Young v.

Keng Seng

091

GR No. 143464, 5 March 2003, Panganiban, J.

Digested by Anna Law 125 Civil Procedure
Petitioners:
Emilio Young and Tita Young
Respondents:
John Keng Seng
Nature of the case: Petition for certiorari under Rule 45, seeking to set aside the CAs denial of
the petitioners MR.
Emilio Young challenges the validity of a complaint filed twice by John Keng Seng for violating the
rule on forum shopping. The Court held that Young is barred from raising the ground on forum
shopping when it was not alleged in the original motion to dismiss.
FACTS
John Keng Seng filed a complaint for accounting of general agency, injunction, turning over
of properties, and damages, with the RTC Branch 53, Bacolod City against the herein
petitioners Emilio and Tita Young.
The Youngs filed a motion to dismiss for lack of cause of action. RTC Bacolod dismissed the
case.
3 months after, Keng Seng filed another complaint against Emilio Young for accounting and
damages with the RTC Branch 44, Bacolod City.
Young again filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that the complainant failed to state a
good, valid and/or worthwhile cause of action as against the defendant, which the court
denied. Young filed an MR, adding the following ground that Keng Seng had fatally failed
to comply with the rule against forum shopping, as he had in fact deliberately submitted a
false certification under oath as contained in the complaint in the present suit.
The MR was granted and the case was dismissed. Keng Seng filed an MR, but the presiding
judge inhibited himself from hearing the case, so it was re-raffled to branch 54.
Presiding Judge Magallanes of RTC Branch 54 issued an order finding that Keng Seng had
not violated the rule on forum shopping. Young filed an MR but was denied.
CA also ruled that Keng Seng did not violate the rule on forum shopping the first case was
dismissed in March 1997, while the second case was filed only in June 1997.
ISSUES & HOLDING
WON petitioner can still raise the alleged violation of the rule on nonforum shopping, even if
he failed to cite it as a ground in his Motion to Dismiss the Second Case. NO, a motion
attacking a pleading, order, judgment, or proceeding shall include all objections then
available, and all objections not so included shall be deemed
WON he CA erred in holding that respondent had not violated the rule on forum shopping.
NO.
RATIO

WAIVER
Section 1 of Rule 9 of the Rules of Court provides that defenses and objections not pleaded
in a motion to dismiss or in an answer are deemed waived.
However, courts shall nonetheless dismiss the claim when it appears from the pleadings or
the evidence on record that (1) the court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter, (2) there
is another action pending between the same parties for the same cause, (3) the action is
barred by prior judgment, or 4) the statute of limitations has been crossed.
Section 8 of Rule 15: Subject to the provisions of Section 1 of Rule 9, a motion attacking a
pleading, order, judgment, or proceeding shall include all objections then available, and all
objections not so included shall be deemed waived.
Applied to the case: petitioner is barred from raising the ground of forum shopping in the
Court of Appeals and SC for failure to invoke such ground at the first opportunity.
FORUM SHOPPING
Forum shopping is the institution of two or more suits in different courts, either
simultaneously or successively, in order to ask the courts to rule on the same or related
causes and/or to grant the same or substantially the same reliefs.
Section 5, Rule 7 was included in the ROC to stamp out this abominable practice of trifling
with the administration of justice.
First Philippine International Bank v. CA: where a litigant sues the same party against
whom another action or actions for the alleged violation of the same right and the
enforcement of the same relief is/are still pending, the defense of litis pendentia in one case
is a bar to the others.
Test for determining forum shopping: whether in the two (or more) cases pending, there is
identity of parties, rights or causes of action, and reliefs sought.
Applied to the case: litis pendentia is not present because the first case was already
dismissed before the institution of the second case. As to the second element, since the
dismissal in the first case is based on the theory that the complaint did not state a cause of
action, it does not bar the plaintiff from refiling the same action or claim with the proper
allegations showing a valid cause of action. No res judicata would arise.
The SC noted, however, that Keng Sengs certification violates the rule on non-forum
shopping because it did not disclose the filing of the first case. Nonetheless, it held that
substantial justice requires the resolution of the present controversy on its merits.

DISPOSITIVE
Petition DENIED.
TC directed to hear the controversy and decide on the merits.