Raymond vs. Court of Appeals

No. L-80380. September 28, 1988.

FACTS

Santiago Bitera filed  a complaint for damages against Raymond and Alba with the Regional Trial Court of Iloilo. The petitioners move for the dismissal of the action on the ground of improper venue. They argued that although Bitera’s complaint includes his address in Ilo-ilo City, he has actually residing for many years in Bais City, Dumaguete. 

The Trial Court however denied their motion to dismiss. The Court of Appeals affirmed RTC’s decision on the ground that it is the plaintiff who is given the right to elect where to bring his action.

ISSUE

Whether or not the RTC and CA erred in not dismissing Bitera’s action despite the fact that its venue had clearly been improperly laid, and had been seasonably objected to on that ground by petitioners in a motion to dismiss.

RULING

Yes. According to Section 2, Rule 4 of the Rules of Court, personal actions, such as Bitera’s, “may be commenced and tried where the defendant or any of the defendants resides or may be found, or where the plaintiff or any of the plaintiffs resides, at the election of the plaintiff.”

Garcia Fule v. Court of Appeals make a distinction between the terms ‘residence’ and ‘domicile’ but as generally used in statutes fixing venue, the terms are synonymous, and convey the same meaning as the term ‘inhabitant.’ In other words, ‘resides’ should be viewed or understood in its popular sense, meaning the personal, actual or physical habitation of a person, actual residence or place of abode. It signifies physical presence in a place and actual stay thereat. In this popular sense, the term means merely residence, that is, personal residence, not legal residence or domicile. Residence simply requires bodily presence as an inhabitant in a given place, while domicile requires bodily presence in that place and also an intention to make it one’s domicile.

DOCTRINE

• Personal actions may be commenced and tried where the defendant or any of the defendants resides or may be found or where the plaintiff or any of the plaintiffs resides at the election of the plaintiff.
• The term residence, that is, personal residence, not legal residence or domicile. Residence simply requires bodily presence as an inhabitant in a given place, while domicile requires bodily presence in that place and also an intention to make it ones domicile.