DIGEST/ FLORES MAY L. OROSA/ SPOUSES BAYSA VS SPOUSES PLANTILLA (2015)

 

Spouses Benito Baysa and Victoria Baysa, Petitioners,

vs.

Spouses Fidel Plantilla and Susan Plantilla, Register of Deeds of Quezon City and the Sheriff of Quezon City, Respondents.

G.R. No. 159271, July 13, 2015

 

FACTS:

The case involves a real estate mortgage (REM) entered into by the petitioners involving their parcel of land in Cubao, Quezon City covered by their Transfer Certificate of Title No. 260376 of the Register of Deeds of Quezon City to secure the payment of their obligation amounting to P2.3 Million in favor of the respondent spouses. Based on the terms of the REM, the petitioners agreed to pay interest on the principal amount at the rate of 2.5%/month, or P 57,500.00/month. Upon the default of the petitioners, the respondent spouses commenced the extrajudicial foreclosure of the REM to recover from the petitioners the total liability of P 3,579, 100.00 (inclusive of the principal and the unpaid interest).

The petitioners sued the respondent spouses in the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Quezon City to annul the extrajudicial foreclosure of the REM and the public auction conducted pursuant to the extrajudicial foreclosure. They alleged that all the proceedings relevant to the extrajudicial foreclosure were null and void, pointing out that there had been no power or authority to sell inserted in the REM or attached thereto as required by Section 1 Act No. 3135; and that the interest rate of 8% was unconscionable and violative of the Anti-Usury Law. The petitioners seek the reversal and setting aside of the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) declaring the extrajudicial foreclosure of their mortgaged property valid.

ISSUES:

Whether or not the Court of Appeals erred when it declared that the extrajudicial foreclosure was valid despite the lack of provision in the mortgage deed granting special power to sell to the mortgagee.

Whether or not the Court of Appeals erred when it concluded that consenting to the extrajudicial foreclosure of the property, by necessary implication, carries with it the grant of power to sell the property at public action.

Whether or not the Court of Appeals erred in not declaring the 2.5% monthly interest illegal and usurious, considering that the 8% interest was already declared as invalid and unwarranted.

RULING:

1.YES.

In the extrajudicial foreclosure of property subject of a real estate mortgage, Section 1 of Act No. 3135 (An Act to Regulate the Sale of Property Under Special Powers Inserted in or Annexed to Real Estate Mortgages) is quite explicit and definite about the special power to sell the property being required to be either inserted in or attached to the deed of mortgage. Accordingly, to enable the extra judicial foreclosure of the REM of the petitioners, the special power to sell should have been either inserted in the REM itself or embodied in a separate instrument attached to the REM. But it is not disputed that no special power to sell was either inserted in the REM or attached to the REM. Hence, the respondent spouses as the foreclosing mortgagees could not initiate the extrajudicial foreclosure, but must resort to judicial foreclosure pursuant to the procedure set forth in Rule 68 of the Rules of Court. The omission of the special power to sell the property subject of the mortgage was fatal to the validity and efficacy of the extrajudicial foreclosure, and warranted the invalidation of the entire proceedings conducted by the sheriff.

2. YES.

What was necessary was the special power or authority to sell - whether inserted in the REM itself, or annexed thereto - that authorized the respondent spouses to sell in the public auction their mortgaged property. The requirement for the special power or authority to sell finds support in the civil law. To begin with, because the sale of the property by virtue of the extrajudicial foreclosure would be made through the sheriff by the respondent spouses as the mortgagees acting as the agents of the petitioners as the mortgagors-owners, there must be a written authority from the latter in favor of the former as their agents; otherwise, the sale would be void. And, secondly, considering that, pursuant to Article 1878, (5), of the Civil Code, a special power of attorney was necessary for entering "into any contract by which the ownership of an immovable is transmitted or acquired either gratuitously or for a valuable consideration," the written authority must be a special power of attorney to sell. 

3. NO.

To start with, the petitioners are now estopped from assailing the validity of the monthly interest payments made. They expressly consented to be liable to pay 2.5%/month on the principal loan of P2.3 Million, and actually made several payments of interest at that rate. Secondly, they did not assail the rate of 2.5%/month as interest in the lower courts, doing so only in this appeal. Hence, they cannot be permitted to bring the issue for the first time in this Court, for that would be unfair not only to the adverse parties but also to the lower courts by depriving the latter of the opportunity to pass upon the issue. And, thirdly, the invalidation by the CA of the 8% compounded interest does not justify deleting the stipulation on the 2.5%/month interest that was really separate and distinct from the former.