Doctrine of actio personalis moritur cum persona

Doctrine of actio personalis moritur cum persona

Lat. [The doctrine that] personal action terminates or dies with the person. [Santos v. Sec. of Labor, L-21624, 27 Feb. 1968].

The following are the cases decided by Supreme Court on the doctrine:

It is true that a public office is personal to the public officer and is not a property transmissible to his heirs upon death. Thus, applying the doctrine of actio personalis moritur cum persona, upon the death of the incumbent, no heir of his may be allowed to continue holding his office in his place. [De Castro vs COMELEC, G.R. No. 125249, February 7, 1997]

But while the right to a public office is personal and exclusive to the public officer, an election protest is not purely personal and exclusive to the protestant or to the protestee such that the death of either would oust the court of all authority to continue the protest proceedings. [De Castro vs COMELEC, G.R. No. 125249, February 7, 1997]

An action for legal separation which involves nothing more than the bed-and-board separation of the spouses (there being no absolute divorce in this jurisdiction) is purely personal. The Civil Code of the Philippines recognizes this in its Article 100, by allowing only the innocent spouse (and no one else) to claim legal separation; and in its Article 108, by providing that the spouses can, by their reconciliation, stop or abate the proceedings and even rescind a decree of legal separation already rendered. Being personal in character, it follows that the death of one party to the action causes the death of the action itself — actio personalis moritur cum persona. [Sy vs Eufemio, G.R. No. L-30977 January 31, 1972]

As a disbarment is a proceedings which is personal to the respondent his death naturally extinguishes the proceedings Actio personalis moritur cum persona. [Sotto vs De Guia, A.M. No. 196, June 30, 1980]

Under Article 89 of the Revised Penal Code, death of the convict extinguishes criminal liability. In view of the fact that one of the juridical conditions of penalty is that it is personal. Actio personalis moritur cum persona; actio peonalis in haeredem non datur nisi forte ex damno locupletior haeres factus sit. (A personal right of action dies with the person. A penal action is not given against an heir, unless, indeed, such heir is benefited by the wrong.) [Petralba vs Sandiganbayan, G.R. No. 81337, August 16, 1991]