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O’Laco v Cocho Chit

Facts:
 A lot in Manila was sold by Philippine Sugar Estate Development Company in 1943 with the
Deed of Absolute Sale naming as vendee and a new title was issued in her name.
 In 1960, Spouses Co Cho Chit and O Lay Kia (Emilia’s half-sister) sued Emilia O’Laco for
selling the same parcel of land to the Catholic Archbishop of Manila and for recovery of the sold
lot claiming that they were the real owners of the property and the legal title was only place in the
name of Emilia.
 Emilia claimed that she bought the property with her own money, and that she only left the Deed
of Absolute Sale and the title to Co Cho Chit and her sister for safekeeping.
 Emilia further contended that the present action should be dismissed because the complaint fails
to allege that earnest efforts toward a compromise were exerted considering that the suit is
between members of the same family.
Issue:
 Should O Lay Kia and Co Cho Chit’s complaint be dismissed for failure to allege that earnest
efforts towards a compromise were exerted considering the suit is between family member?
Ratio:
 NO, the complaint made by O Lay Kia and Co Cho Chit is valid.
 The case is a case between family members since O Lay Kia and Emilia O’Laco are half-sisters.
As such, earnest efforts towards a compromise need to have been made pursuant to NCC 222.
The attempt to compromise and its inability to succeed is a condition precedent to the filing of a
suit between family members.
 However, the plaintiff may be allowed to amend his original complaint to correct the defect if the
amendment is only to cure the perceived defect in the complaint. As such, if the original
complaint did not include proof of the conditional precedent of failed efforts towards a
compromise amongst family members, the plaintiff may be able to amend his or her complaint to
include such proof.
 In this case, O Lay Kia and Co Cho Chit were able to introduce further evidence showing earnest
efforts towards a compromise had been made, even if they did not formally file an amendment.
They were able to prove that O Lay Kia pressed her sister Emilia for the transfer of the title of the
property to her and Co Cho Chit just before Emilia got married, but instead, Emilia decided to
sell the property to the Archbishop.

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