OCA CIRCULAR NO. 135-2009, October 01, 2009

Quoted hereunder are portions of the Resolution of the Supreme Court En Banc
dated 1 September 2009 in A.M. No. 03-4-01-0 (Re: Exemption of
Cooperatives from Payment of Courts and Sheriff’s fees payable to the
government in actions brought under R.A. 6938), to wit:

x x x

“Our reading of the express wordings of Article 62, paragraph 6
of R.A. 6938 and Article 61 of R.A. 9520 proceeds from the statutory
construction rule that words used in statutes are to be given their
usual and commonly understood meanings unless different meanings are
plainly intended. In the provision under consideration, the term “all
court fees” refers to the totality of legal fees” imposed under Rule 141
of the Rules of Court as an incident of instituting an
action in court. These fees include filing or docket fees, appeal fees,
fees for issuance of provisional remedies, mediation fees, sheriff’s
fees, stenographer’s fees and commissioner’s fees. These legal fees are
payable to the Philippine Government, not to
sheriffs or process servers for their travel expenses. As correctly
pointed out by the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA), the
P1,000.00 service fee being assessed against the petitioners is not in
the nature of court and sheriffs fees within the contemplation of the
exemption granted to cooperatives under the law and OCA Circular No.
44-2007.

Section 10, Rule 141 of the 1997 Revised Rules of Procedure (Rules) distinguishes between the terms sheriff’s fees (as enumerated in items (a) to (l) and sheriffs expenses (as found in the second paragraph of Section 10). Section 10, Rule 141 of the Rule relating to sheriffs expenses provides:

SEC. 10 Sheriffs, PROCESS SERVERS and other persons serving processes.-

x x x

x x x

In addition to the fees hereinabove fixed, the amount of ONE THOUSAND (PI ,000.00) PESOS shall be deposited with the Clerk of Court upon filing of the complaint to defray the actual travel expenses of the sheriff, process server or other court-authorized persons in the service of summons, subpoena and other court processes that would be issued relative to the trial of the
case in case the initial deposit of ONE THOUSAND (P1 ,000.00) PESOS is
not sufficient, then the plaintiff or petitioner shall be required to
make an additional deposit. The sheriff, process server or other court
authorized person shall submit to the court for its approval a statement
of estimated travel expenses for service of summons and court
processes. Once approved, the Clerk of Court shall release the money to
said sheriff or process server. After service, a statement of
liquidation shall be submitted to the court for approval. After
rendition of judgment by the court, any excess from the deposit shall
be returned to the party who made the deposit.[Emphasis and underscoring
supplied]”

x x x

“In this case, Article 62, paragraph 6 of RA 6938; Section 6,
Article 61 of RA 9520; and OCA Circular 44-2007 explicitly state that
cooperatives shall only be exempted from payment of all court sheriff’s
fees payable to the Philippine Government for and in connection with all
actions brought under the Cooperative Code, or where such action is
brought by the Cooperative Development Authority before the court, to
enforce the payment of obligations contracted in favor of the
cooperative. The amount required to defray the sheriff’s expenses is
clearly not covered by the exemption; they are not considered as court
and sheriffs fees and nor are they amounts payable to the Philippine
Government. Accordingly, REMPCO is not exempted from the deposit/payment
of sheriff’s expenses assessed by small claims court in collection
actions filed before these courts.”

For strict compliance of all concerned is the dispositive portion of the resolution of the Supreme Court En Bane dated 1 September 2009 in the A.M. No 03-4-01-0 which states that:

“WHEREFORE, premises considered, we rule that the REMPCO Multi-Purpose Cooperative is NOT EXEMPT from the deposit/payment of sheriff’s expenses under Section 10, Rule 141 of the Rules of Court in collection actions filed with the Small Claims Court of Makati City .”