CIVIL LAW REVIEW I LECTURE SERIES

Articles 1 to 36, New Civil Code

For: University of San Agustin School of Law

General Luna Street, Iloilo City

SY 2016-2017, 1^st Semester

By: Atty. Eduardo T. Reyes, III

Article 1. This Act shall be known as the Civil Code of the Philippines.

Article 8. Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form part of the legal system of the Philippines.

Article 9. No judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of the silence, obscurity or insufficiency of the laws.

Article 10. In case of doubt in the interpretation or application of laws, it is presumed that the lawmaking body intended right and justice to prevail. 

Civil Law v. Common Law system

Civil Law- Mass of precepts that determine or regulate relations among members of family, society for the protection of private interests.

·       Written law as basis for civil law

·       Justice Ginsburg of US Supreme Court opines that : “there is no such thing as stare decisis in civil law regimes”. Courts look not to prior decisions as precedents but to the statute itself with its inexorably one interpretation. (No alternative interpretation.)

·       “Although Holmes once famously said that the law is not a great brooding omnipresence waiting to be discovered, in European countries, that is exactly the case. There can only be one correct interpretation, and any opinion by a member of the court disagreeing with the proper conclusion would be seen not as an alternative interpretation but as an error. If the interpretation of the court wreaks hardship, then the solution lies in the hands of lawmakers, not judges”.[1]

·       France, Germany, all courts of continental Europe  

Common law system- evolved from jurisprudence.

·       Great Britain, Commonwealth members and the United States

·       “The life of the law had not been logic but experience. The felt necessities of the times, the prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow men, have a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed”[2].

·       SOCIOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE- Belief that judges had to take into account economic, social, and political facts in addition to legal theory when determining a case.

·       LEGAL REALISM- many factors influence legal outcomes, of which the law itself was but one.

Article 2. Laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the completion of their publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines[3],  unless it is otherwise provided. This Code shall take effect one year after publication.

·       Tanada v. Tuvera, 146 SCRA 446

·       Nagkaisang Maralita ng Sitio Masigasig, Inc. v. Military Shrine Services, G.R. No. 187587, June 5, 2013.

·       THE CLAUSE “UNLESS IT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED”. – solely refers to the 15 day period and not to the requirement of publication. Publication is an indispensable requirement.

·       A. Law is silent; B. Law provides for shorter or longer period; and, C. Law says it shall take effect “immediately”.

·       Farinas v. Exec. Secretary (417 SCRA 503, 2003)- law shall become effective 15-days after completion of publication

·       La Bugal B’ Laan v. Ramos (421 SCRA 148, 2004)- Immediately upon its publication 

Article 3. Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith.

Exceptions:

1)     Mistake upon a difficult or doubtful question of law may be the basis of good faith (Art. 526 [3], NCC)

2)    Mutual Error as to the legal effect of agreement (Art. 1334, NCC)

3)    Payment by reason of a mistake in the construction or application of a doubtful or difficult question of law (Art. 2155, NCC)

Article 4. Laws shall have no retroactive effect, unless the contrary is provided.

Exceptions:

1)     When the law expressly provides for retroactivity, i.e., Family Code, Art. 256

2)    When the law is curative or remedial

3)    When the law is procedural

4)    When the law is penal in nature and favourable to the accused.

Article 5. – Self-explanatory

Article 6. Rights may be waived, unless the waiver is contrary to law, public policy, morals or good customs, or prejudicial to a third person with a right recognized by law.

·       RIGHT must be in existence and exercised by a duly capacitated person.

·       Right v. Obligation

Article 7. Laws are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their violation or non-observance shall not be excused by disuse, or custom, or practice to the contrary.

-self-explanatory

Articles 11, 12 and 13. –Self-explanatory

-        Law speaks of years, months, days or nights.

Article 14. Penal laws and those of public security and safety shall be obligatory upon all who live or sojourn in Philippine territory, subject to the principles of public international law and to treaty stipulations.

Article 15. Laws relating to family rights and duties, or to the status, condition, and legal capacity of persons are binding upon citizens of the Philippines, even though living abroad.

-Nationality rule.

- related to 2^nd para. Article 26, New Family Code 

Article 16. Real property as well as personal property is subject to the law of the country where it is situated.

Exceptions:

1)     The order of succession

2)    Amount of successional rights

3)    Intrinsic validity of testamentary provisions

4)    Capacity to succeed

Article 17. The forms and solemnities of contracts, wills, and other public instruments shall be governed by the laws of the country in which they are executed.

            When the acts referred to are executed before the diplomatic or consular officials of the Republic of the Philippines in a foreign country, the solemnities established by Philippine laws shall be observed in their execution.

            Prohibitive laws concerning persons, their acts or property, and those which have for their object public order, public policy and good customs shall not be rendered ineffective by laws or judgment promulgated, or by determinations or conventions agreed upon in a foreign country.

-See Revised Penal Code, Act 3815, as amended, Article 2.

-“Application of its provisions.- Except as provided in the treaties and laws of preferential application, the provisions of this Code shall be enforced not only within the Philippine Archipelago, including its atmosphere, its interior waters and maritime zone, but also outside of its jurisdiction, against those who:

1)     Should commit an offense while on a Philippine ship or airship;

2)    Should forge or counterfeit any coin or currency note of the Philippine Islands or obligations and securities issued by the Government of the Philippine Islands;

3)    Should be liable for acts connected with the introduction into these islands of the obligations and securities mentioned in the preceding number;

4)    While being public officers or employees, should commit an offense in the exercise of their functions; or

5)    Should commit any of the crimes against national security and the law of nations, defined in Title One of Book Two of this Code.” 

Article 19. Every person must, in the exercise of his rights and in the performance of his duties, act with justice, give everyone his due, and observe honesty and good faith.

Article 20. Every person who, contrary to law, wilfully or negligently causes damage to another, shall indemnify the latter for the same.

Article 21. Any person who wilfully causes loss or injury to another in a manner that is contrary to morals, good customs or public policy shall compensate the latter for the damage.

·       Manuel Go Cinco v. CA et al., G.R. No. 151903, October 9, 2009

·       A right, though by itself legal because recognized or granted by law as such, may nevertheless become the source of some illegality.

·       “The elements of an abuse of right under Article 19 are the following: (1) There is a legal right or duty; (2) which is exercised in bad faith; (3) for the sole intent of prejudicing or injuring another x x x”.[4]

·       There is a common element under Arts. 19 and 21, and that is, the act must be intentional. However, Art. 20 does not distinguish: the act may be done either wilfully or negligently.

·       “Is not a panacea for all hurts and pains”.

Article 22. Every person who through an act or performance by another, or any other means, acquires or comes into possession of something at the expense of the latter without just or legal ground, shall return the same to him.

Article 23. Even when an act or event causing damage to another’s property was not due to the fault or negligence of the defendant, the latter shall be liable for indemnity if through the act or event he was benefitted.

·       Requisites: (1)An enrichment; (2) a corresponding deprivation; and (3) Absence of any juristic reason for the enrichment

·       “Palm-tree justice doctrine”

·       Driving force is spirit of neighbourliness and should not be borne out of avarice or gain

·       Republic v. Ballocanog,[5]-  a person in good faith invested money to develop and grow fruit-bearing trees on land which he believed as his own but turned out to be timberland which belonged to the State.

Articles 24, 25 , 26 and 27. Self-explanatory.

Nevertheless,

·       Alienation from friends impacts a person psychologically and socially

Article 28. Unfair competition.

Article 29. Civil Action.

Article 32. Any public officer or employee, or any private individual, who directly or indirectly obstructs, defeats, violates or in any manner impedes or impairs any of the following rights and liberties of another person shall be liable for damages: x x x x”.

Civil Liberties.

·       Good faith not a defense.

·       Malice or bad faith not a requisite.

·       However, Judges. “The responsibility herein set forth is not demandable from a judge unless his act or omission constitutes a violation of the Penal Code or other penal statute”[6].

Justice Louis Brandeis, dissenting in Olmstead v. United States (1928) otherwise known “Alcohol Prohibition case on wiretapping”: “The Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding”.

Articles 30 to 36.

·       Basic rule: Criminal proceedings occupy a higher tier in the order of priority.

·       When civil action is filed first, and criminal action is subsequently filed, the civil action has to be suspended.

·       When criminal action was filed ahead, civil action cannot be instituted until final judgment has been entered in the criminal action.

·       Exception: Articles 32,33,34 and 2176. Independent Civil Actions.

·       Prejudicial question. (1) the civil action involves an issue similar or intimately related to the issue raised in the criminal action; and (2) the resolution of such issue determines whether or not the criminal action may proceed.

·       Note: Civil Code does not distinguish as to whether civil action must have been “previously instituted”. BUT, See Sec. 7, Rule 111 of 2000 Rules on Criminal Procedure. 

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[1] P. 333, DISSENT AND THE SUPREME COURT, ITS ROLE IN THE COURT’S HISTORY AND THE NATION’S CONSTITUTIONAL DIALOGUE, by Melvin I. Urofksy

[2] THE COMMON LAW (1881) , by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (Legal Philosopher, US Supreme Court Justice).

[3] Amended by Exec. Order No. 200 by Pres. Corazon Aquino

[4] Albenson Enterprises Corp. v. CA, 217 SCRA 16

[5] G.R. No. 163794, November 28, 2008

[6] Esguerra v. Gonzales-Asdala, G.R. No. 168906, December 4, 2004