Sarona v. Villegas

G.R. No.
L-22984
March 27, 1968
MARGARITO SARONA, ET AL., plaintiffs-appellants,

vs.
FELIPE VILLEGAS and RAMONA CARILLO, defendants-appellees.
Plaintiffs lodged with the Municipal Court against defendants a complaint,
styled "Unlawful Detainer." 1 They there aver that they are the absolute
owners and in possession of a parcel of land. Their complaint then
proceeds to recite: That defendants entered upon said land constructed
their residential house thereon and up to date remain in possession
thereof, unlawfully withholding the possession of the same from the
plaintiffs;That plaintiffs demanded of defendants to vacate the premises
and to pay the rentals in arrears but then defendants failed to do so; that
defendants' possession thus became clearly unlawful after said demand;
They asked that they be restored into possession, and that
defendants be made to pay rents.
Defendants met the complaint with
a motion to dismiss on the sole ground of lack of jurisdiction of the
municipal court. They say that the case is one of forcible entry, and the
reglementary one-year period had elapsed before suit was started.
The municipal court overturned the motion to dismiss.
In defendants answer they stated that plaintiffs have no cause of
action, and that "the present residential house of the defendants was
transferred to the present site after plaintiffs sold to defendants a portion of
their land, which includes the site of the present house and from and after
said sale, defendants have occupied the said portion legally and with the
knowledge and consent of plaintiffs."
The municipal court's judgment
directed defendants to vacate the premises, to pay plaintiffs a monthly
rental until possession is restoredthe Court of First Instance of Davao
dismissed the case. The court reasoned that the suit was one of forcible
entry and was started beyond the reglementary one-year period.
Plaintiffs appealed to this Court.
Plaintiffs' position is that the municipal court had original jurisdiction;
that consequently the Court of First Instance had appellate jurisdiction.
Their theory is that suit was well within the one-year period. They say that
the parting date is December 28, 1962, when plaintiffs demanded of
defendants to vacate the premises and pay rentals in arrears; and that the
complaint was registered in court on January 28, 1963.
Is the complaint one of forcible entry or unlawful
detainer? 1wph1.t
1. Section 1, Rule 70 (formerly Section 10, Rule 72) of the Revised
Rules of Court,
define two entirely distinct causes of action, to wit: (a) action to recover
possession founded on illegal occupation from the beginning forcible
entry; and (b) action founded on unlawful detention by a person who
originally acquired possession lawfully unlawful detainer. 3
The law and jurisprudence leave no doubt in our mind that what
determines the cause of action is the nature of defendants' entry into the
land. If entry is illegal, then the cause of action which may be filed against
the intruder within one year therefrom is forcible entry. If, on the other hand,
entry is legal but thereafter possession became illegal, the case is one of
illegal detainer which must be filed within one year from the date of the last
demand.
However, the complaint did not allege the nature of the entry into the
whether legal or illegal.
The want of jurisdiction is the more accentuated when we consider
the facts that surfaced during the trial as found by the municipal court, viz:
the defendants transferred their house to the litigated area
which is designated without plaintiffsconsent and permission. He
requested the defendants not to place the said house in the litigated
area but the defendants refused.
It is then too plain for argument that defendants entered the land
without plaintiffs' consent and permission;Since the parties went to trial on
the merits, and it came to light that defendants' entry was illegal at the
inception, the municipal court should have dismissed the case. That court
cannot close its eyes to the truth revealed by plaintiffs' own evidence
before it. A court of limited jurisdiction, said municipal court, should not
have proceeded to render an on-the-merits judgment thereon. 4
Clearly, plaintiffs' case fits in the jurisprudential precept of forcible

entry. Because the entry is forcible. Long had it been made evident that in
forcible entry cases, no force is really necessary
In order to constitute the use of "force," as contemplated in this
provision, the trespasser does not have to institute a state of war. Nor
is it even necessary that he should use violence against the person of
the party in possession. The act of going on the property and
excluding the lawful possessor therefrom necessarily implies the
exertion of force over the property, and this is all that is necessary.
Under the statute entering upon the premises by strategy or stealth is
equally an obnoxious as entering by force. The foundation of the
action is really the forcible exclusion of the original possessor by a
person who has entered without right. The words "by force,
intimidation, threat, strategy or stealth" include every situation or
condition under which one person can wrongfully enter upon real
property and exclude another, who has had prior possession,
therefrom. If a trespasser enters upon land in open daylight, under
the very eyes of the person already clothed with lawful possession,
but without the consent of the latter, and there plants himself and
excludes such prior possessor from the property, the action of forcible
entry and detainer can unquestionably be maintained, even though
no force is used by the trespasser other than such as is necessarily
implied from the mere acts of planting himself on the ground and
excluding the other party. 5
3. But plaintiffs would want to make out a case of illegal detainer
upon their belated claim that they tolerated defendants' possession. No
averment there is in the complaint which recites as a fact any overt
act on plaintiffs' part indicative of permission to occupy the land. we are
hard put to conclude that there was such a change from illegal to legal
possession of defendants until the demand to vacate was made.
But even where possession preceding the suit is by tolerance of the
owner, still, distinction should be made.
If right at the incipiency defendants' possession was with plaintiffs'
tolerance, we do not doubt that the latter may require him to vacate the
premises and sue before the inferior court under Section 1 of Rule 70,
within one year from the date of the demand to vacate. Because, from the
date of demand, possession became unlawful. And the case is illegal

detainer. 6
But will this rule as to tolerance hold true in a case where there was
forcible entry at the start, but the lawful possessor did not attempt to oust
the intruder for over one year, and only thereafter filed forcible entry suit
following demand to vacate?
Professor Arturo M. Tolentino states that acts merely tolerated are
"those which by reason of neighborliness or familiarity, the owner of
property allows his neighbor or another person to do on the property; they
are generally those particular services or benefits which one's property can
give to another without material injury or prejudice to the owner,
who permits them out of friendship or courtesy." 7 Tolentino writes: "There
is tacit consent of the possessor to the acts which are merely tolerated.
Thus, not every case of knowledge and silence on the part of the
possessor can be considered mere tolerance. By virtue of tolerance that is
considered as an authorization, permission or license, acts of possession
are realized or performed. The question reduces itself to the existence or
non-existence of the permission." 9
Tolerance must be present right from the start of possession sought
to be recovered, to categorize a cause of action as one of unlawful detainer
not of forcible entry. Indeed, to hold otherwise would espouse a
dangerous doctrine. And for two reasons: First. Forcible entry into the land
is an open challenge to the right of the possessor. Violation of that right
authorizes the speedy redress in the inferior court provided for in the
rules. If one year from the forcible entry is allowed to lapse before suit is
filed, then the remedy ceases to be speedy; and the possessor is deemed
to have waived his right to seek relief in the inferior court. Second. If a
forcible entry action in the inferior court is allowed after the lapse of a
number of years, then the result may well be that no action of forcible entry
can really prescribe. No matter how long such defendant is in physical
possession, plaintiff will merely make a demand, bring suit in the inferior
court upon a plea of tolerance to prevent prescription to set in and
summarily throw him out of the land. Such a conclusion is unreasonable.
Especially if we bear in mind the postulates that proceedings of forcible
entry and unlawful detainer are summary in nature, and that the one year
time-bar to the suit is but in pursuance of the summary nature of the
action. 10
It is well to remember that after the lapse of the one year period, suit
must be started in the Court of First Instance in an accion publiciana.
Jurisdiction in the case before us is with the Court of First Instance.
.t

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What are the two causes of action defined in Section 1, Rule 70?

What determines the cause of action according to the court?

G.R. No.

March 27, 1968

MARGARITO SARONA, ET AL., plaintiffs-appellants,

Clearly, plaintiffs' case fits in the jurisprudential precept of forcible

date of demand, possession became unlawful. And the case is illegal

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