SANTOS VS CA

NICANOR T. SANTOS vs. COURT OF APPEALS, CONSUELAO T. SANTOS-GUERRERO and ANDRES GUERRERO

G.R. No. 134787
November 15, 2005

Facts:
         
          Petitioner Nicanor T. Santos and private respondent Consuelo T. Santos-Guerrero are brother and sister, born to spouses Urbano Santos and Candelaria Santos, now both deceased. Sometime in 1956, Nicanor, Consuelo and eight of their siblings, executed a "Basic Agreement of Partition" covering properties they inherited from their parents.

          Two years later, Consuelo, joined by her husband, herein respondent Andres Guerrero (collectively, the "Guerreros"), filed suit with the then Court of First Instance (CFI) of Rizal against petitioner Nicanor and two (2) other brothers, for recovery of inheritance.

Issue:
          Article 222 of the New Civil Code in relation to Section 1(j), Rule 16 of the Rules of Court has no application

Ruling:
          A lawsuit between close relatives generates deeper bitterness than between strangers. Thus, the provision making honest efforts towards a settlement a condition precedent for the maintenance of an action between members of the same family. As it were, a complaint in ordinary civil actions involving members of the same family must contain an allegation that earnest efforts toward a compromise have been made pursuant to Article 222 of the Civil Code, now pursuant to Article 151 of the Family Code. Otherwise, the complaint may be dismissed under Section 1(j), Rule 16 of the Rules of Court. Admittedly, the complaint filed in this case contains no such allegation. But a complaint otherwise defective on that score may be cured by the introduction of evidence effectively supplying the necessary averments of a defective complaint.

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