December 2010 - Philippine Supreme Court Decisions/Resolutions

Philippine Supreme Court Jurisprudence

FIRST DIVISION

G.R. No. 178221 : December 1, 2010

MAY D. AÑONUEVO, ALEXANDER BLEE DESANTIS and JOHN DESANTIS NERI, Petitioners,
v. INTESTATE ESTATE OF RODOLFO G. JALANDONI, represented by BERNARDINO G. JALANDONI as Special Administrator, Respondent.

D E C I S I O N

PEREZ, J.:

On appeal¹ is the Decision² dated 31 May 2007 of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. SP No. 00576. In the said decision, the Court of Appeals nullified, on certiorari , the Orders³ of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 40, of Negros Occidental (intestate court) allowing herein petitioners and their siblings⁴ to intervene in the estate proceedings of the late Rodolfo G. Jalandoni.⁵ The decretal portion of the decision of the appellate court reads:chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary

ACCORDINGLY, the petition for certiorari is hereby GRANTED, the assailed Orders dated July 2, 2004 and January 26, 2005, of the Regional Trial Court in Spec. Proc. No. 338 are hereby SET ASIDE and NULLIFIED, and a permanent injunction is hereby issued enjoining respondents [petitioners], their agents and anyone acting for and in their behalves, from enforcing the assailed Orders. No costs.^6cra

The antecedents are:chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary

Rodolfo G. Jalandoni (Rodolfo) died intestate on 20 December 1966.⁷ He died without issue.^8cra

On 28 April 1967, Bernardino G. Jalandoni (Bernardino), the brother of Rodolfo, filed a petition for the issuance of letters of administration⁹ with the Court of First Instance of Negros Occidental, to commence the judicial settlement of the latter's estate. The petition was docketed as Spec. Proc. No. 338 and is currently pending before the intestate court.^10cra

On 17 January 2003, the petitioners and their siblings filed a Manifestation¹¹ before the intestate court. In the Manifestation, they introduced themselves as the children of Sylvia Blee Desantis (Sylvia)-who, in turn, was revealed to be the daughter of Isabel Blee (Isabel) with one John Desantis.^12cra

The petitioners and their siblings contend that their grandmother-Isabel-was, at the time of Rodolfo's death, the legal spouse of the latter.¹³ For which reason, Isabel is entitled to a share in the estate of Rodolfo.

Seeking to enforce the right of Isabel, the petitioners and their siblings pray that they be allowed to intervene on her behalf in the intestate proceedings of the late Rodolfo G. Jalandoni.¹⁴ As it was, by the time the Manifestation was filed, both Sylvia and Isabel have already passed away with the former predeceasing the latter.^15cra

To support their cause, the petitioners and their siblings appended in their Manifestation, the following documents:chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary

a.) Two (2) marriage certificates between Isabel and Rodolfo;^16cra

b.) The birth certificate of their mother, Sylvia;¹⁷ and

c.) Their respective proof of births.^18cra

It is the assertion of the petitioners and their siblings that the foregoing pieces of evidence sufficiently establish that Isabel was the spouse of Rodolfo, and that they are her lawful representatives.

The respondent intestate estate of Rodolfo G. Jalandoni, now represented by Bernardino as its Special Administrator, however, begged to differ. It opposed the intervention on the ground that the petitioners and their siblings have failed to establish the status of Isabel as an heir of Rodolfo. The very evidence presented by the petitioners and their siblings showed that Isabel had a previous and subsisting marriage with John Desantis at the time she was purportedly married to Rodolfo.

In its Comment to the Manifestation,¹⁹ the respondent called attention to the entries in the birth certificate of Sylvia, who was born on 14 February 1946.²⁰ As it turned out, the record of birth of Sylvia states that she was a "legitimate" child of Isabel and John Desantis.²¹ The document also certifies the status of both Isabel and John Desantis as "married."²² The respondent posits that the foregoing entries, having been made in an official registry, constitute prima facie proof of a prior marriage between Isabel and John Desantis.^23cra

According to the respondent, Isabel's previous marriage, in the absence of any proof that it was dissolved, made her subsequent marriage with Rodolfo bigamous and void ab initio.^24cra

On 2 July 2004, the intestate court issued an order allowing the petitioners and their siblings to take part in the settlement proceedings.²⁵ The intestate court was convinced that the evidence at hand adequately establish Isabel's status as the legal spouse of Rodolfo and, by that token, permitted the petitioners and their siblings to intervene in the proceedings on her behalf.^26cra

The intestate court also held that the birth certificate of Sylvia was insufficient to prove that there was a previous marriage between Isabel and John Desantis.²⁷ It ventured on the possibility that the entries in the birth record of Sylvia regarding her legitimacy and the status of her parents, may have been made only in order to save Isabel and her family from the social condemnation of having a child out of wedlock.^28cra

The respondent sought for reconsideration, but was denied by the intestate court in its order dated 26 January 2006.²⁹ Undeterred, the respondent hoisted a petition for certiorari before the Court of Appeals.

On 31 May 2007, the Court of Appeals granted the petition and nullified the orders of the intestate court.^30cra

In coming to its conclusion, the Court of Appeals found that it was an error on the part of the intestate court to have disregarded the probative value of Sylvia's birth certificate.³¹ The appellate court, siding with the respondent, held that Sylvia's birth certificate serves as prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated-which includes the civil status of her parents.³² Hence, the previous marriage of Isabel with John Desantis should have been taken as established.

The Court of Appeals added that since the petitioners and their siblings failed to offer any other evidence proving that the marriage of Isabel with John Desantis had been dissolved by the time she was married to Rodolfo, it then follows that the latter marriage-the Isabel-Rodolfo union-is a nullity for being bigamous.³³ From that premise, Isabel cannot be considered as the legal spouse of Rodolfo. The petitioners and their siblings, therefore, failed to show that Isabel has any interest in the estate of Rodolfo.

Hence, the instant appeal.^34cra

The sole issue in this appeal is whether the Court of Appeals erred when it nullified the orders of the intestate court allowing the petitioners and their siblings to intervene in the settlement proceedings.

The petitioners answer in the affirmative. They proffer the following arguments:chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary

One. The Court of Appeals exceeded the limits of review under a writ of certiorari .³⁵ In nullifying the intestate court's order, the appellate court did not confine itself to the issue of whether the same was issued with grave abuse of discretion.³⁶ Rather, it chose to re-assess the evidence and touch upon the issue pertaining to Isabel's right to inherit from Rodolfo.^37cra

Had the appellate court limited itself to the issue of whether grave abuse of discretion exists, it would have found that the intestate court did not act whimsically or capriciously in issuing its assailed orders.³⁸ Grave abuse of discretion on the part of the intestate court is belied by the fact that the said orders may be supported by the two (2) marriage certificates between Isabel and Rodolfo.^39cra

Second. Assuming ex-gratia argumenti that the Court of Appeals was correct in addressing the issue of whether there was sufficient evidence to prove that Isabel has a right to inherit from Rodolfo, it nevertheless erred in finding that there was none.⁴⁰ A proper evaluation of the evidence at hand does not support the conclusion that Isabel had a previous marriage with John Desantis.^41cra

To begin with, the respondent was not able to produce any marriage certificate executed between Isabel and John Desantis.⁴² The conspicuous absence of such certificate can, in turn, only lend credibility to the position that no such marriage ever took place.

Moreover, the entries in the birth certificate of Sylvia do not carry the necessary weight to be able to prove a marriage between Isabel and John Desantis.⁴³ In assessing the probative value of such entries, the Court of Appeals should have taken note of a "typical" practice among unwed Filipino couples who, in order to "save face" and "not to embarrass their families," concoct the illusion of marriage and make it appear that a child begot by them is legitimate.^44cra

Since the alleged previous marriage of Isabel with John Desantis was not satisfactorily proven, the Court of Appeals clearly erred in finding that her marriage with Rodolfo is bigamous.

We are not impressed.

First Argument

The first argument raised by the petitioners is specious at best. The question of whether the intestate court gravely abused its discretion is intricately linked with the issue of whether there was sufficient evidence to establish Isabel's status as the legal spouse of Rodolfo.

A court's power to allow or deny intervention, albeit discretionary in nature, is circumscribed by the basic demand of sound judicial procedure that only a person with interest in an action or proceeding may be allowed to intervene.⁴⁵ Otherwise stated, a court has no authority to allow a person, who has no interest in an action or proceeding, to intervene therein.^46cra

Consequently, when a court commits a mistake and allows an uninterested person to intervene in a case-the mistake is not simply an error of judgment, but one of jurisdiction. In such event, the allowance is made in excess of the court's jurisdiction and can only be the product of an exercise of discretion gravely abused. That kind of error may be reviewed in a special civil action for certiorari .

Verily, the Court of Appeals was acting well within the limits of review under a writ of certiorari , when it examined the evidence proving Isabel's right to inherit from Rodolfo. The sufficiency or insufficiency of such evidence determines whether the petitioners and their siblings have successfully established Isabel's interest in Rodolfo's estate-which, as already mentioned, is an indispensable requisite to justify any intervention. Ultimately, the re-assessment of the evidence presented by the petitioners and their siblings will tell if the assailed orders of the intestate court were issued in excess of the latter's jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion.

We now proceed to the second argument of the petitioners.

Second Argument

The second argument of the petitioners is also without merit. We agree with the finding of the Court of Appeals that the petitioners and their siblings failed to offer sufficient evidence to establish that Isabel was the legal spouse of Rodolfo. The very evidence of the petitioners and their siblings negates their claim that Isabel has interest in Rodolfo's estate.

Contrary to the position taken by the petitioners, the existence of a previous marriage between Isabel and John Desantis was adequately established. This holds true notwithstanding the fact that no marriage certificate between Isabel and John Desantis exists on record.

While a marriage certificate is considered the primary evidence of a marital union, it is not regarded as the sole and exclusive evidence of marriage.⁴⁷ Jurisprudence teaches that the fact of marriage may be proven by relevant evidence other than the marriage certificate.⁴⁸ Hence, even a person's birth certificate may be recognized as competent evidence of the marriage between his parents.^49cra

In the present case, the birth certificate of Sylvia precisely serves as the competent evidence of marriage between Isabel and John Desantis. As mentioned earlier, it contains the following notable entries: (a) that Isabel and John Desantis were "married" and (b) that Sylvia is their "legitimate" child.⁵⁰ In clear and categorical language, Sylvia's birth certificate speaks of a subsisting marriage between Isabel and John Desantis.

Pursuant to existing laws,⁵¹ the foregoing entries are accorded prima facie weight. They are presumed to be true. Hence, unless rebutted by clear and convincing evidence, they can, and will, stand as proof of the facts attested.⁵² In the case at bench, the petitioners and their siblings offered no such rebuttal.

The petitioners did no better than to explain away the entries in Sylvia's birth certificate as untruthful statements made only in order to "save face."⁵³ They urge this Court to take note of a "typical" practice among unwed Filipino couples to concoct the illusion of marriage and make it appear that a child begot by them is legitimate. That, the Court cannot countenance.

The allegations of the petitioners, by themselves and unsupported by any other evidence, do not diminish the probative value of the entries. This Court cannot, as the petitioners would like Us to do, simply take judicial notice of a supposed folkway and conclude therefrom that the usage was in fact followed. It certainly is odd that the petitioners would themselves argue that the document on which they based their interest in intervention contains untruthful statements in its vital entries.

Ironically, it is the evidence presented by the petitioners and their siblings themselves which, properly appreciated, supports the finding that Isabel was, indeed, previously married to John Desantis. Consequently, in the absence of any proof that such marriage had been dissolved by the time Isabel was married to Rodolfo, the inescapable conclusion is that the latter marriage is bigamous and, therefore, void ab initio.

The inability of the petitioners and their siblings to present evidence to prove that Isabel's prior marriage was dissolved results in a failure to establish that she has interest in the estate of Rodolfo. Clearly, an intervention by the petitioners and their siblings in the settlement proceedings cannot be justified. We affirm the Court of Appeals.

WHEREFORE, the instant appeal is DENIED. Accordingly, the decision dated 31 May 2007 of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. SP No. 00576 is hereby AFFIRMED.

Costs against the petitioners.

SO ORDERED.

JOSE PORTUGAL PEREZ
Associate Justice

WE CONCUR:

RENATO C. CORONA
Chief Justice
Chairperson

TERESITA J. LEONARDO-DE CASTRO*
Associate Justice

DIOSDADO M. PERALTA**
Associate Justice

ROBERTO A. ABAD***
Associate Justice

C E R T I F I C A T I O N

Pursuant to Section 13, Article VIII of the Constitution, it is hereby certified that the conclusions in the above Decision were reached in consultation before the case was assigned to the writer of the opinion of the Court.

RENATO C. CORONA
Chief Justice