SECOND DIVISION
G.R. No. 195669, May 30, 2016
BRADFORD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, INC., Petitioner, v. DANTE ANDO, ABENIGO AUGIS, EDGAR CARDONES, ZACARIAS GUTIERREZ, CORNELIO IBARRA, JR., ZENAIDA IBARRA, TEOFILOI LIRASAN, EUNICE LIRASAN, RUTH MISSION, DOLLY ROSALES & EUNICE TAMBANGAN, IN THEIR CAPACITIES AS MANDAUE BRADFORD CHURCH COUNCIL MEMBERS; MANDAUE BRADFORD CHURCH; AND UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST IN THE PHILIPPINES, INC., Respondents.
D E C I S I O N
DEL CASTILLO, J.:
Well-settled is the rule that the filing of the summary action for unlawful detainer during the pendency of an action for recovery of ownership of the same parcel of Land subject of the summary action of unlawful detainer does not amount to forum-shopping.
Assailed in this Petition for Review on Certiorari1 are the December 10, 2010 Decision2 of the Court of Appeals (CA) which dismissed the Petition in CA-GR. SP No. 01935 and its January 26, 2011 Resolution3 which denied petitioner's
Motion for Reconsideration thereon.4
Proceedings before the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC)
Before Branch 2 of the MTCC of Mandaue City, the petitioner Bradford United Church of Christ, Inc. (BUCCI) filed a Complaint for unlawful detainer and damages against herein respondents Dante Ando, Abenigo Augis, Edgar Cardones, Zacarias Gutierrez, Cornelio Ibarra, Jr., Zenaida Ibarra, Teofilo Lirasan, Eunice Lirasan, Ruth Mission, Dolly Resales and Eunice Tambangan, in their capacities as Members of the Mandaue Bradford Church Council, the Mandaue Bradford Church (MBC), and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Inc. (UCCPI). This Complaint was docketed thereat as Civil Case No. 4936.5
In an Order dated February 9, 2005, the MTCC directed BUCCI to show cause why its Complaint should not be dismissed for its failure to comply with the requirement on the certification against forum-shopping under Rule 7, Section 5 of the Rules of Court.6 According to the MTCC, BUCCI failed to mention in its certification against non-forum-shopping a complete statement of the present status of another case concerning the recovery of ownership of certain parcels of land earlier filed before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) by the UCCPI and the MBC against BUCCI. (Civil Case No. MAN-1669, captioned "United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Inc. and Mandaue Bradford Church, Plaintiff v. Bradford United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Defendant, for Recovery of Ownership with Preliminary Injunction".)7
The recovery of ownership case also involved Lot 3-F, the same parcel of land subject of the unlawful detainer case, and yet another parcel of land, denominated simply as Lot 3-C. On October 13, 1997, the RTC of Mandaue City-rendered its judgment in the recovery of ownership case against therein plaintiffs UCCPI and MBC and in favor of therein defendant BUCCI. On November 19, 1997, both the MBC and the UCCPI filed a motion for reconsideration of said decision but their motion was denied by Order of March 10, 2005.8
Meanwhile, the MTCC Branch 2 of Mandaue City, issued an Order9 dated March 31,2005 dismissing the unlawful detainer case with prejudice for BUCCI's failure to comply with the rule on certification against forum shopping. BUCCI appealed to the RTC which was docketed as Civil Case No. MAN-5126-A.
Proceedings before the Regional Trial Court
In its Decision10 of March 13, 2006 in the unlawful detainer case, the RTC of Mandaue City, Branch 56, affirmed the MTCC's dismissal thereof, with prejudice. The RTC held that BUCCI was guilty of forum-shopping because it failed to certify under oath that there was another action involving the same parties and the same Lot 3-F still pending before another court.
BUCCI moved for reconsideration but it was denied in the Order11 of June 23,2006.
Aggrieved, BUCCI filed a Petition for Review12 before the CA docketed as CA-GR. SP No. 01935.
Proceedings before the Court of Appeals
In its Decision13 of December 10, 2010, the CA held that the MTCC and the RTC correctly dismissed the unlawful detainer case. The CA opined that whatever decision mat would be rendered in the action for recovery of ownership of the parcels of land in question would amount to res judicata in the unlawful detainer case. The CA ruled that identity of the causes of action does not mean absolute identity, and that the test lies not in the form of action but in whether the same set of facts or evidence would support both causes of action. Furthermore, the CA found that BUCCI indeed failed to state in the certification against forum-shopping in the unlawful detainer case a complete statement of the status of the land ownership recovery case; and that such failure impinges against Section 5, Rule 7 of the Rules of Court. Accordingly, the CA dismissed BUCCI's Petition for Review. The CA likewise denied BUCCI's Motion for Reconsideration in its Resolution dated January 26, 2011.14
Hence, BUCCI is now before this Court through this Petition for Review on Certiorari.15
WHETHER XXX THE COURT OF APPEALS IS CORRECT IN HOLDING THAT PETITIONER IS GUILTY OF FORUM[-] SHOPPING FOR FILING THE CASE FOR EJECTMENT OR UNLAWFUL DETAINER (CIVIL CASE NO. 4936) DURING THE PENDENCY OF THE [ACTION FOR] RECOVERY OF OWNERSHIP XXX (CIVIL CASE NO. MAN-1669)[,] AND FOR FAILING TO [DISCLOSE] THE PENDENCY OF THE [LATTER CIVIL CASE NO. MAN-1669] IN THE CERTIFICATION OF NON[-] FORUM[-]SHOPPING IN THE [FORMER CIVIL CASE NO. 4936].16
SEC, 5. Certification against forum[-]shopping. - The plaintiff or principal party shall certify under oath in the complaint or other initiatory pleading asserting a claim for relief, or in a sworn certification annexed thereto and simultaneously filed therewith: (a) that he has not theretofore commenced any action or filed any claim involving the same issues in any court, tribunal or quasi-judicial agency and, to the best of his knowledge, no such other action or claim is pending therein; (b) if there is such other pending action or claim, a complete statement of the present status thereof; and (c) if he should thereafter learn that the same or similar action or claim has been filed or is pending, he shall report that fact within five (5) days therefrom to the court wherein his aforesaid complaint or initiatory pleading has been filed.
Failure to comply with the foregoing requirements shall not be curable by mere amendment of the complaint or other initiatory pleading but shall be cause for the dismissal of the case without prejudice, unless otherwise provided, upon motion and after hearing. The submission, of a false certification or non-compliance with any of the undertakings therein shall constitute indirect contempt of court, without prejudice to the corresponding administrative and criminal actions. If the acts of the party or his counsel clearly constitute willful and deliberate forum[-]shopping, the same shall be ground for summary dismissal with prejudice and shall constitute direct contempt, as well as a cause for administrative sanctions, (n)
xxx The essence of forum-shopping is the filing of multiple suits involving the same parties for the same cause of action, either simultaneously or successively, for the purpose of obtaining a favorable judgment. It exists where the elements of litis pendentia are present or where a final judgment in one case will amount to res judicata in another. On the other hand, for litis pendentia to be a ground for the dismissal of an action, the following requisites must concur: (a) identity of parties, or at least such parties who represent the same interests in both actions; (b) identity of rights asserted and relief prayed for, the relief being founded on the same facts; and (c) the identity with respect to the two preceding particulars in the two cases is such that any judgment that may be rendered in the pending case, regardless of which party is successful, would amount to res judicata in the other case.19
Petitioner and respondent are the same parties in the annulment and ejectment cases. The issue of ownership was likewise being contended, with same set of evidence being presented in both cases. However, it cannot be inferred that a judgment in the ejectment case would amount to res judicata in the annulment case, and vice-versa.
The issue is hardly a novel one. It has been laid to rest by heaps of cases iterating the principle that a judgment rendered in an ejectment case shall not bar an action between the same parties respecting title to the land or building nor shall it be conclusive as to the facts therein found in a case between the same parties upon a different cause of action involving possession.
It bears emphasizing that in ejectment suits, the only issue for resolution is the physical or material possession of the property involved, independent of any claim of ownership by any of the party litigants. However, the issue of ownership may be provisionally ruled upon for the sole purpose of determining who is entitled to possession de facto. Therefore, the provisional determination of ownership in the ejectment case cannot be clothed with finality.
Corollarily, the incidental issue of whether a pending action for annulment would abate an ejectment suit must be resolved in the negative.
A pending action involving ownership of the same property does not bar the filing or consideration of an ejectment suit, nor suspend the proceedings. This is so because an ejectment case is simply designed to summarily restore physical possession of a piece of land or building to one who has been illegally or forcibly deprived thereof, without prejudice to the settlement of the parties' opposing claims of juridical possession in appropriate proceedings.22
There is also no identity of causes of action between Civil Case Nos. 116 and 120. xxx
xxxx
The distinction between a summary action of ejectment and a plenary action for recovery of possession and/or ownership of the land is well-settled in our jurisprudence. What really distinguishes an action for unlawful detainer from a possessory action (action publiciand) and from a reinvindicatory action (action reinvindicatoria) is that the first is limited to the question of possession de facto. An unlawful detainer suit (action interdictal) together with forcible entry are the two fonns of an ejectment suit that may be filed to recover possession of real property. Aside from the summary action of ejectment, action publiciana or the plenary action to recover the right of possession and action reinvindicatoria or the action to recover ownership which includes recovery of possession, make up the three kinds of actions to judicially recover possession.
Further, it bears stressing that the issue on the applicability of res judicata to the circumstance obtaining in this case is far from novel and not without precedence. In Vda. de Villanueva v. Court of Appeals, we held that a judgment in a case for forcible entry which involved only the issue of physical possession (possession de facto) and not ownership will not bar an action between the same parties respecting title or ownership, such as an accion reinvindicatoria or a suit to recover possession of a parcel of land as an element of ownership, because there is no identity of causes of action between the two.26
Endnotes:
1Rollo, pp. 3-46.
2 Id. at 47-55; penned by Associate Justice Socorro B. Inting and concurred in by Executive Justice Portia A. Hormachuelos and Associate Justice Edwin D. Sorongon.
3 Id. at 63-64.
4 CA rollo, pp. 118-125. 5
5Rollo, p. 48.
6 Id.
7 Id.
8 CA rollo, p. 64; penned by Presiding Judge Augustine A. Vestil.
9 Id. at 42-44.
10Rollo, pp. 56-61.
11 Id. at 62,
12 CA rollo, pp. 2-27.
13Rollo, pp. 47-55.
14 Id. at 63-64.
15 Id. at 3-46.
16 Id. at 16-17.
17 Id. at 44.
18Spouses Melo v. Court of Appeals, 376 Phil. 204, 213-214 (1999): Spouses Ong v. Court of Appeals, 433 Phil. 490, 501-502 (2002).
19Spouses Melo v. Court of Appeals, id. at 211.
20Custodio v. Corrado, 479 Phil. 415, 424 (2004).
21 605 Phil. 523 (2009).
22 Id. at 530-531.
23Rollo, p. 54.
24 Id. at 14.cralawred
25Custodio v. Corrado, supra note 19.