2005 Bar: State with reasons whether it was proper for Ricky to join his causes of action in his complaint for partition against Perry and Marvin in the Regional Trial Court of Pasay City. (5%)


2005 Bar: Perry is a resident of Manila, while Ricky and Marvin are residents of Batangas City. They are the co-owners of a parcel of residential land located in Pasay City with an assessed value of P100,000.00. Perry borrowed P100,000.00 from Ricky which he promised to pay on or before December 1, 2004. However, Perry failed to pay his loan. Perry also rejected Ricky and Marvin‘s proposal to partition the property. Ricky filed a complaint against Perry and Marvin in the Regional Trial Court of Pasay City for the partition of the property. He also incorporated in his complaint his action against Perry for the collection of the latter's P100,000.00 loan, plus interests and attorney‘s fees. State with reasons whether it was proper for Ricky to join his causes of action in his complaint for partition against Perry and Marvin in the Regional Trial Court of Pasay City. (5%)
No, it was not proper for Ricky to join his causes of action against Perry in his complaint for partition against Perry and Marvin.

According to the Rules of Court, joinder of causes of action cannot be made if one of the causes is a special civil action or governed by special rules. Other restrictions to joinder of causes of action are venue and jurisidiction.

Here, the joinder is between a partition and a sum of money, but the partition is a special civil action under Rule 69, which cannot be joined. Also, the causes of action pertains to different venues and jurisdictions. The case for a sum of money pertains to the MTC and cannot be filed in Pasay City because the plaintiff from Manila while defendants are from Batangas City (Sec.5, Rule 2).