EN BANC

[G.R. No. L-937. December 17, 1946.]

MANUEL D. FELICIANO, ET AL. , petitioners, vs . GUILLERMO CABRERA,

ET AL. , respondents.

Elisio Caunca, for petitioners.

Jose Belmonte, for respondent.

SYLLABUS

1. EJECTMENT; EXECUTION; SUSPENSION UNDER SECTION 4 OF

COMMONWEALTH ACT No. 689; AGREEMENT OF PARTIES TO SUSPEND, EFFECT OF;
CASE AT BAR. — Section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 689, which authorizes the
suspension of execution of the judgment in ejectment suits for a period not exceeding
three months, refers to a case where an extension, for not less than the maximum of
three months contemplated in the act, has not been mutually and voluntarily agreed
upon by the parties in the exercise of their freedom of contract in so far as it had not
been restricted by the same act. Where, as in this case the parties by a compromise
agreement agreed upon an extension not only of three months but of ve months and
eight days (from March 23, to August 31, 1946), it would seem that the aim of the law
was more than fully ful lled. Under said compromise agreement the tenant waived all
other extension, including that permitted by Commonwealth Act No. 689. If he had a
mental reservation of the purpose to still invoke the extension allowed by said Act
(which could not have exceeded three months) when he so solemnly agreed to the
extension of ve months and eight days which his landlords granted him under the
compromise agreement, it could truthfully be said that said tenant entered into the
agreement with a fraudulent purpose. He can only be said to have honestly entered into
it if he thereby waived the right to still ask for the extension provided for in said act.
2. ID.; ID.; ID.; DEPOSIT OF ALL RENTS DUE OR PORTIONS FIXED BY COURT,
CONDITION "SINE QUA NON," — The suspension of execution provided for in
Commonwealth Act no. 689 is allowed to be decreed and to continue in force only on
condition that the tenant or the person against whom judgment has been rendered
deposits the total amount of rents due during the period of suspension, or such
portions of said amount as the court may order from time to time at the same rate of
rental that he was charged for the month immediately preceding the expiration of the
lease. Evidently, this condition sine qua non has been imposed to afford the landlord a
protection from prejudice through possible non-payment of rents, calculated to
equitably compensate the special bene t conferred on the tenant by the extensions of
his occupancy regardless of the landlord's choice.

DECISION

HILADO , J : p

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 March 5, 1946, petitioners led with the Municipal Court of Manila a complaint
against respondent Eusebio R. Irabagon seeking the ejectment of the latter from the
"accesoria" numbered 42 of Quiricada Street, Manila.
Upon the case being called for hearing on March 23, 1946, the parties submitted
to the court a written compromise agreement (Exhibit B of petition) providing
(paragraph 1), among other things, that the plaintiffs grant to the defendant an
extension of his occupancy until August 31, 1946, the defendant to pay a monthly rent
of P60 payable in advance at the plaintiff's residence within the rst ve days of the
month to which the respective rent corresponds, beginning March, 1916. It was
likewise agreed (paragraph 5) that should the defendant fail to comply with the terms
of said agreement execution of the judgment "be immediately issued upon plaintiff's
petition, without notice to the defendant."
The respondent judge, approving the aforesaid agreement, on that same date
rendered judgment in accordance therewith (Exhibit C, petition). In paragraph (a) of its
decision, the municipal court, through respondent Judge Cabrera, ordered the
defendant to vacate the said premises "on or before August 31, 1946, and to pay the
plaintiffs the rentals thereof, at the rate of P60 per month within the first five (5) days of
the month to which each rental corresponds . . ., beginning March 1, 1946 until the
defendant vacates and surrenders to the plaintiffs the premises in question . . .."
In paragraph (b ) of the same decision the Court ordered both the plaintiffs and
the defendant "to strictly adhere to the other provisions of the aforementioned
agreement, namely: (1) not to appeal from this judgment to any superior court, and (2)
if plaintiff's premises at Nos. 408 and 410 Quiricada Street, Manila, now occupied by
other tenants, become vacant before August 31, 1946, the plaintiffs shall lease same to
the defendant, but after said date the plaintiffs shall be free to dispose of premises
Nos. 408 and 410 above-mentioned, without any compromise of any sort with the
defendant."
As respondent Irabagon, defendant in that case, continued occupying the
premises beyond August 31, 1946, petitioners who were the plaintiffs, on September 2,
1946, led a petition with the municipal court praying for the execution of the judgment,
which petition was granted on the same date. Said petition for execution was based not
only upon the judgment rendered in the case pursuant to the compromise agreement
aforesaid extending to August 31, 1946, the tenant's occupancy, after which
peremptory period it had been mutually agreed upon by the parties and sanctioned and
approved by the Court's judgment that the tenant was to return and surrender the
possession of the premises to the landlords, but also upon the medical advice of Dr.
Jesus V. Celis, physician of petitioners' family, that the sickness of petitioner Maria T.
de Feliciano and for state of health were such that she needed a quiet place to live in so
as to enable her to have more rest and repose than she was having at 1322 Magdalena
Street, Trozo, Manila, where she and her family were living and had to continue living
because respondent Irabagon had not vacated the above-mentioned premises at 412
Quiricada Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila. The medical advice is supported by the physician's
affidavit Exhibit D.
Upon the granting of said petition for execution the writ of execution (Exhibit E)
was issued by the municipal court under date of September 2, 1946.
Under date of September 4, 1946, respondent Irabagon, as defendant in the
detainer case, in a motion led with the municipal court (Exhibit F) asked for a stay of
execution based upon the following grounds, to wit: (1) that since the signing of the
aforesaid compromise agreement he had made all efforts to nd another house but his
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 efforts "proved in vain due to the present emergency"; (2) that he was the former owner
of the house in question but in the fall of 1914 he was forced to sell it to petitioners
"due to utter hardship suffered by everybody during that time"; (3) that petitioners are
rich people and "are now well accommodated in their other properties," he alleging
furthermore in this third ground that in the said agreement it was stipulated "that in
case any door of the three-door house in question is vacated, plaintiffs will not enforce
said agreement and decision," and that the middle door of said house was about to be
vacated as the occupants had promised plaintiffs to vacate it on or before September,
1946; (4) that respondent has "a quite big family, consisting of his wife and four
children"; and (5) that said respondent "is now constrained to ask that the six months
extension provided for by Act No. 689 be granted in his favor, and that he will not stop
nding another house to where he will transfer immediately even though the three
months prayed for in this motion has not yet elapsed."
It will be observed that the compromise agreement Exhibit B made on March 23,
1946, granted defendant five months and eight days extension of his occupancy, that is,
from March 23, 1946, to August 31, 1946, but in his motion to stay execution of
September 4, 1946, he asked for another three months extension, invoking
Commonwealth Act No. 689. Said motion to stay execution was granted by the
municipal court by order dated September 10, 1946, where in he was given an
extension until November 30, 1946, within which to vacate the premises in question
(Exhibit G).
The pertinent provisions of Commonwealth Act No. 689 are as follows:
"SEC. 4. When a nal and executory . . . judgment in a suit for the
recovery of rentals or for ejection from a building or part thereof used as dwelling
establishes the fact that the lessee has retained the possession of the building
leased to him after the expiration of the contract, the court that issued . . .
judgment may, at its discretion, on the petition of the lessee and subject to the
conditions prescribed in this Act, suspend the execution of said . . . judgment for a
period which it considers convenient but not exceeding three month. (Emphasis
supplied.)
xxx xxx xxx
"SEC. 6. The order of suspension shall be granted and will continue in
f orce only on condition that the person against whom judgment has been
rendered deposits the total amount of rents due during the period of suspension
or such portions of said amount as the Court may order from time to time, at the
same rate of rental that he was charged for the month immediately preceding the
expiration of the lease . . .." (Emphasis supplied.)
From the above-quoted portions of section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 689 it
appears that the court can not grant an extension exceeding three months. This
necessarily implies that the provision refers to a case where an extension, for not less
than the maximum of three months contemplated in the act, has not been mutually and
voluntarily agreed upon by the parties in the exercise of their freedom of contract in so
far as it has not been restricted by the same act. Where, as in this case the parties by a
compromise agreement agreed upon an extension not only of three months but of ve
months and eight days (from March 23 to August 31, 1946), it would seem that the aim
of the law was more than fully ful lled; and this conclusion acquires stronger
con rmation when we consider that the parties not only made the compromise
agreement, but submitted it to the municipal court to be the basis of its judgment in the
litigation that they had thus amicably settled.
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 In the compromise agreement (paragraph 4), the parties solemnly bound
themselves to abide by the decision to be rendered by the court to which said
agreement was being submitted, and not only this, but they further bound themselves
not to appeal from such decision to any superior court. In paragraph 5 it was mutually
stipulated that should the tenant fail to comply with the terms of said agreement,
execution of the judgment "be immediately issued upon plaintiffs' petition, without
notice to the defendant." It would be hard to employ a language more expressive of a
deliberate intention on the part of both parties to consider that compromise as a final
settlement of the controversy, including, of course, the period of extension of the
tenant's occupancy. The question arises whether or not under said compromise
agreement the tenant waived all other extension, including that permitted by
Commonwealth Act No. 689. If he had a mental reservation of the purpose to still
invoke the extension allowed by said Act (which could not have exceeded three
months) when he so solemnly agreed to the extension of ve months and eight days
which his landlords granted him under the compromise agreement, it cold truthfully be
said that said tenant entered into the agreement with a fraudulent purpose. He can only
by said to have honestly entered into it if we should consider that he thereby waived the
right to still ask for the extension provided for in said act. On the other hand, everybody
can rest assured that had the tenant frankly announced to his landlords that after
August 31, 1946, he would still ask for another three months extension under the act,
said landlords would never have entered into the compromise agreement. And
considering that the lease had really expired, as appears from the fact that the parties
had to extend the same, had it not been for the compromise agreement, there is no
question; that judgment of ejection would have been entered by the municipal court on
that very day, March 23, 1946, when the case was called for hearing.
But, at any rate, from the above-quoted provision of section 6 of Commonwealth
Act No. 689, it is very clear that the suspension of execution provided for in the act is
allowed to be decreed and to continue in force only on condition that the tenant or the
person against whom judgment has been rendered deposits the total amount of rents
due during the period of suspension, or such portions of said amount as the court may
order from time at the same rate of rental that he was charged for the month
immediately preceding the expiration of the lease. Evidently, this condition sine qua non
has been imposed to afford the landlord a protection from prejudice through possible
non-payment of rents, calculated to equitably compensate the special benefit conferred
on the tenant by the extension of his occupancy regardless of the landlord's choice. In
the present case, it is not pretended that the tenant made any such deposit of the total
amount of the rents corresponding to the extension that he sought in his motion to stay
execution of September 4, 1946, either before, simultaneously with, or after, the ling of
said motion. Is not even hinted that he, before, upon, or after, the ling of the same
motion, asked the municipal court to determine the portions of said rentals that he
would be required to deposit from time to time. Indeed, the fact that the order of
respondent Judge Cabrera of September 10, 1946, granting said motion for stay, does
not make mention of any such deposit, would logically show that no such deposit nor
such petition was ever made. In respondent Irabagon's answer to the petition herein it
is neither alleged nor insinuated that in connection with his aforesaid motion to stay
execution he ever made the deposit of the total amount of rents, nor that he ever
requested the municipal court to x from time to time the portions of such rents as
said court would deem r to determine as contemplated in section 6 of
Commonwealth Act No. 689.
With particular reference to the allegations of paragraphs 8 and 9 of the answer,
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 it is to be noted that the promise of the landlords not to lease to any either person, but
only to respondent Trabagon, any of the two doors contiguous to the "accesoria" in
question which might become vacant, was limited to the period "before August .31,
1946" (paragraph 6, Exhibit B). And, therefore, even if it were true, as alleged in
paragraph 9 of said answer, that the landlords had obtained a nal and executory
Judgment against the occupant of one of said doors to eject him on September 30,
"1945" (1946), the latter date was exactly one month after the expiration (August 31,
1946) of the period during which the aforesaid obligation of said landlords under
paragraph 6 of Exhibit B was in force.
For the foregoing considerations, the court is of opinion that the respondent
judge gravely abused the discretion conferred upon him by section 4, in relation to
section 6, of Commonwealth Act No. 689, when he issued his order Exhibit G granting
the stay of execution prayed for by respondent Irabagon in his motion Exhibit F.
And nally, it appears that in the order of the respondent judge of September 10,
1946 (Exhibit G) the extension granted to respondent Irabagon was to expire, as it
expired, on November 30, 1946.
Wherefore, the writ of certiorari prayed for is hereby granted, said order of the
respondent judge (Exhibit G) dated September 10, 1946, is hereby annulled, and said
respondent judge is hereby instructed to forthwith issue a writ of execution of the
judgment of the Municipal Court of Manila dated March 23 1946, in civil case No. 1588
of the same court. No costs. So ordered.
Moran, C.J., Feria, Pablo, Perfecto, Bengzon, Briones, Padilla and Tuason JJ.,
concur.
Paras, J., concurs in the result.

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