FACTS: Spouses Jose Ros and
Estrella Aguete filed a complaint for the annulment of the Real Estate Mortgage
and all legal proceedings taken thereunder against PNB, Laoag Branch before the
CFI of Ilocos Norte.
The information disclosed that
Jose Ros (petitioner) obtained a loan of P115,000 from ONB and executed a real
estate mortgage involving a parcel of land as security thereof. Upon maturity,
the loan remained unpaid and as a result, PNB initiated extrajudicial
foreclosure proceedings on the said property. After which, the lot was sold to
PNB as the highest bidder. Petitioner
claims that she had no knowledge of the loan incurred by her husband nor did
she consent to the mortgage instituted on their conjugal property. She then
filed a complaint to annul the proceedings pertaining to the mortgage, sale and
consolidation of the property (after the lapse of 1 year). The trial court
rendered its decision in favor of petitioners but was later reversed by the
appellate court upon appeal.
ISSUE: WON the property is considered as redounded to
the benefit of the conjugal partnership.
HELD: Yes. Petition denied.
The husband cannot alienate or encumber any
conjugal real property without the consent, express or implied, of the wife.
Should the husband do so, then the contract is voidable.17 Article 173 of the
Civil Code allows Aguete to question Ros’ encumbrance of the subject property.
However, the same article does not guarantee that the courts will declare the
annulment of the contract. Annulment will be declared only upon a finding that
the wife did not give her consent.
It is enough that the benefit to the family is
apparent at the signing of the contract. From the very nature of the contract
of loan or services, the family stands to benefit from the loan facility or
services to be rendered to the business or profession of the husband. It is
immaterial, if in the end, his business or profession fails or does not
succeed. Simply stated, where the husband contracts obligations on behalf of
the family business, the law presumes, and rightly so, that such obligation
will redound to the benefit of the conjugal partnership.
Ros’ loan from PNB redounded to the benefit of
the conjugal partnership. Hence, the debt is chargeable to the conjugal
partnership.
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