Facts:

• Petitioner Arsenio P. Reyes, Jr. worked for his father, Arsenio R. Reyes, Sr., as a clerk and errand boy.
• Due to accumulated unpaid salaries, the father sold a property in Quezon City to the petitioner.
• The petitioner later discovered that his father had conveyed several parcels of real property to his illegitimate children without the knowledge and consent of his legitimate children.
• When the petitioner confronted his father, the latter became angry and drove him away from the office.
• The father filed a complaint against the petitioner for theft and falsification, which was dismissed for lack of evidence.
• The father also filed a complaint for recovery of stolen titles with the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Manila.
• The trial court issued an order directing the Register of Deeds of Manila and the Registry of Deeds of Nueva Ecija to issue second owner's duplicate copies of the stolen titles.
• The petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration, but it was denied.
• The petitioner appealed to the Court of Appeals, but the trial court issued execution pending appeal.
• The petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration, but it was also denied.
• The petitioner then filed a petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals, which was dismissed.
• The Court of Appeals cited a technicality and error in the affidavit of non-forum shopping as the basis for the dismissal.
• The petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration, but it was also denied.

Issue:

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Ruling:

• The Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeals acted with grave abuse of discretion in dismissing the petition based solely on a technicality.
• The Court also discussed the jurisdiction of the trial court to order the issuance of a new owner's duplicate certificate of title in this case.
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