Short answer. Yes. The Civil Code says the vendor is not obliged to make good the warranty against eviction unless he is summoned in the eviction suit at the buyer's instance. If you let the case be decided without bringing the seller in, you can lose the warranty claim entirely.
What the law says
The vendor shall not be obliged to make good the proper warranty, unless he is summoned in the suit for eviction at the instance of the vendee.
Civil Code, Article 1558 — Vendor Must Be Summoned. Read the full provision →
Why the seller has to be in the room
The warranty against eviction is the seller's promise that you will not be deprived of the thing you bought by a right existing before the sale. If a third party sues to take the property, it is the seller's title that is really under attack. The Code therefore does not let a buyer fight and lose alone and then present the seller with the bill. The seller must be given the chance to defend his own title — to produce his documents, raise defences the buyer may not even know exist, and contest the third party's claim. A judgment rendered without him is, from his side, a case he never got to argue.
What summoning him actually means
The requirement is that the vendor be summoned in the suit for eviction at the instance of the vendee. It is the buyer who must take the step; the seller is not expected to volunteer, and the third party suing you has no reason to bring him in. In practice this is done by impleading him in the pending case through the mechanism the rules of procedure provide for bringing in a party who may be liable to you for what is being claimed against you. The point is that it happens during the case, not after judgment.
The consequence of skipping the step
If the eviction suit runs to final judgment without the seller having been summoned at your instance, the article says he is not obliged to make good the proper warranty. That is a hard result for a buyer who has already lost the property, and it is why the step is worth taking the moment you are served with a complaint that threatens your title or possession. Note what the rule does not do: it does not shorten the warranty, does not require the seller to have acted in bad faith, and does not excuse the seller who was properly summoned and simply chose not to appear.
The rest of the warranty still has requirements
Summoning the seller is one condition among several. The warranty operates where the buyer is deprived, by a final judgment, of the whole or part of the thing purchased, on the basis of a right prior to the sale. What the seller must answer for varies with his good or bad faith and can extend to the value of the thing, the income or fruits, the costs of the suit, the expenses of the contract and, in the appropriate case, damages. Contracts sometimes modify or waive the warranty, within the limits the Code allows. Anyone served with an eviction case should get advice quickly — the window to implead closes.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Sps. Michael Uy & Bonita Uy vs. Eduardo Ariza, et al, G.R. No. 158370, August 17, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →