RCBC v. Marwin Enterprises

402 SCRA

Facts:

RCBC filed a complaint for recovery of sum of money with writ of preliminary attachment against Magwin and 4 others. The writ was partially satisfied. Petitioner did not cause the case to be set for pre-trial. For about 6 months the parties tried to settle through loan restricting program but only one of the defendants signed the agreement.

RTC Makati dismissed the case without prejudice for failure to prosecute for unreasonable length of time. A motion for reconsideration is filed informing the court of the on-going amicable settlement. The judgment was set aside and the plaintiffs are directed to submit the compromise agreement.

Motion to set the case for pre-trial was filed by petitioner for the failure of the parties to compromise. The trial court denied the motion. The CA approved the decision and said that the order of trial court setting aside is dependent on two conditions.

1) Submission of compromise agreement within 15 days, and2) Failure to submit shall cause the imposition of payment of docket fees for refilling of the case

The CA said that the order of the RTC was been set aside because a party need not pay docket fees for refilling if the original case is revived.

Issue

Whether docket fee is necessary

Held:

There is no substantial policy requiring petitioner to pay again the docket fees when it had already discharge the obligation simultaneously with filing a complaint for sum of money. The procedure in dismissed cases when refilled is the same as it was initially filed. It is a re-enactment of the past proceedings.

The addition of second sentence “failure on part of plaintiff to submit agreement will cause to payment of docket fee for refilling” is not a direction to pay but a statement of event that may result in its imposition. Such payment is not obligatory in civil cases since docket fees are deluged only after dismissal becomes executor.

Once dismissal attained finality, the trial court cannot impose legal fees again because executory dismissal divest the trial court jurisdiction as well as residual powers to order anything relative to the case. It would have to wait till the case is decided again. In that case, no need to file docket fees for continuation of hearing wont set aside order of dismissal and reinstatement of complaint.