Case Digest (G.R. No. 224945)
Facts:
Director of Lands v. Seymour Addison et al., G.R. No. 23148. March 25, 1926, the Supreme Court En Banc, Ostrand, J., writing for the Court. The appeal arose from a cadastral registration and subsequent proceedings in the Court of First Instance of Tarlac concerning Torrens certificate of title No. 414, issued February 8, 1916, in favor of Juana Angeles and seventeen others as tenants in common (the "Angeles heirs").
In April 1921 a deed purporting to convey about 47 hectares (a western portion of the tract) from eleven of the Angeles heirs to Pedro Manuntag was presented with the owner's duplicate of certificate No. 414 to the register of deeds of Tarlac; the register made only a memorandum on the original certificate instead of issuing transfer certificates as required by law. The deed lacked a technical description and was later shown to be a forgery (one purported grantor was dead when the instrument was dated). Using the owner's duplicate bearing the memorandum, Manuntag mortgaged the property to Soledad P. Hernandez (memorandum dated August 1, 1921), later conveyed it absolutely to her (July 22, 1922), and Hernandez subsequently sold by pacto de retro to Arturo Sanchez y Mijarez (October 4, 1923); each transaction was recorded only as memoranda on certificate No. 414.
Meanwhile the Director of Lands instituted a cadastral proceeding in Concepcion, Tarlac, which initially (November 17, 1921) awarded the property to the Angeles heirs after they appeared as claimants. After that judgment became final, Hernandez appeared and sought issuance of a certificate in her name; Judge Anacleto Diaz denied the motion on res judicata grounds. Later the chief surveyor of the General Land Registration Office discovered errors in the cadastral decision and the memoranda on certificate No. 414 and procured a rehearing; Judge Cayetano Lukban, after notice and hearing, found the April 1921 deed a forgery bu...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the Court of First Instance err in holding that Soledad P. Hernandez acquired title to the land despite the deed to Pedro Manuntag having been shown to be a forgery?
- Under the Torrens system, does an entry of a mere memorandum of a conveyance on the original certificate of title, without issuance of a transfer certificate to the purchaser, constitute a sufficie...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Ratio:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Doctrine:
- (Subscriber-Only)