ESPIRITU vs. LAZARO

G.R. No. 181020          November 25, 2009

FACTS:

Petitioners Espiritu filed a complaint for recovery of personal property with damages and preliminary attachment against respondents Lazaro and Sison among others, involving the alleged dollar time deposit accounts left by the late Porfirio Lazaro. The trial court granted the prayer for preliminary attachment. Respondents' motion to discharge the attachment and the two motions to dismiss were dismissed. Respondent Sison filed her answer with Counterclaim and crossclaim. Lazaro filed a Cautionary Answer with Manifestation and a Motion to File a Supplemental/Amended Answer.


On Aug. 2002, petitioners received a copy of the cautionary answer. On July 2003, the trial court dismissed the complaint due to petitioners’ failure to prosecute for an unreasonable length of time. CA affirmed the dismissal of the case.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the trial court's dismissal of the case is proper.

RULING:

Yes. Section 1 of Rule 18 of the Rules of Court imposes upon the plaintiff the duty to set the case for pre-trial after the last pleading is served and filed. Under Section 3 of Rule 17, failure to comply with the said duty makes the case susceptible to dismissal for failure to prosecute for an unreasonable length of time or failure to comply with the rules.

In every action, the plaintiffs are duty-bound to prosecute their case with utmost diligence and with reasonable dispatch to enable them to obtain the relief prayed for and, at the same time, to minimize the clogging of the court dockets.

It bears stressing that the sanction of dismissal may be imposed even absent any allegation and proof of the plaintiff’s lack of interest to prosecute the action, or of any prejudice to the defendant resulting from the failure of the plaintiff to comply with the rules. The failure of the plaintiff to prosecute the action without any justifiable cause within a reasonable period of time will give rise to the presumption that he is no longer interested in obtaining the relief prayed for.

Read the full text here.