SECOND DIVISION
G.R. No. 228617, September 20, 2017
PLANTERS DEVELOPMENT BANK, Petitioner, v. SPOUSES VICTORIANO AND MELANIE RAMOS, Respondents.
D E C I S I O N
REYES, JR., J.:
Before the Court is a Petition for Review on Certiorari under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court, assailing the Decision1 dated July 5, 2016 and Resolution2 dated December 7, 2016 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. SP No. 140264.
I. The Venue is Improperly LaidUnyielding, PDB filed a motion for reconsideration of the Omnibus Order dated November 17, 2014, instead of filing an answer to the complaint. This prompted Spouses Ramos to file a motion to declare PDB in default. Subsequently, in an Order14 dated February 20, 2015, the RTC denied both motions, ratiocinating thus:
Pursuant to autonomy of contract, Venue can be waived. Rule 5, Section 4(d) of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure allows parties to validly agree in writing before the filing of the action on the exclusive venue thereof. Indeed, on the defendants they have the contract where the venue allegedly agreed upon by them with the plaintiffs is Makati City. However, one of the contentions of the plaintiffs is that the contracts between them and the defendants take the form of an adhesion contract (par. 20, Complaint). As such, this Court has to apply Section 1, Rule 4 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure regarding the venue of real actions to avoid ruling on the merits without any evidence that would sufficiently support the same.
II. The Complaint Fails to State a Cause of Action.
With such an issue raised, the Court examined the records and it has to tell the defendants that in civil cases before the Court orders the issuance of summons, it looks on whether or not the facts alleged on the Complaint are sufficient to constitute a cause of action and not whether the allegations of fact are true. Hence, as summons were issued in this case, the Court had already found that the allegations in the Complaint are sufficient to constitute a cause of action.
x x x x
FOREGOING CONSIDERED, the Motion to Dismiss is hereby DENIED.
x x x x
SO ORDERED.13
Necessarily, the defendants were allowed to Isle Motion to Dismiss before filing an Answer or responsive pleading. As a consequence of the Motion to Dismiss that the defendants filed, the running of the period during which the rules required her to file her Answer was deemed suspended. When the Court denied the Motion to Dismiss, therefore the defendants had the balance of the period for filing an Answer under Section 4, Rule 16 within which to file the same but in no case less than five days, computed from the receipt of the notice of denial of the Motion to Dismiss. x x x xAggrieved, PDB filed a petition for certiorari with the CA, imputing grave abuse of discretion on the RTC for denying its motion to dismiss, despite the fact that the venue was clearly improperly laid.
x x x x
However, after the Court denied the Motion to Dismiss, the defendants filed Motion for Reconsideration which is not precluded by the rules. Only after this Court shall have denied it would the defendants become bound to file the Answer to the Complaint. It is only if the defendants failed to file Answer after the period given by the foregoing rules would the plaintiff be entitled to have the defendants be declared in default. This was the same ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Narciso v. Garcia, G.R. No. 196877, November 12, 2012.
With regard to the Motion for Reconsideration of the Omnibus Order dated November 17, 2014, there being no new arguments presented, the Court finds no cogent reason to reconsider and reverse the said Omnibus Order.
WHEREFORE, the Motion to Declare Defendants in Default and the Motion for Reconsideration are hereby DENIED.
SO ORDERED.15
The order of the public respondent in denying the motion to dismiss and the consequent denial of the motion for reconsideration is correct and judicious. Petitioner anchors its claim on the validity of the mortgage, and thereby the provisional therein on venue must be upheld. On the other hand, respondents anchor its claim on the invalidity of the mortgage, and thereby the complaint is filed in the proper venue. Clearly, no valid judgment can be passed upon the allegations of both parties.17PDB filed a motion for reconsideration but the CA denied the same in its Resolution dated December 7, 2016, the dispositive portion of which reads, thus:
Thus, having found no grave abuse on the part of the public respondent in denying the motion to dismiss and the resulting denial of the motion for reconsideration, We find no cogent reason to disturb or modify the assailed Decision. What the petitioners should have done was to file an answer to the petition filed in the trial court, proceed to the hearing and appeal the decision of the court if adverse to them.18
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the petition is DENIED. The Omnibus Order dated 17 November 2014 and the Order dated 20 February 2015 is hereby AFFIRMED in TOTO.
IT IS SO ORDERED.19
WHEREFORE, in view of the foregoing, the motion for reconsideration is hereby DENIED.Unyielding, PDB filed the present petition with this Court, reiterating its claim that the CA erred in affirming the order of the RTC, which denied the motion to dismiss despite the improper venue of the case. It argues that since there is a stipulation on venue, the same should govern the parties.
IT IS SO ORDERED.20
Based on the foregoing, the general rules on venue admit of exceptions in Section 4 thereof, i.e., where a specific rule or law provides otherwise, or when the parties agreed in writing before the filing of the action on the exclusive venue thereof.RULE 4
Venue of Actions
Section 1. Venue of real actions. — Actions affecting title to or possession of real property, or interest therein, shall be commenced and tried in the proper court which has jurisdiction over the area wherein the real property involved, or a portion thereof, is situated.
Forcible entry and detainer actions shall be commenced and tried in the municipal trial court of the municipality or city wherein the real property involved, or a portion thereof, is situated.
Section 2. Venue of personal actions. — All other actions may be commenced and tried where the plaintiff or any of the principal plaintiffs resides, or where the defendant or any of the principal defendants resides, or in the case of a non-resident defendant where he may be found, at the election of the plaintiff.
x x x x
Section 4. When Rule not applicable. — This Rule shall not apply.
(a) In those cases where a specific rule or law provides otherwise; or
(b) Where the parties have validly agreed in writing before the filing of the action on the exclusive venue thereof
Since convenience is the raison d'etre of the rules of venue, it is easy to accept the proposition that normally, venue stipulations should be deemed permissive merely, and that interpretation should be adopted which most serves the parties' convenience. In other words, stipulations designating venues other than those assigned by Rule 4 should be interpreted as designed to make it more convenient for the parties to institute actions arising from or in relation to their agreements; that is to say, as simply adding to or expanding the venues indicated in said Rule 4.In view of the predilection to view a stipulation on venue as merely permissive, the parties must therefore employ words in the contract that would clearly evince a contrary intention. In Spouses Lantin v. Judge Lantion,24 the Court emphasized that "the mere stipulation on the venue of an action is not enough to preclude parties from bringing a case in other venues. The parties must be able to show that such stipulation is exclusive. In the absence of qualifying or restrictive words, the stipulation should be deemed as merely an agreement on an additional forum, not as limiting venue to the specified place."25
On the other hand, because restrictive stipulations are in derogation of this general policy, the language of the parties must be so clear and categorical as to leave no doubt of their intention to limit the place or places, or to fix places other than those indicated in Rule 4, for their actions. x x x.23
18. In the event of suit arising from out of or in connection with this mortgage and/or the promissory note/s secured by this mortgage, the parties hereto agree to bring their causes of action exclusively in the proper court/s of Makati, Metro Manila, the MORTGAGOR waiving for this purpose any other venue.26 (Emphasis ours)In Spouses Lantin, the Court ruled that "the words exclusively and waiving for this purpose any other venue are restrictive."27 Therefore, the employment of the same language in the subject mortgages signifies the clear intention of the parties to restrict the venue of any action or suit that may arise out of the mortgage to a particular place, to the exclusion of all other jurisdictions.
Parties may by stipulation waive the legal venue and such waiver is valid and effective being merely a personal privilege, which is not contrary to public policy or prejudicial to third persons. It is a general principle that a person may renounce any right which the law gives unless such renunciation would be against public policy.30In the present case, Spouses Ramos had validly waived their right to choose the venue for any suit or action arising from the mortgages or promissory notes when they agreed to the limit the same to Makati City only and nowhere else. True enough, the stipulation on the venue was couched in a language showing the intention of the parties to restrict the filing of any suit or action to the designated place only. It is crystal clear that the intention was not just to make the said place an additional forum or venue but the only jurisdiction where any suit or action pertaining to the mortgage contracts may be filed. There being no showing that such waiver was invalid or that the stipulation on venue was against public policy, the agreement of the parties should be upheld. It is therefore a grave abuse of discretion on the part of the RTC to deny the motion to dismiss filed by PDB on the ground of improper venue, especially when the said issue had been raised at the most opportune time, that is, within the time for but before the filing of an answer. The CA should have given this matter a more serious consideration and not simply brushed it aside.
[I]n cases where the complaint assails only the terms, conditions, and/or coverage of a written instrument and not its validity, the exclusive venue stipulation contained therein shall still be binding on the parties, and thus, the complaint may be properly dismissed on the ground of improper venue. Conversely, therefore, a complaint directly assailing the validity of the written instrument itself should not be bound by the exclusive venue stipulation contained therein and should be filed in accordance with the general rules on venue. To be sure, it would be inherently consistent for a complaint of this nature to recognize the exclusive venue stipulation when it, in fact, precisely assails the validity of the instrument in which such stipulation is contained.34Spouses Ramos impliedly admitted the authenticity and due execution of the mortgage contracts. They do not claim to have been duped into signing the mortgage contracts or that the same was not their free and voluntary act. While they may have qualms over some of the terms stated therein, the same do not pertain to the lack of any of the essential elements of a contract that would render it void altogether. Such being the case, the stipulation on venue stands and should have been upheld by RTC and the CA.
Endnotes:
1 Penned by Associate Justice Danton Q. Bueser with Associate Justices Apolinario D. Bruselas, Jr., and Renato C. Francisco, concurring; rollo, pp. 26-39.
2 Id. at 40-44.
3 Id. at 183.
4 Id. at 72-74.
5 Id. at 184.
6 Id. at 76-80.
7 Id. at 28.
8 Id. at 181-199.
9 Id. at 50-65.
10 Id. at 51.
11 Id. at 54.
12 Id. at 45-46.
13 Id.
14 Id. at 47-49.
15 Id. at 48-49.
16 Id. at 26-39.
17 Id. at 33.
18 Id. at 38.
19 Id. at 38-39.
20 Id. at 44.
21Unimasters Conglomeration Inc. v. Court of Appeals, 335 Phil. 415 (1997).
22 Id. at 424-425.
23 Id.
24 531 Phil. 318, (2006).
25 Id. at 322-323.
26Rollo, pp. 73, 77.
27 Supra note 24, at 323.
28 Art. 1159. Obligations arising from contracts have the force of law between the contracting parties and should be complied with in good faith.
29Rollo, pp. 38-39.
30Unimasters Conglomeration Inc. v. Court of Appeals, supra note 21, at 424.
31Rollo, pp. 88.
32 Id. at 89.
33 750 Phil. 891 (2015).
34 Id. at 899.