the same person,
laborers were interchangeable, there is only one entity as shown by the signboard ad in
trucks, packages and delivery forms and the same place of business.
The attempt to make the two factories appear as two separate businesses when in reality
they are but one, is but a device to defeat the ends of the law and should not be
permitted to
prevail.
WHY PIERCE? So that La Campana cannot evade the jurisdiction of CIR since La Campana
Gawgaw
has only 14 employees and only 5 are members of Kaisahan.