On January 13, 1983, spouses Jose A. Ros and Estrella Aguete filed a complaint for the annulment of the Real Estate Mortgage and all legal proceedings taken thereunder against PNB, Laoag Branch before the Court of First Instance, Ilocos Norte docketed as Civil Case No. 7803.
The complaint was later amended and was raffled to the Regional Trial Court, Branch 15, Laoag City.
The averments in the complaint disclosed that plaintiff-appellee Joe A. Ros obtained a loan of P115,000.00 from PNB Laoag Branch on October 14, 1974 and as security for the loan, plaintiff-appellee Ros executed a real estate mortgage involving a parcel of land - Lot No. 9161 of the Cadastral Survey of Laoag, with all the improvements thereon described under Transfer Certificate of Title No. T-9646.
Upon maturity, the loan remained outstanding. As a result, PNB instituted extrajudicial foreclosure proceedings on the mortgaged property. After the extrajudicial sale thereof, a Certificate of Sale was issued in favor of PNB, Laoag as the highest bidder. After the lapse of one (1) year without the property being redeemed, the property was consolidated and registered in the name of PNB, Laoag Branch on August 10, 1978.
Claiming that she (plaintiff-appellee Estrella Aguete) has no knowledge of the loan obtained by her husband nor she consented to the mortgage instituted on the conjugal property - a complaint was filed to annul the proceedings pertaining to the mortgage, sale and consolidation of the property - interposing the defense that her signatures affixed on the documents were forged and that the loan did not redound to the benefit of the family.
In its answer, PNB prays for the dismissal of the complaint for lack of cause of action, and insists that it was plaintiffs-appellees' own acts [of]
omission/connivance that bar them from recovering the subject property on the ground of estoppel, laches, abandonment and prescription.4
WHEREFORE, premises considered, judgment is hereby rendered:
1. DECLARING the Deed of Real Estate Mortgage (Exhibit "C") and the subsequent foreclosure proceedings conducted thereon NULL and VOID;
2. ORDERING the Register of Deeds of the City of Laoag to cancel TCT No. T-15276 in the name of defendant PNB and revert the same in the name of plaintiffs spouses Joe Ros and Estrella Aguete;
3. ORDERING defendant to vacate and turnover the possession of the premises of the property in suit to the plaintiffs; and
4. ORDERING defendant to pay plaintiffs attorney's fee and litigation expenses in the sum of TEN THOUSAND (P10,000.00) PESOS.
No pronouncement as to costs.
SO ORDERED.6
I. The Honorable Court of Appeals erred in not giving weight to the findings and conclusions of the trial court, and in reversing and setting aside such findings and conclusions without stating specific contrary evidence;
II. The Honorable Court of Appeals erred in declaring the real estate mortgage valid;
III. The Honorable Court of Appeals erred in declaring, without basis, that the loan contracted by husband Joe A. Ros with respondent Philippine National Bank - Laoag redounded to the benefit of his family, aside from the fact that such had not been raised by respondent in its appeal.14
Art. 153. The following are conjugal partnership property:
(1) That which is acquired by onerous title during the marriage at the expense of the common fund, whether the acquisition be for the partnership, or for only one of the spouses;
(2) That which is obtained by the industry, or work or as salary of the spouses, or of either of them;
(3) The fruits, rents or interest received or due during the marriage, coming from the common property or from the exclusive property of each spouse.
Art. 160. All property of the marriage is presumed to belong to the conjugal partnership, unless it be proved that it pertains exclusively to the husband or to the wife.
Art. 161. The conjugal partnership shall be liable for:
(1) All debts and obligations contracted by the husband for the benefit of the conjugal partnership, and those contracted by the wife, also for the same purpose, in the cases where she may legally bind the partnership;
(2) Arrears or income due, during the marriage, from obligations which constitute a charge upon property of either spouse or of the partnership;
(3) Minor repairs or for mere preservation made during the marriage upon the separate property of either the husband or the wife; major repairs shall not be charged to the partnership;
(4) Major or minor repairs upon the conjugal partnership property;
(5) The maintenance of the family and the education of the children of both husband and wife, and of legitimate children of one of the spouses;
(6) Expenses to permit the spouses to complete a professional, vocational or other course.
Art. 166. Unless the wife has been declared a non compos mentis or a spendthrift, or is under civil interdiction or is confined in a leprosarium, the husband cannot alienate or encumber any real property of the conjugal partnership without the wife's consent. If she refuses unreasonably to give her consent, the court may compel her to grant the same.
Art. 173. The wife may, during the marriage, and within ten years from the transaction questioned, ask the courts for the annulment of any contract of the husband entered into without her consent, when such consent is required, or any act or contract of the husband which tends to defraud her or impair her interest in the conjugal partnership property. Should the wife fail to exercise this right, she or her heirs after the dissolution of the marriage may demand the value of the property fraudulently alienated by the husband.
A notarized document carries the evidentiary weight conferred upon it with respect to its due execution, and it has in its favor the presumption of regularity which may only be rebutted by evidence so clear, strong and convincing as to exclude all controversy as to the falsity of the certificate. Absent such, the presumption must be upheld. The burden of proof to overcome the presumption of due execution of a notarial document lies on the one contesting the same. Furthermore, an allegation of forgery must be proved by clear and convincing evidence, and whoever alleges it has the burden of proving the same.21
Joe A. Ros in legal effect admitted in the complaint that the signatures of his wife in the questioned documents are forged, incriminating himself to criminal prosecution. If he were alive today, he would be prosecuted for forgery. This strengthens the testimony of his wife that her signatures on the questioned documents are not hers.
In filing the complaint, it must have been a remorse of conscience for having wronged his family; in forging the signature of his wife on the questioned documents; in squandering the P115,000.00 loan from the bank for himself, resulting in the foreclosure of the conjugal property; eviction of his family therefrom; and, exposure to public contempt, embarassment and ridicule.22
If the husband himself is the principal obligor in the contract, i.e., he directly received the money and services to be used in or for his own business or his own profession, that contract falls within the term "x x x x obligations for the benefit of the conjugal partnership." Here, no actual benefit may be proved. It is enough that the benefit to the family is apparent at the signing of the contract. From the very nature of the contract of loan or services, the family stands to benefit from the loan facility or services to be rendered to the business or profession of the husband. It is immaterial, if in the end, his business or profession fails or does not succeed. Simply stated, where the husband contracts obligations on behalf of the family business, the law presumes, and rightly so, that such obligation will redound to the benefit of the conjugal partnership.26
Endnotes:
* Designated additional member per Special Order No. 978 dated 30 March 2011.
1 Under Rule 45 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure.
2 Rollo, pp. 26-36. Penned by Associate Justice Eugenio S. Labitoria, with Associate Justices Eliezer R. De Los Santos and Jose C. Reyes, Jr., concurring.
3 Ros passed away on 26 September 1999. He was substituted by Aguete and their ten children: Joe John, Prospero, Sonia Jacinta, Rossano, Luisito, Pilar Estrella, Leoncio, Geraldine and Donato, who are all surnamed Ros, and Ingrid Ros-Bautista. Id. at 10.
4 Id. at 27-28.
5 Id. at 37-46.
6 Id. at 46.
7 Records, p. 346.
8 Id. at 348.
9 Id. at 350-355.
10 Id. at 373-375.
11 Id. at 385-388.
12 Id. at 392-393.
13 Rollo, pp. 26-36.
14 Id. at 14.
15 TSN, 8 October 1986, pp. 15-17.
16 Rollo, p. 55.
17 Vera-Cruz v. Calderon, G.R. No. 160748, 14 July 2004, 434 SCRA 534 citing Heirs of Ignacia Aguilar-Reyes v. Spouses Mijares, G.R. No. 143826, 28 August 2000, 410 SCRA 97.
18 See Section 30 of Rule 132 of the Rules of Court.
19 Pan Pacific Industrial Sales Co., Inc. v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 125283, 10 February 2006, 482 SCRA 164, 175 citing Sy Tiangco v. Pablo and Apao, 59 Phil. 119, 122 (1933).
20 CA rollo, p. 134.
21 Pan Pacific Industrial Sales Co., Inc. v. Court of Appeals, supra at 174-175 (citations omitted).
22 Records, p. 327.
23 Rollo, p. 52.
24 TSN, 8 October 1986, pp. 23-24.
25 Perez v. Lantin, 132 Phil. 120 (1968) citing Javier v. Osmeña, 34 Phil. 336 (1916).
26 Ayala Investment & Development Corp. v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 118305, 12 February 1998, 286 SCRA 272, 281-282.