Case Digest (G.R. No. 146091)
Facts:
Maria Paz V. Nepomuceno, joined by her husband, Fermin A. Nepomuceno, petitioners, vs. City of Surigao and Salvador Sering in his capacity as City Mayor of Surigao, respondents, G.R. No. 146091, July 28, 2008, Supreme Court First Division, Corona, J., writing for the Court.Petitioner Maria Paz Nepomuceno filed Civil Case No. 4570 in the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 32, Surigao City, seeking recovery of possession or, in the alternative, the market value of a 652 sq. m. portion of her 50,000 sq. m. titled lot (TCT No. 3659) which the City of Surigao had occupied, developed and used as a public road. She alleged the city never asked permission nor instituted expropriation proceedings. She and her husband sought an amicable settlement in October 1994 and again in January 1995; they allege Mayor Salvador Sering publicly rebuffed them and refused payment, prompting claims for moral damages for mental anguish and humiliation.
Respondents admitted the road’s existence and asserted it had been constructed in the 1960s during former Mayor Pedro Espina’s administration, when the lot was owned by Vicente and Josefa Fernandez who purportedly signed a road right-of-way agreement; the city said the original agreement could not be produced because records were lost when the Office of the City Engineer was demolished by Typhoon Nitang in 1994.
The RTC, after hearing evidence, ordered the City of Surigao to pay petitioners P3,260.00 as compensation for the portion taken, with legal interest from 1960 until paid, and P5,000.00 as attorney’s fees, but denied moral and exemplary damages. The Court of Appeals (CA), in CA-G.R. CV No. 56461, affirmed the RTC in most respects but modified the award: it granted petitioners P30,000.00 as moral damages and P20,000.00 as attorney’s fees and litigation expenses. Petitioners filed a petition for review on certiorari to the Supreme Court (Rule 45) assailing the CA decision, arguing principally that just compensation should be computed at the time of actual payment/current value (seeking P200/sq. m., or...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Should just compensation be measured at the time of the taking (1960) or at the time of actual payment/current value?
- Does Article 1250 of the Civil Code (extraordinary inflation/deflation) apply to awards of just compensation in cases lacking a contractual obligation?
- Are moral and exemplary damages proper against the City of Surigao and its mayor for occupying and using petitioners’ land without formal expropriation?
- Is the Court of Appeals decision in Spouses Mamerto Espina, Sr. and Flor Espina v. City of Ormoc...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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