FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 215401. March 16, 2015.]
HERMINIGILDO A. ESTEVES, REPRESENTED BY VILMA ESTEVES-TANALA, petitioner, vs. MARIO A. ESTEVES, respondent.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, First Division, issued a Resolution dated March 16, 2015 which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 215401 (Herminigildo A. Esteves, represented by Vilma Esteves-Tanala v. Mario A. Esteves). — The petitioner's motion for an extension of thirty (30) days within which to file a petition for review on certiorari is GRANTED, counted from the expiration of the reglementary period.
After a judicious review of the records, the Court resolves to DENY the instant petition and AFFIRM the April 11, 2014 Decision 1 and October 17, 2014 Resolution 2 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CV No. 97763 for failure of Herminigildo A. Esteves, represented by Vilma Esteves-Tanala (petitioner) to show that the CA committed any reversible error in upholding the dismissal of his complaint on the ground of prescription and laches.
As correctly held by the CA, petitioner's cause of action is already barred by prescription and/or laches, considering that the complaint was filed only after 24 years after such cause of action accrued. It is settled that '[a]n action upon a written contract must be brought within ten years from the time the right of action accrues.' 3 On the other hand, laches is defined as the 'failure or neglect for an unreasonable and unexplained length of time, to do that which, by exercising due diligence, could or should have been done earlier, it is negligence or omission to assert a right within a reasonable length of time, warranting a presumption that the party entitled to assert it either has abandoned it or declined to assert it.' 4 TCIDSa
SO ORDERED." SERENO, C.J., on official travel; BRION, J., designated acting member per S.O. No. 1947 dated March 12, 2015.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) EDGAR O. ARICHETADivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. Rollo, pp. 46-55. Penned by Associate Justice Magdangal M. de Leon with Associate Justices Stephen C. Cruz and Eduardo B. Peralta, Jr., concurring.
2. Id. at 44-45.
3. Permanent Savings and Loan Bank v. Velarde, 482 Phil. 193, 205 (2004).
4. Cosco Philippines Shipping, Inc. v. Kemper Insurance Company, G.R. No. 179488, April 23, 2012, 670 SCRA 343, 356; citation omitted.