Attorney-in-fact conceals from principal sale of property; extrinsic fraud

It would also appear, and quite contrary to the finding of the appellate court, that the highly reprehensible conduct of attorney-in-fact Villamil-Estrada in Civil Case No. 7750 constituted an extrinsic or collateral fraud by reason of which the judgment rendered thereon should have been struck down. Not all the legal semantics in the world can becloud the unassailable fact that petitioner was deceived and betrayed by its attorney-in-fact. Villamil-Estrada deliberately concealed from petitioner, her principal, that a compromise agreement had been forged with the end-result that a portion of petitioner's property was sold to the deforciant, literally for a song. Thus completely kept unaware of its agent's artifice, petitioner was not accorded even a fighting chance to repudiate the settlement so much so that the judgment based thereon became final and executory. [G.R. No. 114311. November 29, 1996]