Yap Say and Lim vs. IAC G.R. No. 73451; March 28, 1988 (case digest)

 

Yap Say and Lim vs. IAC

G.R. No. 73451      March 28, 1988

Facts:

            A complaint for legal redemption and rescission of a contract of sale was filed by spouses Trinidad Laborde and Tan Lo, tenants of the land and warehouse subject matter of the suit, against Chateau de Manila Development Corporation and Emiliana de la Costa, vendee and vendor, respectively, in the aforesaid contract. Subsequently, Juanita Yap Say and William Lim, the petitioners herein, filed a complaint in intervention, alleging that as tenants of a portion of the subject premises, they have a right of redemption over this portion pursuant to P.D. 1517, otherwise known as the Urban Land Reform Law. This was followed by the filing by the defendants, the present private respondents, of a Motion to Dismiss the Complaint in intervention on the grounds that the complaint in intervention stated no cause of action and the same was barred by laches, waived, abandoned, or otherwise extinguished.

The trial court granted the motion. The intervenors filed a motion for reconsideration of the above dismissal; likewise, plaintiffs flied a second motion for reconsideration of the order granting the motion to dismiss their complaint; both motions for reconsideration were denied by the trial court. Consequently, the plaintiffs and intervenors appealed to the Court of Appeals which, however, denied their appeals.

 

Issue:

            Whether petitioners herein were denied of procedural due process.

 

Held:

            SC found this assertion to be unfounded and unsupported in the records of this case as well as in the proceedings conducted in the courts below. In the trial court, petitioners were allowed to intervene and subsequently, to file a complaint in intervention, despite the private respondents' opposition. Petitioners were heard in the trial and appellate courts through the various pleadings filed by them. "To be heard" does not only mean verbal arguments in court. Where a party was given the opportunity to be heard, either through oral arguments or pleadings, there can be no denial of procedural due process. "Due process is not semper et ubique judicial process.

            Even on the merits, this petition will not hold water. As correctly held by the respondent Court, the petitioners have not mentioned any law, proclamation, or presidential decree covering or declaring the poblacion of Mauban, Quezon, as a specific site for urban land reform.