[ G.R. No. 45793, October 09, 1939 ]
TESTATE ESTATE OF THE DECEASED JOSE LASERNA PARO Y TUPAZ. ARISTONA LASERNA, HEIR AND APPELLANT, VS. JOSE ALTAVAS, CREDITOR AND APPELLEE.
D E C I SI O N
LAUREL, J.:
Such was the status of the case with reference to the adjudicated claim of Jose Altavas when, subsequently, he filed in the present proceedings a motion praying that the administratrix be ordered to pay the sum of P4,500 and, in case of failure, that the said
administratrix be ordered to sell the property under administration and to apply the proceeds thereof to the payment of the sum adjudged in his favor. It is in pursuance of this motion that the lower court, on December 31, 1935, issued the following order which is the subject of
appeal in these proceedings:
"In view of the foregoing, the Court hereby orders the administratrix Aristona Laserna to pay Jose Altavas within ten (10) days after receipt of this order, the sum of
P4,500, adjudged to him by virtue of the decision of the Supreme Court dated March 20, 1934, in civil case No. 2961, plus costs amounting toP127.38."The administratrix is further ordered that, in case she does not have sufficient funds, she submit within ten days to this Court a petition to sell at public auction, with all the formalities and requisites prescribed by law, all the property belonging to the deceased or such part of the same as may be sufficient to cover the sums due Jose Altavas. The Administratrix is hereby warned that in case she fails to comply with this order, the Court will take disciplinary measures against her."
The appellant Aristona Laserna assigns four errors in her brief the most important of which is that raised in the third assignment which is as follows:
"That the trial court erred in not holding that the claim of appellee, Jose Altavas, was definitely barred by the statute of nonclaim."
In contending that the claim of Jose Altavas is barred because of the latter's failure to present it before the committee on claims and appraisal, the appellant relies on the cases of Fidelity & Surety Co. vs. Green et al., G. R. No. 43086, promulgated November 29, 1935; Pabico vs. Jaranilla et al., 60 Phil., 247; as well as on the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, sections 119, 700, 703, 706, the latter as amended by Act No. 4229. The appellee, on the other hand, predicates his contention on the cases of Guioc-Co vs. Del Rosario, 7 Phil., 126; Azarraga vs. Cortes et al., 9 Phil., 698; Masecampo vs. Masecampo, 11 Phil., 1. Without attempting to make any comparison between the cases relied upon by the parties in this appeal, a task which we deem unnecessary to undertake at this juncture, we are of the opinion and so hold that, upon the facts and circumstances of the present case, the claim of Jose Altavas, although it did not survive the deceased, need not have to be presented before the committee on claims and appraisal principally because that claim is already an adjudicated claim by final pronouncement by this Court in G. R. No. 40038. To countenance appellant's theory would be to convert a claim duly passed upon and determined not only by the Court of First Instance but by this Court into a contested claim, once again, in the language of the trial court, "giving the committee on claims more power than the courts of justice" and "obliging a creditor whose claim had already been passed upon by the Court to submit himself to the committee on claims and to pass over again through the endless process of presenting his evidence which he had already done." It does not appear that the claim of appellee has been satisfied. Neither is it possible that the decision in favor of appellee has lapsed by the expiration of the; five-year period. On the contrary; the situation is obviously the contrary. It also appears that the substitution of the defendant in civil case No. 2961, for the recovery of attorney's fees, was effected at the instance of the defendant and appellant herein, Aristona Laserna. She had an opportunity to contest that claim, and when her contention was overruled she did not impugn the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Neither does it appear that during the pendency of the appeal in the Supreme Court she moved for the abatement or suspension of the proceedings because of the provisions of sections 119, 700 and 703 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Under the circumstances it is unjust to defeat the claim of the appellee and to hold that it has been barred by the statute of nonclaim.
As a decision in one case is not necessarily an authority upon which to base the decision in another case, unless the entire factual bases are similar in principle, and as the facts of the present case are distinguishable from the cases adjudicated by this Court and relied upon by the appellant, our conclusion is that the order appealed from must be, as the same is hereby, affirmed, with costs against the appellant. So ordered.
Avanceña, C. J., Villa-Real, Imperial, Diaz, Concepcion, and Moran, JJ., concur.