Case Digest (A.M. No. P-04-1830)
Facts:
Heirs of Mariano Lacson, represented by Mayo Lacson, and Calagna-an Agro-Industrial Corporation, petitioners, vs. Honorable Amelia K. Del Rosario in her capacity as Presiding Judge of the former Court of First Instance of Iloilo, the Honorable Court of Appeals and the Republic of the Philippines, G.R. No. 77148, June 30, 1987, Supreme Court Second Division, Paras, J., writing for the Court.The property subject of the controversy is Lot 1, Psu-99817, originally covered by OCT No. 0-4 in the name of the late Mariano R. Lacson, comprising 14,240,768 square meters; it later became TCT No. T-71508 in the name of Calagna-an Agro-Industrial Corporation (a family corporation of the late Mariano R. Lacson). The original OCT was procured pursuant to the judgment in Land Registration Case No. 567 dated December 3, 1940.
On November 28, 1975 the Republic of the Philippines filed Civil Case No. 10439 in the Court of First Instance of Iloilo to nullify the 1940 land registration judgment, annul OCT No. 0-4 and the subsequent transfer certificate, and to declare reversion of the disputed land and improvements to the State. The Republic alleged the parcel was largely timberland (public domain), that the land registration court lacked jurisdiction over timberland, and that pleadings from LRC No. 567 had been destroyed during World War II; it also asserted that although the Director of Lands and Forestry had appealed the 1940 judgment to the Court of Appeals, the postwar circumstances prevented proper adjudication on that appeal.
On June 16, 1978 the Court of First Instance dismissed the Republic’s complaint. After the Republic’s motion for reconsideration, Judge Amelia K. Del Rosario issued an order on December 17, 1979 setting aside the June 16, 1978 decision and rendering judgment in favor of the Republic with the dispositive directions (described below) that a 971.65-hectare portion was timberland and that the titles as to that portion were null and void ab initio. The December 17, 1979 Order was authored by Judge Del Rosario.
The defendants — the Heirs of Mariano Lacson and Calagna-an Agro-Industrial Corporation — appealed the December 17, 1979 Order to the Court of Appeals, which, in a decision penned by Justice Mariano A. Zosa (joined by Justices Jorge R. Coquia, Floreliana Castro-Bartolome and Bienvenido C. Ejercito), affirmed the lower court in its November 7, 1985 decision. The petitioners then filed a petition for review with the Supreme Court seeking relief from the Court of Appeals’ affirmation.
Petitioners raised several contentions: that the CFI lacked jurisdiction in the land registration pr...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the Court of First Instance acquire jurisdiction in Land Registration Case No. 567 over the disputed land that was timberland?
- Does the pendency of an appeal in the land registration proceedings bar the State from filing a cancellation/reversion suit?
- Who bore the burden to reconstitute the destroyed records of Land Registration Case No. 567?
- Do the land registration proceedings operate as res judicata to preclude the State from litigati...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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