366 Phil. 931
GONZAGA-REYES, J.:
"1. DECLARING that the plaintiff has the right of redemption over the shares of her co-owners to the properties which they sold to the defendants;On appeal, the aforesaid judgment was affirmed in toto by the Court of Appeals. With the denial of their motion for reconsideration, petitioners filed the instant petition for review, on the grounds that the Court of Appeals:
2. ORDERING the defendant Rolando Tinio to execute the necessary deed of sale of the properties in favor of the plaintiff Nellie Manzano;
3. AUTHORIZING the defendant Rolando Tinio to withdraw the amount of One Hundred Thousand Pesos (P100,000.00) which was deposited by the plaintiff representing the redemption price of the properties;
So Ordered."[2]
"The argument that the land involved is land of the public domain is an issue being raised for the first time. Section 18, Rule 46 of the Revised Rules of Court (Sec. 15, Rule 44 of the 1997 Rules of Civil procedure) provides that the "appellant may include in his assignment of errors any question of law or fact that has been raised in the court below and which is within the issues framed by the parties." It is well-settled that issues not raised and/or ventilated in the lower court cannot be raised for the first time on appeal (Redodos v. WCC, 6 SCRA 7171, DBP v. CA, 116 SCRA 636, Galicia v. Polo, 179 SCRA 372). A look at the issues agreed upon by the parties in the lower court (supra) readily shows that the character of the land, whether of public domain or private ownership, is not among such issues.We note that at the pre-trial of the case, the parties agreed among other matters that "the plaintiff is co-owner in equal shares with her brothers Ernesto Manzano and Roland Manzano and sisters Pamela Manzano and Edna Manzano of the properties enumerated in paragraph 2 of the second amended complaint"; and that "the co-owners of the plaintiff sold their share of the properties in favor of Rolando Tinio."
Besides, having purchased the land from the brothers and sisters of the plaintiff-appellee, Rolando Tinio is now estopped from claiming that the latter had no rights over it."[4]
Evidently, the petitioners having admitted that respondent Nellie Manzano along with her brothers and sisters were co-owners of the subject property; and that the former acquired it by sale from the brothers and sisters, banked on the lapse of the prescriptive period to exercise the right of legal redemption and the alleged knowledge and participation by respondent Nellie Manzano in the consummation of the sale including receipt of partial payment, as precluding her from exercising said right. Petitioners cannot now be allowed to escape the adverse effects of their defense by belatedly raising a new theory that the land is part of the public domain as this would be offensive to the fundamental tenets of fair play.
- Whether or not the plaintiff can exercise her right of legal redemption of the properties of her co-owners under Article 1619 and 1620 of the New Civil Code;
- Whether or not plaintiff's right to redeem expired;
- Whether or not the plaintiff is in estoppel;
- Whether there was a valid tender of payment;
- Damages and attorney's fees."[5]
"A pre-trial is meant to serve as a device to clarify and narrow down the basic issues between the parties, to ascertain the facts relative to those issues and to enable the parties to obtain the fullest possible knowledge of the issues and facts before civil trials and thus prevent that said trial are carried on in the dark. Pre-trial is primarily intended to make certain that all issues necessary to the disposition of a case are properly raised. Thus, to obviate the element of surprise, parties are expected to disclose at a pre-trial conference all issues of law and fact which they intend to raise at the trial, except such as may involve privileged or impeaching matters. The determination of issues at a pre-trial conference bars the consideration of other questions on appeal."[6]Further, the applicable and well-settled principle is that "a party is bound by the theory he adopts and by the cause of action he stands on and cannot be permitted after having lost thereon to repudiate his theory and cause of action and adopt another and seek to re-litigate the matter anew either in the same forum or on appeal."[7] This is in essence putting petitioners in estoppel to question the judgment.
"It is clear that the plaintiff was not apprised of the consummated sale. In fact, she did not even know the actual vendee until after she filed the complaint. Concededly, the plaintiff was aware of the negotiations for the sale of the properties by her co-owners for which reason she asked the prospective vendees to wait for her arrival in order that they could talk about the sale. But her awareness of the intention to sell by her co-owners cannot take the place of actual knowledge because it was not shown that she had anything to do with the negotiations and the consummation of the sale. On the contrary what was shown is that the defendants tried to conceal the sale and even attempted to deprive the plaintiff of her share in the property by causing the preparation of a falsified affidavit of assignment of rights and then obtain a sales patent and a certificate of title over the land to the exclusion of the plaintiff even though they knew very well that she did not sell her share of the property to them. It was not only the right of the plaintiff to redeem which the defendants suppressed but even her very right to the property." (pp. 38-39, Rollo).[10]It is axiomatic that only questions of law, not questions of fact, may be raised before the Supreme Court in a petition for review under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court.[11] This Court can no longer be tasked to go over the proofs presented by the petitioners in the lower courts and analyze, assess and weigh them to ascertain if the court a quo and the appellate court were correct in their appreciation of the evidence.
"SECTION 1. Petition.- Before a final order or judgment rendered by the Court of Appeals becomes executory, a motion for a new trial may be filed on the ground of newly discovered evidence which could not have been discovered prior to the trial in the court below by the exercise of due diligence and which is of such a character as would probably change the result. The motion shall be accompanied by affidavits showing the facts constituting the grounds therefor and the newly discovered evidence."Instead of filing a motion for reconsideration and merely attaching thereto an alleged "newly discovered evidence", petitioners should have filed a motion for new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence in accordance with the aforequoted Rule 53 of the 1964 Rules of Court.[12] Petitioners failed to support their motion with affidavits and to show compliance with the following requisites for newly discovered evidence as a ground for new trial: (a) the evidence was discovered after the trial; (b) such evidence could not have been discovered and produced at the trial with reasonable diligence; and (c) that it is material, not merely cumulative, corroborative or impeaching, and is of such weight that, if admitted will probably change the judgment.[13]