PETITION FOR RELIEF

It is a remedy provided by law to any person against whom a decision or order is entered into through fraud, accident, mistake or excusable negligence. The relief provided for is of equitable character, allowed only in exceptional cases as where there is no other available or adequate remedy. When a party has another remedy available to him, which may either be a motion for new trial or appeal from an adverse decision of the lower court, and he was not prevented by fraud, accident, mistake or excusable negligence from filing such motion or taking the appeal, he cannot avail himself of the relief provided in Rule 38. The rule is that relief will not be granted to a party who seeks avoidance from the effects of the judgment when the loss of the remedy at law was due to his own negligence or a mistaken mode of procedure, otherwise the petition for relief will be tantamount to reviving the right of appeal which has already been lost either because of inexcusable negligence or due to a mistake in the mode of procedure by counsel. x x x 

The mistake contemplated by Rule 38 of the Rules of Court pertains generally to mistake of fact, not of law, which relates to the case. The word "mistake" which grants relief from judgment, does not apply and was never intended to apply to a judicial error which the court might have committed in the trial. Such error may be corrected by means of an appeal. x x x  To reiterate, petition for relief is an equitable remedy that is allowed only in exceptional cases where there is no other available or adequate remedy which is not present in petitioner’s case. Thus, petitioner's resort to a petition for relief under Rule 38 was not proper and the CA correctly ruled that the RTC did not commit grave abuse of discretion in denying the petition for relief from judgment (SAMONTE vs. S.F. NAGUIAT, INC. G.R. No. 165544, October 2, 2009, Third Division, Peralta, J.).