G.R. No. 23102. April 24, 1967
CECILIO MENDOZA, PETITIONER, VS. THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS, AND LUISA DE LA ROSA MENDOZA, RESPONDENTS.
REYES, J.B.L., J.:
Cecilio Mendoza resorts to this Court
for a review of the decision of the Court of Appeals in case CA-G.R. No.
30005-R, denying a writ of prohibition
and injunction against the orders of the Court of First Instance of Nueva Ecija refusing dismissal of
Civil Case No. 3436 of that Court.
We glean from the record that Luisa de la Rosa Mendoza instituted
Case No. 3436 against petitioner herein.
In the complaint, she averred that she was married to Cecilio Mendoza on 2 September 1953; that they lived
together as husband and wife until 14 July 1954, when the husband departed for
the United States to further his studies and practice his profession; that
since then, defendant Mendoza “without justifiable cause or reason
deliberately abandoned and neglected plaintiff and despite repeated demands by
plaintiff, defendant has failed and refused, and still fails and refuses, to
provide for the maintenance and support of plaintiff,” who is alleged to
be pregnant, sickly and without any source of revenue, while defendant (now petitioner)
is employed in a hospital in the United States earning an average of $200.00 a
month, besides being a part-owner of lands in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, assessed at
P32,330.00 in 1955.
In due course, defendant Cecilio
Mendoza moved for dismissal of the complaint for lack of jurisdiction and
improper venue. The motion having been
denied, he filed an answer with counterclaim, putting in issue the validity of
his marriage to plaintiff (Brief, p. 13), and plaintiff (now respondent) Luisa
de la Rosa duly replied.
On 3 July 1961 defendant filed a second motion to dismiss, this
time predicated on the complaint’s failure to state a cause of action, because
it contained no allegation that earnest efforts toward a compromise have been
made before the filing of the suit, and invoking the provisions of Article 222
of the Civil Code of the Philippines (R. A. No. 386) that provides:
“ART. 222. No suit shall be filed or maintained between
members of the same family unless it should appear that earnest efforts toward
a compromise have been made, but that the same have failed, subject to the
limitations in article 2035.”
The Court of First Instance, having refused to entertain his
second motion to dismiss, the defendant petitioned the Court of Appeals for a
writ of prohibition with preliminary injunction to stop the Court of First
Instance from further proceeding with the case.
The Court of Appeals gave due course to his petition and issued the
preliminary writ prayed for; but, after hearing and consideration of the
merits, it denied the writ of prohibition and dissolved the injunction.
His motion for reconsideration having been denied, Cecilio Mendoza then resorted to this Court, which gave due
course to his petition for review.
Petitioner argues that Article 222 of the Civil Code of the
Philippines (jam. quot.) requires that before a suit
between members of the same family (in this case between husband and wife) is filed
or maintained, it must appear that earnest efforts toward a compromise
have been made, and the only way to make it so appear when the suit is filed
is by a proper averment to that effect in the complaint. Since the law forbids a suit being initiated
(filed) or maintained unless such efforts at compromise appear, the showing
that efforts in question were made is a condition precedent to the existence of
the cause of action. It follows that
the failure of the complaint to plead that plaintiff previously tried in earnest to reach a settlement out of
court renders it assailable for lack of cause of action, and it may be so
attacked at any stage of the case even on appeal.
While we agree that petitioner’s position represents a correct
statement of the general rule on the matter, we are nevertheless constrained to
hold that the Court of Appeals and the Court of First Instance committed no
error in refusing to dismiss the complaint, for on its face, the same involved
a claim for future support that under Article 2035 of the Civil Code of
the Philippines can not be subject of a valid compromise, and is, therefore,
outside the sphere of application of Article 222 of the Code upon which
petitioner relies. This appears from the
last proviso of said Article 222, already quoted. Even the answer below, in attacking the validity
of the marriage of plaintiff-respondent Luisa de la Rosa to defendant-petitioner
Cecilio Mendoza, poses a non-compromisable
issue.
“ART. 2035. No compromise upon the following questions shall
be valid:
“(1) x x x
“(2) The validity of a
marriage or a legal separation;
“(3) x x x
“(4) Future
support.”
Since no valid compromise is possible on these issues, a showing
of previous efforts to compromise them would be superfluous.
It may be that the complaint asks for both future support and support
in arrears, as petitioner contends. But,
the possibility of compromise on the latter does not negate the existence of a
valid cause of action for future support, to which Article 222 can not apply.
WHEREFORE, the decision of the Court of Appeals,
sustaining that of the court of origin denying dismissal of the complaint, is
affirmed. Costs
against petitioner.
SO ORDERED.
Concepcion, C.J., Dizon,
Regala, Makalintal, Bengzon, J.P., Zaldivar, and Castro, JJ., concur.
Sanchez, J., did not take part.