PARAISO V. CA (GRAVE ABUSE OF DISCRETION, CERTIORARI, ELEMENTS OF A CONTRACT)

For a writ of certiorari to issue, the applicant must show that the court or tribunal acted with grave abuse of discretion in issuing the challenged order. GRAVE ABUSE OF DISCRETION is defined as such CAPRICIOUS and WHIMSICAL EXERCISE OF JUDGMENT as is equivalent to lack of jurisdiction. The abuse of discretion must be so grave as where the power is exercised in an ARBITRARY or DESPOTIC manner by reason of passion or personal hostility, and must be so patent and gross as to amount to a evasion of positive duty or to a virtual refusal to perform the duty enjoined by of to act at all in contemplation of law.

In the instant case, CA gravely abused its discretion in disapproving the compromise agreement for the simple reason that respondent did not comply with the CA's resolutions requiring it to explain the formal defects in the agreement.

To elucidate, the absence of a specific date does not adversely affect the agreement considering that the date of execution is not an essential element of a contract. A COMPROMISE AGREEMENT is essentially a contract PERFECTED BY MERE CONSENT, the latter being manifested by the MEETING OF THE OFFER AND THE ACCEPTANCE upon the thing and the cause which are to constitute the contract.

The CA should have allowed greater laxity in scrutinizing the compromise agreement, not only because the absence of a specific date is a mere formal defect, but also because the signatories to the compromise indicated the date when they signed the agreement beside their signatures.

From the foregoing, our inevitable conclusion is that the CA acted with grave abuse of discretion when it disapproved the compromise agreement. However, rather than remanding the case to the appellate court, which will only further delay the lengthy litigation that the parties wish to end, the SC chose to act directly in the matter. Thus, on the basis of our finding that the compromise agreement is not contrary to law, public order, public policy, morals, and good customs, the Court hereby approves the same.