570 Phil. 130
VELASCO JR., J.:
WHEREFORE, judgment is hereby rendered in favor of the plaintiffs, the spouses Virginia G. Gonzaga and Alfredo Gonzaga, and against the defendants Bienvenido Agan and Rowena Agan, ordering the defendants to vacate plaintiffs’ property covered by TCT No. T-240379 and to remove their improvements and structures, or shanty therefrom, and further defendants are ordered to pay plaintiffs the reasonable value of the use of the land occupied by them, at P1,000.00 a month, from June 1995, until they vacate, and the sum of P10,000.00 for attorney’s fees, and pay the costs.In so ruling, the MTCC held that private respondents failed to rebut allegations that they entered petitioners’ property by stealth. The MTCC found as untenable private respondents’ counter-allegation that they gained entry to the land in 1983 that is allegedly covered by the Free Patent Application of Ponciano Sabroso.
SO ORDERED.
WHEREFORE, in view of all the foregoing, the appealed decision is REVERSED and judgment is entered dismissing the complaint for lack of cause of action for forcible entry.The RTC predicated its ruling on the premise that petitioners, although claiming to be owners of the subject property, failed to prove prior actual physical possession, a necessary element in an action for ejectment. To the RTC, petitioners should have not commenced an action for forcible entry but an accion publiciana suit.
The counterclaim is likewise dismissed.
No costs.
SO ORDERED.[10]
The Ruling of the CA
A perusal of the complaint would show that apart from claiming ownership of the lot in question, petitioners have not asserted prior possession thereof, much less the manner of their dispossession, which is essential in an action for forcible entry.From this Resolution, petitioners sought reconsideration. However, the CA, in its second assailed Resolution dated August 29, 1997, denied petitioners’ Motion for Reconsideration.
As correctly pointed out by respondent Court, plaintiffs’ action should be one for recovery of possession or an accion publiciana, not for forcible entry.[11]
Section 1. Petition for certiorari.¾When any tribunal, board or officer exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions has acted without or in excess of its or his jurisdiction, or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction, and there is no appeal, nor any plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law, a person aggrieved thereby may file a verified petition in the proper court, alleging the facts with certainty and praying that judgment be rendered annulling or modifying the proceedings of such tribunal, board or officer, and granting such incidental reliefs as law and justice may require. (Emphasis supplied.)In the instant case, the CA had already finally disposed of the case with the issuance of the Resolution dated April 10, 1997 denying due course to petitioners’ petition for review of the RTC’s decision, and the Resolution dated August 29, 1997 denying petitioners’ Motion for Reconsideration. Thus, the remedy of an appeal under Rule 45 was then already available to petitioners.
Section 1. Filing of petition with Supreme Court.––A party desiring to appeal by certiorari from a judgment or final order or resolution of the Court of Appeals, the Sandiganbayan, the Regional Trial Court or other courts whenever authorized by law, may file with the Supreme Court a verified petition for review on certiorari. The petition shall raise only questions of law which must be distinctly set forth.Petitioners, therefore, then had 15 days from their receipt on September 10, 1997 of the Resolution dated August 29, 1997, or until September 25, 1997 within which to file a petition for review under Rule 45. Instead, they filed on September 25, 1997 the instant Petition for Certiorari dated September 18, 1997.
Section 1. Who may institute proceedings, and when.¾ Subject to the provisions of the next succeeding section, a person deprived of the possession of any land or building by force, intimidation, threat, strategy, or stealth, or a lessor, vendor or vendee or other person, against whom the possession of any land or building is unlawfully withheld after the expiration or termination of the right to hold possession, by virtue of any contract, express or implied, or the legal representatives or assigns of any such lessor, vendor, vendee, or other person, may, at any time within one (1) year after such unlawful deprivation or withholding of possession, bring an action in the proper Municipal Trial Court against the person or person unlawfully withholding or depriving of possession, or any person or persons claiming under them, for the restitution of such possession, together with damages and costs. (Emphasis supplied.)It is quite clear from the foregoing provision that for a forcible entry suit to prosper, the person lawfully entitled to the possession of the property must allege and prove that he was deprived of such possession by means of force, intimidation, threat, strategy, or stealth. And when the law speaks of possession, the reference is to prior physical possession or possession de facto, as contra-distinguished from possession de jure.
Juridically speaking, possession is distinct from ownership, and from this distinction are derived legal consequences of much importance. In giving recognition to the action of forcible entry and detainer the purpose of the law is to protect the person who in fact has actual possession; and in case of controverted right, it requires the parties to preserve the status quo until one or the other of them sees fit to invoke the decision of a court of competent jurisdiction upon the question of ownership. It is obviously just that the person who has first acquired possession should remain in possession pending this decision; and the parties cannot be permitted meanwhile to engage in a petty warfare over the possession of the property which is the subject of dispute. To permit this would be highly dangerous to individual security and disturbing to social order. Therefore, where a person supposes himself to be the owner of a piece of property and desires to vindicate his ownership against the party actually in possession, it is incumbent upon him to institute an action to this end in a court of competent jurisdiction; and he can not be permitted, by invading the property and excluding the actual possessor, to place upon the latter the burden of instituting an action to try the property right.[16] (Emphasis supplied.)In Heirs of Pedro Laurora v. Sterling Technopark III, the Court stressed the basic inquiry in forcible entry cases:
The only issue in forcible entry cases is the physical or material possession of real property––possession de facto, not possession de jure. Only prior physical possession, not title, is the issue. If ownership is raised in the pleadings, the court may pass upon such question, but only to determine the question of possession.[17]Of the same tenor, but formulated a bit differently, is what the Court wrote in Bejar v. Caluag:
To make out a suit for illegal detainer or forcible entry, the complaint must contain two mandatory allegations: (1) prior physical possession of the property by the plaintiff; and (2) deprivation of said possession by another by means of force, intimidation, threat, strategy or stealth. This latter requirement implies that the possession of the disputed property by the intruder has been unlawful from the very start. Then, the action must be brought within one year from the date of actual entry to the property or, in cases where stealth was employed, from the date the plaintiff learned about it.[18] (Emphasis supplied.)Clearly then, complainants in forcible entry cases must allege and eventually prove prior physical possession. Else, their cases fail, as here.