Mercedes Canullas vs Hon. Willelmo Fortun, GR No. 57499, June 22, 1984
Subject: Obligations and Contracts
FACTS
Petitioner
MERCEDES Calimlim-Canullas and FERNANDO Canullas were married on December 19,
1962. They begot five children. They lived in a small house on the residential
land in question with an area of approximately 891 square meters, located at
Bacabac, Bugallon, Pangasinan. After FERNANDO's father died in 1965, FERNANDO
inherited the land.
In
1978, FERNANDO abandoned his family and was living with private respondent
Corazon DAGUINES. During the pendency of this appeal, they were convicted of
concubinage in a judgment rendered on October 27, 1981 by the then Court of
First Instance of Pangasinan, Branch II, which judgment has become final.
On
April 15, 1980, FERNANDO sold the subject property with the house thereon to
DAGUINES for the sum of P2,000.00. In the document of sale, FERNANDO described
the house as "also inherited by me from my deceased parents."
Unable
to take possession of the lot and house, DAGUINES initiated a complaint on June
19, 1980 for quieting of title and damages against MERCEDES. The latter
resisted and claimed that the house in dispute where she and her children were
residing, including the coconut trees on the land, were built and planted with
conjugal funds and through her industry; that the sale of the land together
with the house and improvements to DAGUINES was null and void because they are
conjugal properties and she had not given her consent to the sale.
ISSUE
Whether or not the contract of sale
was valid under the circumstances surrounding the transaction.
RULING
No.
Under the law (Art 1409, NCC) (1),
those contracts whose cause, object or purpose is contrary to law, morals, good
customs, public order, or public policy are inexistent and void from the
beginning. These contracts cannot be ratified. Neither can the right to set up
the defense of illegality be waived.
In this case, the contract of sale
was null and void for being contrary to morals and public policy. The sale was
made by a husband in favor of a concubine after he had abandoned his family and
left the conjugal home where his wife and children lived and from whence, they
derived their support. That sale was subversive of the stability of the family,
a basic social institution which public policy cherishes and protects.
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