Gabriel Angel V.

de Vera
Cetus Development vs. CA
G.R. No. 77647
August 7, 1989
Facts:
 Respondents Ong, Teng, Liwanag, Canlas, Sudario, Nagbuya, were lessees of premises in
Quiapo, Manila, originally owned by the Susana Realty.
 They were individual, verbal leases, on a month-to-month basis. Rental payments were
made to a collector of the Susana Realty who went to the premises monthly.
 Premises were then sold to petitioner, Cetus Development, in 1984.
 The private respondents continued to pay monthly rentals to a collector sent by the
petitioner from April to June, 1984.
 In August and September, they failed to pay because no collector came.
 In October, petitioner sent letters demanding they vacate the premises and payback
rentals.
 Immediately upon receipt of the demand letters, private respondents paid arrearages,
which were accepted subject to the condition that the acceptance was without prejudice to
the filing of an ejectment suit.
 Subsequent monthly rental payments were accepted under the same condition.
 For failure of the private respondents to vacate the premises as demanded in the letter,
petitioner filed with the Metropolitan Trial court complaints for ejectment. MTC
dismissed the case, and so did the RTC did as well as the CA.

Issue: Whether there was a delay of payment by the private respondents to the petitioner
considering that upon receipt of the demand letter, they immediately tendered their payments.

Held: No.

Ratio: It is very clear that in the case at bar, no cause of action for ejectment has accrued. There
was no failure yet on the part of private respondents to pay rents for three consecutive months. As
the terms of the individual verbal leases which were on a month-to-month basis were not alleged
and proved, the general rule on necessity of demand applies, to wit: there is default in the
fulfillment of an obligation when the creditor demands payment at the maturity of the obligation
or at anytime thereafter. This is explicit in Article 1169, New Civil Code which provides that
(t)hose obliged to deliver or to do something incur in delay from the time the obligee judicially or
extrajudicially demands from them the fulfillment of their obligation. Petitioner has not shown that
its case falls on any of the following exceptions where demand is not required: (a) when the
obligation or the law so declares; (b) when from the nature and circumstances of the obligation it
can be inferred that time is of the essence of the contract; and (c) when demand would be useless,
as when the obligor has rendered it beyond his power to perform.

The demand required in Article 1169 of the Civil Code may be in any form, provided that it can
be proved. The proof of this demand lies upon the creditor. Without such demand, oral or
written, the effects of default do not arise.