607 Phil. 184
PUNO, J.:
Further, undersigned Sheriff respectfully informs the Honorable Court that when he prepared his aforesaid Reply Letter and made a reconciliation of the garnished and released accounts of plaintiff, he discovered that he inaccurately reflected in his Progress Report dated July 14, 2003 a balance of P80,229,206.72 where it should have been P80,299,206.72 which, as stated in the same report "was arrived at after deducting from the total just compensation of P104,641,600.00 the garnished and released money deposits of NHA with PNB and Landbank in the amount of P24,305,774.82 and the garnished but not yet released /claimed money deposit of NHA with" Philippine Veterans Bank in the amount of P36,618.46. In other words, by mathematical computation: P104,641,600.00 - P24,305,774.82 - P36,618.36 = P80,299,206.72 and not P80,229,206.72. The balance reflected in the undersigned Sheriff's Progress Report dated July 14, 2003 is short by P70,000.00, hence, this did not result to over satisfaction of the judgment of the Honorable Court.On November 6, 2003, seeking to claim the unsatisfied amount of P70,300.00, respondents filed with the RTC a motion for the issuance of an alias writ of execution. On November 12, 2003, respondents likewise filed a motion for payment of interest anchored on the premise that petitioner made piecemeal payments of the judgment amount, causing a 32-month delay in the full satisfaction thereof which entitled respondents to the payment of a legal interest of 12% per annum. To simplify matters, respondents confined their claim to the interest for the principal amount of P80,335,825.18 reckoned from October 31, 2000, the date the entry of judgment was issued, to July 2003, when the last garnishment took place, without including the P70,300.00 yet to be satisfied in the said principal amount.
Futhermore, undersigned Sheriff respectfully informs the Honorable Court that the amount released by Philippine Veterans Bank is only P36,318.46 albeit its letter dated December 26, 2001 stated an amount of P36,618.46 (short by P300).[4] (emphases in the original)
WHEREFORE, on the Motion for Issuance of an Alias Writ of [E]xecution, the same is GRANTED. Let an Alias Writ of Execution issue to satisfy the shortage amount of Php70,300.00.On February 24, 2004, petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied by the RTC, Branch 19 in an order dated July 27, 2004. Aggrieved, petitioner filed a petition for review on certiorari with the CA which was denied for lack of merit in a decision dated December 16, 2004, ratiocinating thus:
Defendants' Motion for Payment of Interest is likewise GRANTED. Plaintiff is hereby directed to pay the defendants within five (5) days from receipt hereof the amount of Php25,695,746.15 representing interest of 12% p.a. for thirty two (32) months of the unsatisfied portion of the just compensation in the amount of Php80,299,206.72. Plaintiff is futher directed to pay interest of 12% p.a. on the Php25,695,746.15 interest from the date the five-day period given by the Court expired until the same is paid.
x x x
SO ORDERED.[5]
We now come to the question on whether respondent judge was correct in imposing interest of 12% per annum for the delay in payment of just compensation by petitioner sans an explicit pronouncement for such provision in the decision. We rule in the affirmative on the following reasons:Hence, petitioner filed the instant petition for review, where it argues that the CA gravely erred in affirming the RTC when it granted respondents' motion for issuance of an alias writ of execution and motion for payment of interest, considering that expropriation proceedings have already been terminated and that the order to pay respondents just compensation was silent on the payment of interest.
1) A judgment is not confined to what appears on the face of the decision but also those necessarily included therein or necessary thereto. Where a legal provision exists providing for legal interest, the same not only constitute judicial notice, but by operation of law, becomes inherent in every decision.
2) The imposition of interest at the time the decision was rendered would be purely conjectural and speculative considering that delay in the payment could only be ascertained at the time following after the rendition of the decision. The remedy for any delay may be ventilated during the execution stage as in this case. Delay takes the nature of a supervening event between the rendition of the decision and its due execution, and the judge may take cognizance of it not only for the purpose of expediency but also to prevent multiplicity of suits. At any rate, the judge is now familiar with the history and development of the case, and it is he who can give the most prudent assessment over an issue such as that of delay and the concomitant damages for the delay.
x x x
Conversely, [w]e also find nothing irregular in issuance of the alias writ of execution by respondent judge covering the deficiency in the actual judgment amount. The rule is that the execution must conform substantially to that ordained or decreed in the dispositive part of the decision. Therefore, upon report of the sheriff of a deficiency in the execution of the judgment amount, an alias writ of execution covering said deficiency is proper.[6]
Urtula's dilemma lies in his mistaken concept of the nature of the interest that he failed to claim in the expropriation case and which he now claims in this separate case. Said interest is not contractual, nor based on delict or quasi-delict, but one that --Unfortunately for petitioner, the abovequoted doctrine is not applicable to the instant case for the simple reason that respondents herein do not ask for interest as part of the judgment in an expropriation case, but for interest which is imposed due to the delay in the payment of a money judgment. As stated above, the former is imposed in order to place the owner in a position as good as (but not better than) the position he was in before the taking occurred, while the latter is considered as legal interest, to be computed at 12% per annum from such finality until its satisfaction,[15] because the interim period is deemed to be equivalent to a forebearance of credit.[16] Consequently, the award of the former needs to be stated in the judgment, while the award of the latter need not.[17] Moreover, the former is computed from the date of possession or filing of the complaint for expropriation,[18] the latter is merely computed from the time the judgment becomes final and executory.[19] Therefore, we find no patent error in the imposition of interest on petitioner.runs as a matter of law and follows as a matter of course from the right of the landowner to be placed in as good a position as money can accomplish, as of the date of the taking (30 C.J.S. 230).Understood as such, Urtula, as defendant in the expropriation case, could have raised the matter of interest before the trial court even if there had been no actual taking yet by the Republic and the said court could have included the payment of interest in its judgment but conditioned upon the actual taking, because the rate of interest upon the amount of just compensation (6%) is a known factor, and it can reasonably be expected that at some future time, the expropriator would take possession of the property, though the date be not fixed. In this way, multiple suits would be avoided. Moreover, nothing prevented appellee from calling the attention of the appellate courts (even by motion to reconsider before judgment became final) to the subsequent taking of possession by the condemnor, and asking for allowance of interest on the indemnity, since that followed the taking as a matter of course, and raised no issue requiring remand of the records to the Court of origin.
As the issue of interest could have been raised in the former case but was not raised, res judicata blocks the recovery of interest in the present case. It is settled that a former judgment constitutes a bar, as between the parties, not only as to matters expressly adjudged, but all matters that could have been adjudged at the time. It follows that interest upon the unrecoverable interest, which plaintiff also seeks, cannot, likewise, be granted.
It is not amiss to note that Section 3 of Rule 67 of the Revised Rules of Court, in fact, directs the defendant in an expropriation case to "present in a single motion to dismiss or for other appropriate relief, all of his objections and defenses . . ." and if not so presented "are waived." As it is, the judgment allowing the collection of interest, now under appeal in effect amends the final judgment in the expropriation case, a procedure abhorrent to orderly judicial proceedings.[14] (citations omitted)