557 Phil. 241
GARCIA, J.:
Private respondents Voluntad obtained a loan from the Rural Bank of Pandi, Bulacan secured by a mortgage over one-half of a parcel of land covered by TCT No. 25073 of the Registry of Deeds of Bulacan registered in the name of Carmen Voluntad and Maria Voluntad, predecessors-in-interest of herein private respondents. The Voluntads failed to pay the loan and the bank foreclosed the mortgage. The property was sold at public auction with the bank as the highest bidder. Three months later, without the knowledge of the Voluntads, the bank assigned its right over the property to Spouses Magtanggol and Corazon Dizon.From the adverse actions of the respondent judge, herein petitioners went to the CA on a petition for certiorari, thereat docketed as CA-G.R. SP No. 62100, arguing that the respondent judge's orders dated 9 August 2000 and 25 October 2000, which respectively dismissed their petition for relief from judgment in Civil Case No. 142-M-93 and denied their motion for reconsideration, were issued in grave abuse of discretion.
The Voluntads then filed the herein Petition for Redemption docketed as Civil Case No. 142-M-93 and caused the annotation of a notice of lis pendens on TCT No. 25073. The notice of lis pendens was carried over to TCT No. T-166332-M now in the name of Magtanggol and Corazon Dizon who in turn, sold the property to petitioner Spouses Vicenta and Eugenio Reyes while under litigation.
The case was decided in favor of the Voluntads by the public respondent on 8 December 1995, directing the Dizon Spouses to render a true and correct accounting of the financial obligations of the petitioners to the bank and allowing the Voluntads to exercise their right of redemption over the one-half undivided portion of the land for the amount of P124,762.04.
Subsequently a petition for Certiorari and Mandamus was filed by the Voluntads relative to the denial of a writ of execution sought against the transferees of the land, herein petitioner Spouses Reyes. On 26 August 1999, the Supreme Court [in G.R. No. 132294] ruled in favor of the Voluntads granting the petition, stating thus:WHEREFORE, the petition is GRANTED. The decision of the Court of Appeals affirming the Order of the trial court which denied Petitioners' Motion for a Second Alias Writ of Execution against Respondent Spouses Eugenio and Vicenta Reyes is REVERSED and SET ASIDE. Accordingly, the case is remanded to the trial court for the immediate issuance of a Second Alias Writ of Execution against Respondents Eugenio and Vicenta Reyes for the enforcement of the final judgment of the Regional Trial Court of Malolos, Bulacan, in Civil Case 142-M-93, allowing petitioners, Delfin Voluntad and the heirs of Luz Voluntad to exercise their Right of Repurchase the property covered by TCT No. T-178105 presently registered in the name of Respondent- Spouses Eugenio and Vicenta Reyes. xxx.Petitioners' Motion for Reconsideration was denied in its Resolution dated 5 April 2000, received by petitioners on 30 May 2000.
Contending that they were not given their day in court as they were never impleaded as party-defendants in the herein Civil Case No. 142-M-93, and that their inability to intervene in the proceedings therein was due to excusable negligence, petitioner Reyes filed the subject Petition for Relief from Judgment on 21 June 2000.
On 9 August 2000, public respondent [Judge Barrientos] issued the assailed Order denying the Petition for Relief from Judgment on the following grounds:On 22 August 2000, public respondent issued a Second Alias Writ of Execution against petitioners. Petitioners' Motion for Reconsideration of the first assailed Order dated 9 August 2000 was denied in the other questioned Order. (Bracketed words supplied.)
- The Petition for Relief from Judgment was filed out of time; and
- Petitioners have no legal personality to file the Petition for Relief from Judgment.
WHEREFORE, for lack of merit, the petition is DISMISSED and the assailed Orders are AFFIRMED. With costs against petitioners.Explains the CA in its assailed Decision of 31 July 2001:
SO ORDERED.
xxx. We agree with the lower court that the sixty-day period commenced, at the latest, on 30 May 1997, the date when petitioners received an Order from this Court directing them to comment on the Petition for Certiorari and Mandamus filed by the Voluntads docketed as CA-GR SP No. 44141 entitled 'Delfin Voluntad, et al vs. Hon. Oscar Barrientos, et al, to which a copy of the Decision in Civil Case No. 142-M-93 had been attached. That period expired on July 30, 1997.With their motion for reconsideration having been denied by the CA in its resolution of 26 October 2001, petitioners are now with this Court via the present recourse on the sole issue of their own formulation, to wit:
On the other hand, the six-month period is reckoned from the date of entry of the Order issued by the public respondent in Civil Case No. 142-M-93 on 8 December 1995. The same expired on 8 June 1996. (Emphasis supplied).
The simple issue is when shall the 60-day and the six months period for filing petition for relief be reckoned for a party not included in the original judgment but later bound by the judgment by a higher Court on certiorari?The time for filing a petition for relief from judgment is stated in Rule 38 of the Rules of Court, viz:
We DENY.
Sec. 3. Time for filing petition; contents and verification. A petition provided for in either of the preceding sections of this Rule must be verified, filed within sixty (60) days after the petitioner learns of the judgment, final order, or other proceeding to be set aside, and not more than six (6) months after such judgment or final order was entered, or such proceeding was taken; and must be accompanied with affidavits showing the fraud, accident, mistake, or excusable negligence relied upon, and the facts constituting the petitioner's good and substantial cause of action or defense, as the case may be.In Quelnan v. VHF Philippines,[2] the Court has had the occasion to reiterate:
Clear it is from the above that a petition for relief from judgment must be filed within: (a) sixty (60) days from knowledge of judgment, order or other proceedings to be set aside; and (b) six (6) months from entry of such judgment, order or other proceeding. These two periods must concur. Both periods are also not extendible and never interrupted. Strict compliance with these periods stems from the equitable character and nature of the petition for relief. Indeed, relief is allowed only in exceptional cases as when there is no other available or adequate remedy. As it were, a petition for relief is actually the "last chance" given by law to litigants to question a final judgment or order. And failure to avail of such "last chance" within the grace period fixed by the Rules is fatal. (Emphasis supplied.)Petitioners contend, however, that the ruling of the trial court, as affirmed by the CA, that the petition for relief from judgment should have been filed within sixty (60) days from the time they (petitioners) learned of the decision dated 8 December 1995 and within six (6) months after such judgment was entered by the lower court, is absurd as it was a legal impossibility to expect them (petitioners) to question the decision dated 8 December 1995 which the trial court initially refused to enforce against them. They, therefore, posit that not until this Court ruled on 26 August 1999 in G.R. No. 132294, entitled Voluntad v. Dizon & Reyes, that the 8 December 1995 RTC decision in Civil Case No. 142-M-93 is binding upon them, did it become necessary for them to file a petition for relief vis-a-vis the same 8 December 1995 RTC decision.