Aggregate Amount or Totality Rule

[1] Where the claims in all the causes of action are principally for recovery of money, the aggregate amount claimed shall be the test of jurisdiction (Sec. 5, Rule 2, Rules on Civil Procedure).
[2] Where there are several claims or causes of actions between the same or different parties, embodied in the same complaint, the amount of the demand shall be the totality of the claims in all the claims of action, irrespective of whether the causes of action arose out of the same or different transactions (Sec. 33[1], BP 129). [3] NOTE: The totality rule applies to actions involving sums of money.