Agravante vs Patriarca

March 15, 1990Jurisdiction over Parties

(Civil Procedure)
Plaintiff
: Jose & Juan Agravente
Defendant
: Juana Patriarca (substituted by Rosita)
Ponente
: Narvasa
FACTS
:

1960: Juana Patriarca filed ACTION TO QUIET TITLE with CoFI CamSur.

Fire before pretrial.1.

Reschedule pretrial: Agravante moved for cancellation.2.
Reschedule pretrial again: Agravante moved for cancellation (illness of atty)

motionattached medcert. DENIED for lack of notice to adverse party, etc.

Pretrial pushed through with defendants absent. Agravante declared in default

andauthorized plaintiff to present evidence ex parte.

Patriarca died. Heirs presented motion praying to be substituted in her stead.

GRANTED.

Agravante filed PETITION FOR CERTIORARI with SC:

ISSUE
: (topical) whether Court acquired jurisdiction over Patriarca.
HELD:
YES
RATIO
:

Allegation of Agravante: demise of Patriarca long before the pre-trial setting

prevented theTC from acquiring jurisdiction over her.

SC: Jurisdiction over the person of the plaintiff is acquired by the court by the filing
of complaint.

Subsequent death will not affect jurisdiction, all that is entailed is the substitution of
theheirs for the deceased in accordance with Rule 3, Sec 17. In this case, t
heres no showing that
Agravantes had any ground to oppose the substitution or that they had suffered
anyprejudice of any sort by reason of the substitution.
JUDGMENT
: Dismissed.