Philippine Supreme Court Jurisprudence


Philippine Supreme Court Jurisprudence > Year 1967 > March 1967 Decisions > G.R. No. L-23888 March 18, 1967 - FRANCISCO C. MANABAT v. LAGUNA FEDERATION OF FACOMAS, INC., ET AL.:




PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

EN BANC

[G.R. No. L-23888. March 18, 1967.]

FRANCISCO C. MANABAT, in his capacity as Provincial Sheriff of Laguna, Branch I, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LAGUNA FEDERATION OF FACOMAS, INC., ET AL., Defendants-Appellees. FLORENTlNO CAYCO and JOSE FERNANDEZ ZORILLA, Defendants-Appellants.

E. Voltaire Garcia, for Defendants-Appellants.

Enrique Villanueva and Felixberto V. Castillo for Plaintiff-Appellee.


SYLLABUS


1. CONCURRENCE AND PREFERENCE OF CREDITS; CREDITS REFERRING TO THE SAME SPECIFIC IMMOVABLE PROPERTY; PAYMENT; GENERAL RULE. — Where credits refer to the same specific real property or real rights, the same shall be paid pro rata, after payment of the taxes and assessments upon the immovable property or real rights. (Art. 2249 N.C.C.)

2. ID.; ID.; CREDITS ANNOTATED BY ATTACHMENTS OR EXECUTIONS; PAYMENT OF; EXCEPTION. — For purposes of satisfying several credits annotated by attachments or executions, the rule is still preference according to priority of the credits in the order of the dates of registration. (Art. 2242, Sec. 7, N.C.C.)


D E C I S I O N


BENGZON, J.P., J.:


In a suit filed by Laguna Federation of Facomas, Inc. against Nieves M. Vda. de Roxas, 1 a judgment for the plaintiff was rendered. And pursuant to it, a writ of execution was issued on February 8, 1960, by virtue of which Francisco Manabat, the provincial sheriff, sold at public auction on November 24, 1960 all rights, titles and interests of Nieves M. Vda. de Roxas in ten (10) parcels of land for a total price of P37,000.

Discovering, however, that the parcels of land sold were subject to registered liens such as writs of execution and attachment annotated at the back of the respective title certificates, the sheriff instituted an action for interpleader on February 21, 1961 in the same Court of First Instance of Laguna, 2 for the different creditors or lienholders to litigate among themselves and determine their rights to the P37,000 proceeds of the sale.

As a result, the following pertinent claims were thereafter asserted:chanrob1es virtual 1aw library

Date of Re-

Nature of gistration of Amount

Claimant Annotation Credit of Claim

1. Laguna Federation Attachment October 10, 1958 P17,448.00

of Facomas, Inc. writ in CFI Laguna Case

SC-152

2. Valeriana Lim-aco Attachment October 13, 1958 3,735.00

de Almeda writ in CFI Laguna Case SC-153

3. Cosmopolitan Insur- Attachment October 20, 1958 12,650.00

ance Co., Inc. writ in CFI Manila Case No. 38118

4. Florentino Cayco Attachment October 29,1958 26,787.50

and Jose Fernan writ in CFI

dez Zorilla Rizal Case

No. 5238

5. Victoria Dimayuga Attachment May 23, 1960 12,500.00

writ in CFI

Manila Case

No. 3878.

6. Jose Marfori and Execution writ September 26, 1960 410.00

Josefina Reyes in CFI Cavite

Case No. 6480-R.

7. Pastor Canillas Attachment November 23, 1960 25,552.00

writ in CFI Manila Case No. 38872.

8. Trinidad Calatin Execution writ November 29, 1960 3,450.00

in CFI Laguna Case No. B-191.

9. Rosauro Taningco Reg. of Deed Not registered 9,000.00

and Simplicio denied registration

Ramos of deed of mortgage;

registrability be

came object of suit

in Supreme Court,

L-15242. 3

After stipulation of facts and submission of documentary evidence by the parties, the Court of First Instance ruled, in its decision of December 6, 1961, that the aforementioned defendants-claimants are entitled to the proceeds of the sale in the order of preference in accordance with the dates of the registration of their credits.

From said judgment only Florentino Cayco and Jose Fernandez Zorilla appealed. 4 And finding that it involves a question purely of law, the Court of Appeals, by resolution of November 12, 1964, has certified their appeal to Us.

The only issue presented is whether the rule to follow in the satisfaction of the credits involved is that of preference in the order of dates of registration, as held by the court a quo, or distribution pro rata, as appellants maintain.

Appellants’ reasoning is that this is an instance of several credits referring to the same specific real property; and that the rule in such case is to satisfy all the aforesaid credits pro rata, following Article 2249 of the Civil Code:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"ART. 2249. If there are two or more credits with respect to the same specific real property or real rights, they shall be satisfied pro rata, after the payment of the taxes and assessments upon the immovable property or real right."cralaw virtua1aw library

The above provision of the New Civil Code altered the set-up under the old one 5 in that while previously the rule provided for was priority of payment in regard to credits referring to the same specific real property, now the general rule is pro rata.

Nonetheless, even under the new system, not all credits referring to the same specific real property come under the pro rata rule. Article 2249 itself, supra, expressly provides that taxes and assessments upon the real property are to be paid first.

Similarly, the rule of pro rata does not apply to the credits mentioned in subpar. (7) of Article 2242 of the Civil Code.

"ART 2242. With reference to specific immovable property and real rights of the debtor, the following claims, mortgages and liens shall be preferred, and shall constitute an encumbrance on the immovable or real right:chanrob1es virtual 1aw library

x       x       x


"(7) Credits annotated in the Registry of Property, in virtue of a judicial order, by attachments or executions, upon the property affected, and only as to later credits;"

It being expressly provided that said credits are preferred "only as to later credits", it follows that the same limitation applies as to their preference among themselves, i.e., for purposes of satisfying several credits annotated by attachments or executions, the rule is still preference according to priority of the credits in the order of time. For, otherwise, the result would be absurd: the preference of an attachment or execution lien over later credits, as above provided for, could easily be defeated by simply obtaining writs of attachment or execution, and annotating them, no matter how much later.

It not being disputed that appellants’ credit is "later" than those of appellees Laguna Federation of Facomas, Inc., Valeriana Lim-aco de Almeda and Cosmopolitan Insurance Co., Inc., the appellees’ credits must be deemed preferred to that of appellants. To satisfy them pro rata could erase the difference between earlier and later credits provided for by subpar. (7) of Article 2242 aforementioned.

Wherefore, the judgment appealed from ruling preference is hereby affirmed. No costs. So ordered.

Concepcion, C.J., Reyes, J.B.L., Dizon, Regala, Makalintal, Zaldivar, Sanchez and Ruiz Castro, JJ., concur.

Endnotes:



1. Civil Case No. B-188, CFI Laguna.

2. Civil Case No. B-280, CFI of Laguna.

3. Decided on June 29, 1962 in favor of registrability.

4. No. 4 in foregoing tabulation.

5. Cf. Article 1927, Old Civil Code.




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