SWITZER VS CEBU

G.R. No. 6329           September 1, 1911

FACTS: 

Appellant contends that the expression king of buildings, employed in the legal provision just quoted, includes not only the material of which they are to be composed but also the style; that is (so he concludes), that it empowers the municipalities to prescribed by means of an ordinance the material that may be used in a building constructed within the fire limits, and the style, whether it shall be a warehouse or a dwelling house, and if the latter, whether it shall have one, two, or three stories, as all this may enter into the expression kind of buildings, employed in subsection (f) of section 39 of the Municipal Code.

RULING: 

In the present case, which deals with a building intended for warehouses and storerooms in a place especially given over to loading and discharging the steamers that call at the port of Cebu, we do not regard it at all reasonable to require that such building have more than one story or display a special and prescribed style of ornamentation. Moreover, the commercial interests or purposes which should unquestionably prevail in the location mentioned do not, in our opinion, require such a thing, nor would they probably secure greater benefit therefrom. Keeping in mind also that the building mentioned fulfills the conditions reasonably necessary for security, healthfulness, and hygiene, as stated in the judgment appealed from, we believe that the municipal council of Cebu, in the case before us, for it is not our intention to lay down a general rule for all cases, has no right to oppose or to prohibit the construction of said building, and therefore the judgment appealed from must on this definite ground be affirmed in its principal part.