526 Phil. 91
AUSTRIA-MARTINEZ, J.:
Petitioners' notice of appeal was filed on May 3, 1996. At that time the applicable law was Section 39 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 129 (B.P. 129) or the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1981, which provides:A
THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS ERRED WHEN IT DISMISSED THE APPEAL AFTER IT WAS APPROVED BY THE TRIAL COURT AND ACCEPTED IT WITH THE CORRESPONDING PAYMENT OF DOCKET FEES AND FILING OF APPELLANTS' BRIEF.B
THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS DISMISSED THE APPEAL IN A WAY NOT IN ACCORD WITH THE APPLICABLE DECISIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT.C
PETITIONERS HAVE STRONG AND MERITORIOUS CASE.[13]
Sec. 39. Appeals. – The period for appeal from final orders, resolutions, awards, judgments, or decisions of any court in all cases shall be fifteen (15) days counted from the notice of the final order, resolution, award judgment, or decision appealed from: Provided, however, That in habeas corpus cases, the period for appeal shall be forty-eight (48) hours from the notice of the judgment appealed from.Particularly, Section 20 of the Implementing Rules and Guidelines of B.P. 129 provides for the manner in which the appeal may be taken, to wit:
x x x
The 15-day period within which to appeal, counted from notice of the final order, resolution, award judgment, or decision appealed from, under B.P. 129 was reproduced in the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, as amended by A.M. No. 01-1-03-SC, which reads:
- Procedure for taking appeal. – An appeal from the metropolitan trial courts, municipal trial courts or municipal circuit trial courts to the regional trial courts, and from the regional trial courts to the Intermediate Appellate Court in actions or proceedings originally filed in the former shall be taken by filing a notice of appeal with the court that rendered the judgment or order appealed from.
SEC. 3. Period of ordinary appeal; appeal in habeas corpus cases. – The appeal shall be taken within fifteen (15) days from notice of the judgment or final order appealed from. Where a record on appeal is required, the appellant shall file a notice of appeal and a record on appeal within thirty (30) days from notice of the judgment or final order. However, an appeal in habeas corpus cases shall be taken within forty-eight (48) hours from notice of the judgment or final order appealed from.Jurisprudence is consistent in ruling that the perfection of an appeal in the manner and within the period prescribed by law is not only mandatory but jurisdictional, and failure to perfect an appeal has the effect of rendering the judgment final and executory,[14] although the Court, in exceptional circumstances,[15] allowed the filing of a belated notice of appeal. Thus, if the Court were to strictly apply the jurisprudence in petitioners' case, the inevitable conclusion is that the CA was correct in dismissing their appeal. It does not matter whether respondents' motion to dismiss was filed after the trial court already approved their notice of appeal, or that they have already paid the docket fees and filed their appellants' brief. It should be borne in mind that the legality of an appeal may be raised at any stage of the proceedings in the appellate court, and the latter is not precluded from dismissing the same on the ground of its being out of time.[16]
The period of appeal shall be interrupted by a timely motion for new trial or reconsideration. No motion of extension of time to file a motion for new trial or reconsideration shall be allowed.
The Supreme Court may promulgate procedural rules in all courts. It has the sole prerogative to amend, repeal or even establish new rules for a more simplified and inexpensive process, and the speedy disposition of cases. In the rules governing appeals to it and to the Court of Appeals, particularly Rules 42, 43 and 45, the Court allows extensions of time, based on justifiable and compelling reasons, for parties to file their appeals. These extensions may consist of 15 days or more.The Court also reiterated its ruling that it is the denial of the motion for reconsideration which constituted the final order which finally disposed of the issues involved in the case.
To standardize the appeal periods provided in the Rules and to afford litigants fair opportunity to appeal their cases, the Court deems it practical to allow a fresh period of 15 days within which to file the notice of appeal in the Regional Trial Court, counted from receipt of the order dismissing a motion for a new trial or motion for reconsideration.
Henceforth, this "fresh period rule" shall also apply to Rule 40 governing appeals from the Municipal Trial Courts to the Regional Trial Courts; Rule 42 on petitions for review from the Regional Trial Courts to the Court of Appeals; Rule 43 on appeals from quasi-judicial agencies to the Court of Appeals and Rule 45 governing appeals by certiorari to the Supreme Court. The new rule aims to regiment or make the appeal period uniform, to be counted from receipt of the order denying the motion for new trial, motion for reconsideration (whether full or partial) or any final order or resolution.[18] (Emphasis supplied)
In Ramos v. Bagasao, the Court excused the delay of four days in the filing of the notice of appeal because the questioned decision of the trial court had been served upon appellant Ramos at a time when her counsel of record was already dead. The new counsel could only file the appeal four days after the prescribed reglementary period was over. In Republic vs. Court of Appeals, the Court allowed the perfection of an appeal by the Republic despite the delay of six days to prevent a gross miscarriage of justice since the Republic stood to lose hundreds of hectares of land already titled in its name and had since then been devoted for public purposes. In Olacao vs. National Labor Relations Commission, a tardy appeal was accepted considering that the subject matter in issue had theretofore been judicially settled with finality in another case, and a dismissal of the appeal would have had the effect of the appellant being ordered twice to make the same reparation to the appellee. x x x[16] Id.