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G.R. No. 171219. September 3, 2012.*

ATTY. FE Q. PALMIANO-SALVADOR, petitioner, vs.
CONSTANTINO ANGELES, substituted by LUZ G.
ANGELES,** respondent.

Actions; Complaints; Courts; Jurisdiction; If a complaint is

filed for and in behalf of the plaintiff [by one] who is not
authorized to do so, the complaint is not deemed filed; hence, the
court should dismiss the complaint on the ground that it has no
jurisdiction over the complaint and the plaintiff.—In  Tamondong
v. Court of Appeals, 444 SCRA 509 (2004), the Court categorically
stated that “[i]f a complaint is filed for and in behalf of the
plaintiff [by one] who is not authorized to do so, the complaint is
not deemed filed. An unauthorized complaint does not produce
any legal effect. Hence, the court should dismiss the complaint on
the ground that it has no jurisdiction over the complaint and the
plaintiff.

PETITION for review on certiorari of the decision and

resolution of the Court of Appeals.
   The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.
   Fabros, Ulanday, Velasco & Associates for respondent.

PERALTA, J.:
This resolves the Petition for Review on Certiorari under
Rule 45 of the Rules of Court, praying that the Decision1 of
the Court of Appeals (CA) promulgated on September 16,

_______________
* THIRD DIVISION.
** Respondent Constantino Angeles (deceased) has been substituted by
surviving spouse Luz G. Angeles, per Resolution dated November 20, 2006
(See Rollo, p. 172).
1  Penned by Associate Justice Vicente Q. Roxas, with Associate
Justices Portia Aliño-Hormachuelos and Juan Q. Enriquez, Jr.,
concurring; Rollo, pp. 14-19.

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562 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

Palmiano-Salvador vs. Angeles

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2005 dismissing the petition before it, and its

Resolution2  dated January 13, 2006, denying petitioner’s
Motion for Reconsideration, be reversed and set aside.
The records reveal the CA’s narration of facts to be
accurate, to wit:

x x x x
Respondent-appellee ANGELES is one of the registered owners
of a parcel of land located at 1287 Castanos Street, Sampaloc,
Manila, evidenced by Transfer Certificate of Title No. 150872. The
subject parcel of land was occupied by one Jelly Galiga (GALIGA)
from 1979 up to 1993, as a lessee with a lease contract.
Subsequently, Fe Salvador (SALVADOR) alleged that she bought
on September 7, 1993 the subject parcel of land from GALIGA
who represented that he was the owner, being one in possession.
Petitioner-appellant SALVADOR remained in possession of said
subject property from November 1993 up to the present.
On November 18, 1993, the registered owner, the respondent-
appellee ANGELES, sent a letter to petitioner-appellant
SALVADOR demanding that the latter vacate the subject
property, which was not heeded by petitioner-appellant
SALVADOR. Respondent-appellee ANGELES, thru one Rosauro
Diaz, Jr. (DIAZ), filed a complaint for ejectment on October 12,
1994 with the Metropolitan Trial Court [MeTC] of Manila, Branch
16, docketed as Civil Case No. 146190-CV. 
The Assailed Decision of the Trial Courts
The [MeTC] rendered its decision on November 29, 1999 in
favor of herein respondent-appellee ANGELES, the dispositive
portion of which reads, to wit: 
WHEREFORE, judgment is hereby rendered for the
plaintiff and against the defendant ordering the latter and
all persons claiming under her to:
1) vacate the parcel of land located at 1287 Castanos
Street, Sampaloc, Manila, and surrender the same to the
plaintiff;

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2 Id., at pp. 35-36.

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Palmiano-Salvador vs. Angeles

2) pay the plaintiff the sum of Php1,000.00 monthly as

reasonable compensation for her use and occupancy of the
above parcel of land beginning November 1993 up to the
time she has actually vacated the premises;

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3) pay the plaintiff the sum of Php5,000.00 as

attorney’s fees and the cost of suit.
SO ORDERED.
In the appeal filed by petitioner-appellant SALVADOR, she
alleged, among others, that DIAZ, who filed the complaint for
ejectment, had no authority whatsoever from respondent-appellee
ANGELES at the time of filing of the suit. Petitioner-appellant
SALVADOR’s appeal was denied by the [Regional Trial Court]
RTC in a Decision dated March 12, 2003. The Motion for
Reconsideration filed by SALVADOR was denied in an Order
dated March 16, 2004.3

Petitioner elevated the case to the CA via a petition for

review, but in a Decision dated September 16, 2005, said
petition was dismissed for lack of merit. The CA affirmed
the factual findings of the lower courts that Galiga, the
person who supposedly sold the subject premises to
petitioner, was a mere lessee of respondent, the registered
owner of the land in question. Such being the case, the
lower court ruled that Galiga could not have validly
transferred ownership of subject property to herein
petitioner. It was ruled by the CA that there were no
significant facts or circumstances that the trial court
overlooked or misinterpreted, thus, it found no reason to
overturn the factual findings of the MeTC and the RTC. A
motion for reconsideration of said Decision was denied in a
Resolution dated January 13, 2006.
Hence, the present petition, where one of the important
issues for resolution is the effect of Rosauro Diaz’s
(respondent’s representative) failure to present proof of his
authority to represent respondent (plaintiff before the
MeTC) in filing the complaint. This basic issue has been
ignored by the MeTC and the RTC, while the CA absolutely
failed to address it,

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3 Rollo, pp. 15-16.

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564 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

Palmiano-Salvador vs. Angeles

despite petitioner’s insistence on it from the very

beginning, i.e., in her Answer filed with the MeTC. This is
quite unfortunate, because this threshold issue should have
been resolved at the outset as it is determinative of the
court’s jurisdiction over the complaint and the plaintiff.
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Note that the complaint before the MeTC was filed in

the name of respondent, but it was one Rosauro Diaz who
executed the verification and certification dated October
12, 1994, alleging therein that he was respondent’s
attorney-in-fact. There was, however, no copy of any
document attached to the complaint to prove Diaz’s
allegation regarding the authority supposedly granted to
him. This prompted petitioner to raise in her Answer and
in her Position Paper, the issue of Diaz’s authority to file
the case. On December 11, 1995, more than a year after the
complaint was filed, respondent attached to his Reply
and/or Comment to Respondent’s (herein petitioner)
Position Paper,4  a document entitled Special Power of
Attorney (SPA)5  supposedly executed by respondent in
favor of Rosauro Diaz. However, said SPA was executed
only on November 16, 1994, or more than a month
after the complaint was filed,  appearing to have been
notarized by one Robert F. McGuire of Santa Clara County.
Observe, further, that there was no certification from the
Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, California,
U.S.A, that said person is indeed a notary public in Santa
Clara County, California. Verily, the court cannot give full
faith and credit to the official acts of said Robert McGuire,
and hence, no evidentiary weight or value can be attached
to the document designated as an SPA dated November 16,
1994. Thus, there is nothing on record to show that Diaz
had been authorized by respondent to initiate the action
against petitioner.
What then, is the effect of a complaint filed by one who
has not proven his authority to represent a plaintiff in
filing an

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4 Record, pp. 161-171.
5 Id., at p. 172.

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action? In  Tamondong v. Court of Appeals,6  the Court

categorically stated that “[i]f a complaint is filed for and in
behalf of the plaintiff [by one] who is not authorized to do
so, the complaint is not deemed filed. An unauthorized
complaint does not produce any legal effect. Hence, the
court should dismiss the complaint on the ground that it

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has no jurisdiction over the complaint and the

plaintiff.”7 This ruling was reiterated in  Cosco Philippines
Shipping, Inc. v. Kemper Insurance Company,8  where the
Court went on to say that “[i]n order for the court to have
authority to dispose of the case on the merits, it must
acquire jurisdiction over the subject matter and the parties.
Courts acquire jurisdiction over the plaintiffs upon the
filing of the complaint, and to be bound by a decision, a
party should first be subjected to the court’s jurisdiction.
Clearly, since no valid complaint was ever filed with the
[MeTC], the same did not acquire jurisdiction over the
person of respondent [plaintiff before the lower court].”9
Pursuant to the foregoing rulings, therefore, the MeTC
never acquired jurisdiction over this case and all
proceedings before it were null and void. The courts could
not have delved into the very merits of the case, because
legally, there was no complaint to speak of. The court’s
jurisdiction cannot be deemed to have been invoked at all.
IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING, the Petition is
GRANTED. The Decision of the Metropolitan Trial Court
in Civil Case No. 146190, dated November 29, 1999; the
Decision of the Regional Trial Court in Civil Case No. 00-
96344, dated March 12, 2003; and the Decision of the Court
of Appeals in CA-G.R. SP No. 83467, are SET ASIDE AND
NULLIFIED. The complaint filed by respondent before the
Metropolitan Trial Court is hereby DISMISSED.

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6 G.R. No. 158397, November 26, 2004, 444 SCRA 509.
7 Id., at p. 519.
8 G.R. No. 179488, April 23, 2012, 670 SCRA 343.
9 Id.

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Palmiano-Salvador vs. Angeles

SO ORDERED.

Velasco, Jr. (Chairperson), Abad, Perez*** and

Mendoza, JJ., concur.

Petition granted, judgment set aside and nullified.

Notes.—The test of sufficiency of a complaint is whether

or not, assuming the truth of the facts that plaintiff alleges
in it, the court can render judgment granting him the
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judicial assistance he seeks. (Del Rosario vs. Donato, Jr.,

614 SCRA 332 [2010])
A supplemental complaint is like any complaint and the
rule is that the filing fees due on a complaint need to be
paid upon its filing—the rules do not require the court to
make special assessments in cases of supplemental
complaints. (Do-All Metals Industries, Inc. vs. Security
Bank Corp., 639 SCRA 39 [2011])
——o0o——

_______________
*** Designated Additional Member, per Special Order No. 1299 dated
August 28, 2012.

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