18 Anchor Vs Furigay
18 Anchor Vs Furigay
Whether or not the ASB has resorted to all legal remedies to obtain
satisfaction of its claim; and
Whether or not the action for rescission has prescribed already
HELD:
The Court finds the petition bereft of merit.
I.
must be complete. All valid conditions precedent to the institution of the particular
action, whether prescribed by statute, fixed by agreement of the parties or
implied by law must be performed or complied with before commencing the
action, unless the conduct of the adverse party has been such as to prevent or
waive performance or excuse non-performance of the condition."
In relation to an action for rescission, it should be noted that the remedy of
rescission is subsidiary in nature; it cannot be instituted except when the party
suffering damage has no other legal means to obtain reparation for the same.
Article 1177 of the New Civil Code provides:
The creditors, after having pursued the property in possession of the debtor to
satisfy their claims, may exercise all the rights and bring all the actions of the
latter for the same purpose, save those which are inherent in his person; they
may also impugn the actions which the debtor may have done to defraud them.
II.
Article 1389 of the Civil Code simply provides that, The action to claim
rescission must be commenced within four years. Since this provision of law
is silent as to when the prescriptive period would commence, the general rule,
i.e, from the moment the cause of action accrues, therefore, applies. Article
1150 of the Civil Code is particularly instructive:
ARTICLE 1150. The time for prescription for all kinds of actions, when there is no
special provision which ordains otherwise, shall be counted from the day they
may be brought.
ARTICLE 1383. An action for rescission is subsidiary; it cannot be instituted
except when the party suffering damage has no other legal means to obtain
reparation for the same.
It is thus apparent that an action to rescind or an accion pauliana must be of last
resort, availed of only after all other legal remedies have been exhausted and
have been proven futile.
In all, it is incorrect for ASB to argue that a complaint need not allege all the elements
constituting its cause of action since it would simply adduce proof of the same during
trial. "Nothing is more settled than the rule that in a motion to dismiss for failure to state
a cause of action, the inquiry is "into the sufficiency, not the veracity, of the material
allegations." The inquiry is confined to the four comers of the complaint, and no other.