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21.

DAUDEN-HERNAEZ vs DE LOS ANGELES

G.R. No. L-27010

April 30, 1960

MARLENE DAUDEN-HERNAEZ, petitioner,vs.HON. WALFRIDO DE LOS ANGELES, Judge of the Court of


First Instanceof Quezon City, HOLLYWOOD FAR EAST PRODUCTIONS, INC., andRAMON
VALENZUELA, respondents.

FACTS

Marlene Dauden-Hernaez, a movie actress, filed a case against Hollywood Far East Productions its
President and General Manager,Ramon Valenzuela, to recover P14,700 allegedly the balance
due for herservices as leading actress in two motion pictures. The complaint wasdismissed by
Judge De Los Angeles mainly because her claim was not supported by an written document,
public or private in violation of Articles 1356 and 1358 of the Civil Code. Upon a motion
forreconsideration, the respondent judged dismissed the same becausethe allegations were the
same as the first motion.According to Judge De Los Angeles, the contract sued upon wasnot
alleged to be in writing when Article 1358 requires it to be sobecause the amount involved
exceeds P500.

ISSUE:

Whether or not a contract for personal services involving morethan P500.00 was either invalid or
unenforceable under the last paragraph of Article 1358?

HELD

No. The order dismissing the complaint is set aside and thecase is remanded to the CFI. RATIO
Consistent with the Spanish Civil Code in upholding spirit andintent of the parties over
formalities, in general, contracts are valid andbinding from their perfection regardless of
whether they are oral orwritten.However, as provided in the 2 nd sentence of Art. 1356: ART.
1356. Contracts shall be obligatory in whatever formthey may have been entered into, provided
all the essential requisites for their validity are present. However, when the law requires that a
contract be in some form in order that it may be valid or enforceable, or that a contract be
proved ina certain way, that requirement is absolute and indispensable.... Thus, the two
exceptions to the general rule that the form isirrelevant to the binding effect of a contract
are:(a) Solemn Contracts - contracts which the law requires to be in someparticular form
(writing) in order to make them valid andenforceable. Examples:1. Donation of immovable
property (Art. 749) which must be in apublic instrument to be valid. in order "that the donation
maybe valid", i.e., existing or binding.2. Donation of movables worth more than P5,000 (Art.
748)which must be in writing otherwise they are void.(b) Contracts that the law requires to be
proved by some writing(memorandum) of its terms, i.e. those covered by the old Statute of
Frauds, now Article 1403(2) of the Civil Code.For the latter example, their existence are not
provable bymere oral testimony (unless wholly or partly executed) and arerequired to be in
writing to be enforceable by action in court.However, the contract sued upon (compensation for
services)does not come under either exception. While the last clause of Article1358 provides
that "all other contracts where the amount involvedexceeds five hundred pesos must appear in
writing, even a private one."Said Article does not provide that the absence of a written form in
thiscase will make the agreement invalid or unenforceable.On the contrary, Article 1357 clearly
indicates that contractscovered by Article 1358 are binding and enforceable by action or suit
despite the absence of writing.

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