file:cvpro_part-1_vii.htm

7. ADJUDICATION (Rule
36)

1. Concept and Requirements

Adjudication is the rendition of a judgment or
final order which disposes of the case on the merits.

Under the Rules of Civil Procedure, judgment is used
in its generic term and therefore synonymous to decision. A judgment or final
order determining the merits of the case shall be in writing personally and
directly prepared by the judge, stating clearly and distinctly the facts and
the law on which it is based, signed by him, and filed with the clerk of court.157

2.  Kinds of
Judgment and Definitions

1. Without Reception of
Evidence

1.1 Judgment on the Pleading

Where an answer fails to
tender an issue, or otherwise admits the material allegations of the adverse
party’s pleading, the court may, on motion of that party, direct judgment on
such pleading. However, in actions for declaration of nullity or annulment of
marriage or for legal separation, the material facts alleged in the complaint
shall always be proved.158

1.2 Summary Judgment

A party seeking to recover
upon a claim, counterclaim, or cross-claim or to obtain a declaratory relief
may, at any time after the pleading in answer thereto has been served, move
with supporting affidavits, depositions or admissions for a summary judgment in
his favor upon all or any part thereof.159

A party against whom a claim,
counterclaim, or cross-claim is asserted or a declaratory relief is sought may,
at any time, move with supporting affidavits, depositions or admissions for a
summary judgment in his favor as to all or any part thereof.160

2. With Partial Reception of
Evidence

2.1 Judgment by Default

If the defending party fails to answer within the
time allowed therefore, the court shall, upon motion of the claiming party with
notice to the defending party, and proof of such failure, declare the defending
party in default. Thereupon, the court shall proceed to render judgment
granting the claimant such relief as his pleading may warrant, unless the court
in its discretion requires the claimant to submit evidence. Such reception of
evidence may be delegated to the clerk of court.161

2.2 Judgment on Demurrer to
Evidence:

After the plaintiff has
completed the presentation of his evidence, the defendant may move for dismissal
on the ground that upon the facts and the law the plaintiff has shown no right
to relief. If his motion is denied, he shall have the right to present
evidence. If the motion is granted but on appeal the order of dismissal is
reversed, he shall be deemed to have waived the right to present evidence.162

Notes: A demurrer to evidence
is differentiated from a motion to dismiss in that the former can be availed of
only after the presentation of plaintiff’s evidence while the latter is
instituted as a general rule before a responsive pleading is filed.

When the motion for a demurrer
to evidence is granted, the judgment of the court is considered on the merits
and so it has to comply with Rule 36, Section 1, regarding the requirement that
judgment should clearly and distinctly state the facts and the law on which it
is based. If the motion is denied, the order is merely interlocutory.163

3. Cases on Summary Judgment

1. The test for the propriety of a motion for
summary judgment is whether the pleadings, affidavits and exhibits in support
of the motion are sufficient to overcome the opposing papers and to justify the
findings that, as a matter of law, there is no defense to the action or the
claim is clearly meritorious.164

2. Summary judgment may include a determination
of the right to damages but not the amount of damages.165
The court cannot also impose attorney’s fees in a summary judgment in the
absence of proof as to the amount thereof.166

3. Mere denials, unaccompanied by any fact which
would be admissible in evidence at a hearing, are not sufficient to raise a
genuine issue of fact sufficient to destroy a motion for summary judgment even
though such issue was formally raised by the pleadings.167 Where all the facts are within the
judicial knowledge of the court, summary judgment may be granted as a matter of
law.168

4. Courts are without discretion to deny a motion
for summary judgment where there is no genuine issue as to a material fact.
Summary judgment is available even if the pleadings ostensibly show genuine
issue which by depositions or affidavits are shown not to be genuine.169

5. Distinction between summary proceedings under
Rule 34 (Judgment on the pleadings) and the summary proceedings under Rule 35
(Summary Judgment)

A different rationale operates
in the latter for it arises out of facts already established or admitted during
the pre-trial held beforehand, unlike the former where the judgment merely
relies on the merits of the movant’s allegations.170

6. Discretion of Court To Render Judgment on the
Pleadings

Under the Rules, if there is no controverted
matter in the case after the answer is filed, the trial court has the
discretion to grant a motion for judgment on the pleadings filed by a party.
Where there are actual issues raised in the answer, such as one involving
damages, which require the presentation of evidence and assessment thereof by
the trial court, it is improper for a judge to render judgment based on the
pleadings alone.171

7. A partial summary judgment may be rendered,172 but the same is interlocutory and not
appealable.173

4.  Ordinary Judgment

1. No judge should decline to render judgment by
reason of the silence, obscurity, or insufficiency of the law.174

2. The court is not required to state in its
decision all the facts found in the records. It is enough that the court states
the facts and law on which its decision is based.175

Trial courts should not, however, merely
reproduce everything testified to by the witnesses no matter how unimportant
and immaterial it may be, even if this might lighten their work. By such
indolent process, they only complicate and lengthen their decisions, beclouding
and possibly misreading the real issues in their tiresome narration of the
facts, including even those without bearing in the case. Judges should make an
effort to sift the record and relieve it of all inconsequential matters, to
give them a clearer view of how the real question is to be resolved and a
better idea of how this resolution should be done.176

2.1 Need to Particularize
Facts

Without the concrete relation
or statement in the judgment of the facts alleged and proved at the trial, it
is not possible to pass upon and determine the issue raised in litigation,
inasmuch as when the facts held to be proved are not set forth in a judicial
controversy, it is impossible to administer justice, to apply the law to the
points argued, or to uphold the rights of the litigant who has the law on his
side.

It is not sufficient that the
court or trial judge take into account the facts brought out in an action the
circumstances of each question raised, and the nature and conditions of the
proofs furnished by the parties. He must also set out in his decision the facts
alleged by the contending parties which he finds to have been proven, the
conclusions deduced therefrom and the opinion he has formed on the issues
raised. Only then can he intelligently set forth the legal grounds and
considerations proper in his opinion for the due determination of the case.177

2.2 Reason for Award of
Attorney’s Fees Must be Stated in the Body of the Decision

The exercise of judicial
discretion in the award of attorney’s fee under Article 2208 (ii) of the New
Civil Code demands a factual, legal, and equitable justification. Without such
justification, the award is a conclusion without a premise, its basis being
improperly left to speculation and conjecture.178

3. The case should be decided in its totality, resolving
all interlocutory issues in order to render justice to all concerned and to end
litigation once and for all.179

4. To be binding, a judgment must be duly signed
and promulgated during the incumbency of the judge who signed it.180 However, it is not unusual for a judge
who did not try a case to decide on the basis of the records for the trial
judge might have died, resigned, retired, or transferred.181

5. The 90-day period to decide a case shall be
reckoned with from the date said case is submitted for decision despite the
non-availability of the stenographic notes.182
In the same manner, the judge should decide the case even if the parties failed
to submit memoranda within the given periods.183