TOPIC: Family Relations (Art 150)

SPOUSES AUGUSTO HONTIVEROS and MARIA HONTIVEROS, petitioners,

vs.
REGIONAL TRIAL COURT, Branch 25, Iloilo City and SPOUSES GREGORIO
HONTIVEROS and TEODORA AYSON, respondents.

G.R. No. 125465 June 29, 1999

FACTS: Petitioners spouses filed a complaint for damages against private respondents
alleging that they are the owners of a parcel of land and also that they were
deprived of income from the said lands consisting of rentals from tenants of the land
and that private respondents withheld possession of the land in bad faith.

Private respondent denied the allegations and invoked that he and respondent
Ayson were not married. On the contrary, they alleged that the possession of the
subject property had already been transferred to petitioners since 1985 by virtue of
writ of possession. Respondents assert that petitioners were receiving rentals from
the lands, hence, the complaint has no cause of action since it did not allege that
earnest efforts towards a compromise had been made, considering that petitioner
Augusto and respondent Gregorio are brothers.

Petitioners filed an Amended Complaint inserting the allegation that “earnest efforts
towards a compromise have been made between the parties but the same were
unsuccessful”. Respondents answered denying the same.

Petitioners moved for a judgment but the RTC denied the petitioner’s motion and at
the same time dismissed the case on the ground of unverified complaint pursuant to
Article 151 of the Family Code and therefore, it did not believe that earnest efforts
had been made to arrive at a compromise.

Petitioner moved for reconsideration but was denied. Hence, this present case.

ISSUE: WON the RTC erred in dismissing the complaint on the ground that it does not allege
under oath that earnest efforts toward a compromise were made prior to the filing
as required by Article 151 of the Family Code?

WON Article 151 of the Family Code applies in this case?

RULING: Yes, the Court erred in dismissing the complaint on the ground that verified
complaint of earnest efforts to a compromise only because the trial court could not
believe the veracity of the allegation.

The Court emphasized that the absence of the verification required in Article 151
does not affect the jurisdiction of the Court over the subject matter of the complaint.
Such verification is merely a formal requirement intended to secure assurance that
matters which are alleged are true and correct.
Under Article 151 of the Family Code, “No suit between members of the same family
shall prosper unless it should appear from the verified complaint or petition that
earnest efforts towards a compromise have been made, but that the same have
failed. If it is shown that no such efforts were in fact made, the case must be
dismissed.”

Petitioner’s contention that Article 151 of the FC does not apply to the case is
correct since the suit is not exclusively among the family members. Under the
subject provision, the phrase “members of the same family” refers to the husband
and wife; parents and children; ascendants and descendants; and brothers and
sisters.

Respondent Ayson and Petitioner Hontiveros (Maria) are considered strangers to

the Hontiveros family for purposes of Art. 151, therefore, they are not members of
the family. In several jurisprudence, the Court already decided that “whenever a
stranger is a party in the case involving the family members, the requisit showing
the earnest efforts to compromise is no longer mandatory”.