PRE-TRIAL NOTICE IS MANDATORY

Section 3, Rule 18 of the 1997 Rules on Civil Procedure unequivocally requires that “[t]he notice of pre-trial shall be served on counsel, or on the party who has no counsel.” It is elementary in statutory construction that the word “shall” denotes the mandatory character of the rule. Thus, it is without question that the language of the rule undoubtedly requires the trial court to send a notice of pre-trial to the parties.

More importantly, the notice of pre-trial seeks to notify the parties of the date, time and place of the pre-trial and to require them to file their respective pre-trial briefs within the time prescribed by the rules. Its absence, therefore, renders the pre-trial and all subsequent proceedings null and void.] (Pineda v. Court of Appeals, No. L-35583, September 30, 1975, 67 SCRA 228, 234.)

In Pineda v. Court of Appeals, (Id.) the Court therein discussed the importance of the notice of pre-trial. It pointed out that the absence of the notice of pre-trial constitutes a violation of a person’s constitutional right to due process. Further, the Court ruled that all subsequent orders, including the default judgment, are null and void and without effect, viz:

Reason and justice ordain that the court a quo should have notified the parties in the case at bar. Otherwise, said parties without such notice would not know when to proceed or resume proceedings. With due notice of the proceedings, the fate of a party adversely affected would not be adjudged ex parte and without due process, and he would have the opportunity of confronting the opposing party, and the paramount public interest which calls for a proper examination of the issues in any justiciable case would be subserved. The absence, therefore, of the requisite notice of pre-trial to private respondents through no fault or negligence on their part, nullifies the order of default issued by the petitioner Judge for denying them their day in court — a constitutional right. In such, the order suffers from an inherent procedural defect and is null and void. Under such circumstance, the granting of relief to private respondents becomes a matter of right; and the court proceedings starting from the order of default to the default judgment itself should be considered null and void and of no effect. (Emphasis supplied.)

More recently, in Agulto,  this Court again had the chance to rule upon the same issue and reiterated the importance of the notice of pre-trial, to wit:

The failure of a party to appear at the pre-trial has adverse consequences. If the absent party is the plaintiff, then he may be declared non-suited and his case dismissed. If it is the defendant who fails to appear, then the plaintiff may be allowed to present his evidence ex parte and the court to render judgment on the basis thereof.

                Thus, sending a notice of pre-trial stating the date, time and place of pre-trial is mandatory. Its absence will render the pre-trial and subsequent proceedings void. This must be so as part of a party’s right to due process. (Emphasis supplied.) (PNB vs. Sps. Angelito Perez and Jocelyn Perez, G.R. No. 187640, June 15, 2011,VELASCO, JR., J.).