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San Miguel Village School vs. Pundogar
San Miguel Village School vs. Pundogar
SUPREME COURT
Manila
THIRD DIVISION
G.R. No. 80264 May 31, 1989
SAN MIGUEL VILLAGE SCHOOL, petitioner,
vs.
HONORABLE AMIR PUKUNUM D. PUNDOGAR and CHRISTINA TRIO, respondents.
Estelito R. Alvia for petitioner.
Macalalag Law Office & Associates for private respondent.
FELICIANO, J.:
On 2 October 1985, petitioner San Miguel Village School filed a complaint for breach of contract with damages against respondent
Christina Trio, before the Regional Trial Court, Branch 3, Lanao del Norte, the complaint being docketed as Civil Case No. L-111577. A Certificate to File Action, signed by the Barangay Captain of Barangay Palao, Iligan City, dated 17 September 1985, bearing
the notation that the "respondent cannot be contacted," was filed along with the complaint.
Summons was served upon the private respondent through her husband. On 22 November 1985, private respondent having failed
to file an answer within the reglementary period, the petitioner School moved to declare her in default. The trial court granted the
motion, declared private respondent in default and designated the Branch Clerk of Court to receive the evidence of the petitioner
and thereafter to report back to the court.
From the evidence received by the Branch Clerk of Court from the petitioner, the following facts emerged:
On 9 May 1985, petitioner, a duly accredited private school located at Barangay Palao, Iligan City, entered into a contract of services
with private respondent Christina Trio. Under that contract, Christina Trio would teach at the petitioner School during the
schoolyear 1985-1986, which would commence in June 1985 and end in March 1986. She was assigned to take charge of Grade
VI, Intermediate Department. The contract also provided that any party desiring to terminate the contract before its scheduled
expiration, would give the other party at least one month notice of termination in writing. Sometime in August 1985, while the
contract was in full force and effect, and during a final examination period, private respondent suddenly stopped teaching at the
petitioner School, without giving notice of termination and thereby causing not inconsiderable difficulties for the School. Petitioner
School immediately sought the assistance of the Barangay Captain of Palao and the commencement of conciliation proceedings,
This attempt failed because private respondent could not be contacted, she having left Iligan City and having secured a better
paying job at the Philippine Refugee Center based in Manila.
On 26 January 1986, the trial court then presided over by Judge Magadapa Rasuman rendered a decision against private
respondent, the dispositive portion of which read as follows:
WHEREFORE, based on the foregoing consideration, judgment is hereby rendered in favor of the plaintiff, San
Miguel Village School and against defendant, Christina Trio as follows;
1. Ordering defendant to pay all compensatory damages to the plaintiff, the amount of P8,400.00;
2. To pay plaintiff, the amount of P5,000.00, as moral damages;
3. To pay attorney's fees of P5,000.00, and
that failure of a plaintiff to comply with the requirements of P.D. No. 1508 does not
affect the jurisdiction of the court that tried the action. In, e.g., Millare v. Hernando, the Court stressed that
"the conciliation procedure required under P.D. No. 1508 is not a jurisdictional requirement in the sense
that failure to have prior recourse to such procedure would not deprive a court of its jurisdiction either over
the subject matter or over the person of the defendant." 3Failure of a plaintiff to go through the conciliation
procedure established by P.D. No. 1508 merely affects the sufficiency, or the maturity or ripeness of the
plaintiffs cause of action and the complaint becomes vulnerable to a motion to dismiss, not on the ground
of lack of jurisdiction, but rather for want of cause of action or for prematurity. 4 Respondent Judge was
thus in palpable error in holding his predecessor without jurisdiction to render the assailed decision.
It is, however, firmly settled 2
Respondent Judge was equally in error when he either disregarded or misconstrued the Certificate to File Action, dated 17
September 1985, which had been, issued by the Barangay Captain of Barangay Palao.
Respondent Judge simply said apropos this Certificate to File Action, that no "confrontation" had taken place between petitioner and
private respondent before the Barangay authorities and immediately concluded that the requirements of P.D. No. 1508 had been
violated. There is no question that the "confrontation" or conciliation proceedings did not materialize here, since private respondent
did not appear before the Lupon. Where, however, the defendant in an action fails for one reason or another to respond to a notice
to appear before the Lupon, the requirement of P.D. No. 1508 must be regarded as having been satisfied by the plaintiff. A
defendant cannot be allowed to frustrate the requirements of the statute by her own refusal or failure to appear before
the Lupon and then later to assail a judgment rendered in such action by setting up the very ground of non-compliance with P.D. No.
1508. In simplest terms, a defendant cannot be allowed to profit by her own default.
In the instant case, private respondent, as noted earlier, had stated in her subsequent Petition for Relief from Judgment that she
resided not in Barangay Palao but in Barangay Cabili, in effect suggesting that she had not received notice to appear before
the Lupon of Barangay Palao. We do not believe that the statement and suggestion of private respondent should be given much
credence. In the first place, the Barangay authorities of Barangay Palao must be presumed to have performed their official duties
and to have acted regularly in issuing the Certificate to File Action. They must be presumed to have sent a notice to Christina Trio
to appear before theLupon; otherwise, they could not reasonably have stated that Christina "could not be contacted." Secondly,
petitioner School had already presented evidence during the hearing before the Commissioner appointed by Judge Rasuman that
both petitioner and private respondent were residents of Palao, Iligan City.
Finally, and in any event, the alleged failure on the part of a plaintiff to comply with the procedural requirement established by P.D.
No. 1508 must be raised in a timely manner, that is, at the first available opportunity, if such alleged failure is to provide legal basis
for dismissal of the complaint. Such failure must be pleaded, in other words, in a timely motion to dismiss or in the answer. Failure to
so set up that defense produces the effect of waiver of such defense. In the instant case, private respondent was declared in default
and that default order was never set aside. Accordingly, private respondent must be held to have waived whatever right she may
have had to raise the defense of failure to comply with the compulsory conciliation procedure under P.D. No. 1508. Indeed, that was
not the only thing she waived; she also waived the right to appear and to file an answer and there to set up that and other defenses
that she might have had. It is simply too late to demand conciliation under P.D. No. 1508 after a judgment on the merits (albeit by
default) has been rendered and become final and executory.
ACCORDINGLY, the Orders of respondent Judge Amir Pukunum D. Pundogar dated 6 April 1987 and 15 June 1987 in Civil Case
No. L-111-577 are hereby REVERSED and SET ASIDE and the Decision dated 26 January 1986 of Judge Magadapa Rasuman is
hereby REINSTATED. Costs against private respondent.
SO ORDERED.