Title
Spouses Cueno vs. Spouses Bautista
Case
G.R. No. 246445
Decision Date
Mar 2, 2021
Dispute over Lot No. 2836 involving multiple sales; petitioners claimed invalidity of 1963 sale due to lack of spousal consent. SC ruled sale voidable, not void, and upheld respondents' ownership as petitioners failed to annul within the 10-year prescriptive period.
lack of spousal consent
voidable sale
prescription
A

Case Summary (G.R. No. 168081)

Petitioner’s Claims

Petitioners alleged that (1) the purported sale by petitioner-husband Eulalio to petitioner-wife’s father, Luis Bonifacio (the “second sale”), was invalid because it lacked Flora’s spousal consent required for disposition of conjugal property; and (2) subsequent transfers by Luis (including the sale to respondents and the later donation to respondents’ children) could not vest good title in respondents because the husband’s unauthorized sale was void.

Respondents’ Position

Respondents asserted they acquired the property in good faith and for value from the registered owner Luis by a Deed of Absolute Sale (third sale), relied on the face of the Torrens title (TCT No. T-20,677) which showed no annotations, possessed and improved the property for over thirty years, and thus had a superior right as innocent purchasers.

Key Dates and Procedural Posture

  • Second sale (Escritura de Venta between Eulalio and Luis): December 4, 1963.
  • First TCT issued in names of Luis and Eulalio: April 13, 1967 (T-20,676); later cancelled and replaced by T-20,677 in Luis’s name.
  • Third sale (Luis to respondents): August 12, 1977; T-49,239 registered in respondents’ names.
  • Complaint for recovery and annulment filed by petitioners: November 10, 2008.
  • RTC Decision: February 1, 2017 (granted petitioners’ complaint, declared second sale void for lack of spousal consent, declared subsequent titles void to the extent derived from that sale).
  • Court of Appeals Decision: October 8, 2018 (reversed RTC and dismissed petitioners’ complaint).
  • Supreme Court Decision (resolved herein): March 2, 2021.

Applicable Law and Constitutional Context

Primary substantive provisions applied: Articles 165, 166 and 173 of the New Civil Code (Civil Code) governing administration and disposition of conjugal property; relevant Family Code provisions (Articles 96 and 124) discussed as superseding law for marriages during the Family Code era. The decision and reasoning are framed under the 1987 Constitution’s recognition of equality of men and women (Art. II, Sec. 14) and related statutes cited in the opinion (e.g., R.A. 7192), consistent with the requirement to apply the 1987 Constitution for cases decided in 1990 or later.

Facts Essential to Disposition

  • Lot No. 2836 was owned by Luis and Isidro Bonifacio as co-owners; petitioners acquired Isidro’s pro indiviso share in 1961 (first sale).
  • Petitioners contend that Eulalio sold the conjugal share to Luis in 1963 (second sale) without Flora’s consent.
  • Luis was thereafter registered as sole owner (TCT No. T-20,677) and allegedly sold to respondents in 1977 (third sale), who later donated the property to their children.
  • Petitioners sought annulment of the second sale, cancellation of subsequent titles, recovery of shares and possession.

RTC Ruling (Trial Court)

The RTC granted petitioners’ complaint and declared the second sale void solely on the ground that it lacked the required spousal consent of Flora under Article 166. The RTC treated the second sale as void and concluded that titles and subsequent transfers deriving from it were likewise void; however, the RTC recognized respondents as possessors in good faith for purposes of indemnity for improvements.

CA Ruling (Court of Appeals)

The CA reversed the RTC without expressly resolving whether the second sale was void for lack of spousal consent. The CA found respondents to be innocent purchasers in good faith for value who could rely on the face of the Torrens certificate (TCT No. T-20,677), which had no annotations. On that basis, the CA held respondents had a better right to the subject properties and dismissed petitioners’ complaint.

Legal Issue Presented to the Supreme Court

Whether the Court of Appeals erred in dismissing petitioners’ complaint — specifically, whether the second sale (executed by the husband without the wife’s consent) is void (thus imprescriptible and subject to collateral attack) or merely voidable under the Civil Code, and whether petitioners’ action was timely.

Standard of Review and Preliminary Observations

The Supreme Court emphasized that the petition raised factual questions (e.g., whether petitioners in fact sold their share to Luis and whether Luis actually sold and delivered the property to respondents), and that findings of the RTC on factual matters are accorded great weight and are generally binding in a Rule 45 petition for certiorari. The RTC had found petitioners failed to prove those factual contentions. Also, public documents (the 1963 and 1977 deeds) enjoy a presumption of regularity and due execution absent clear, convincing, and more-than-preponderant evidence to the contrary.

Doctrinal Conflict: Void versus Voidable Characterization

The Court reviewed conflicting jurisprudence on the legal characterization of a husband’s alienation of conjugal real property without the wife’s consent under Article 166: some cases treated such dispositions as void ab initio (e.g., Tolentino, Bucoy, De Leon, Malabanan); other cases treated them as voidable and subject to annulment by the wife under Article 173 within a ten-year period during marriage (e.g., Villocino, Roxas, Aguilar-Reyes, and related later decisions).

Resolution of the Doctrinal Conflict

The Supreme Court adopted the view that a disposition by the husband of conjugal real property without the wife’s consent is not void but merely voidable under Article 173 of the Civil Code. The Court explained that Articles 166 and 173 must be read together: Article 173 prescribes a specific remedy — the wife may seek annulment during the marriage and within ten years from the questioned transaction — and provides a statutory alternative remedy (demand for value after dissolution of marriage) if the wife fails to act. These temporal and person-specific limitations are inconsistent with the consequences of a void contract (which is imprescriptible, may be collaterally attacked by any interested party, and cannot be ratified). Consequently, the Court overruled contrary precedents that characterized such transactions as void and held the voidable characterization to be the prevailing rule for marriages governed by the Civil Code.

Rationale for Voidable Characterization

Key points in the Court’s reasoning:

  • Void contracts produce no legal effects and cannot be ratified; by contrast, voidable contracts are valid and binding until annulled and can be ratified. Article 173’s time-limited remedy and post-dissolution remedy for value imply that transactions absent spousal consent were intended to remain capable of producing legal effects unless annulled.
  • The capacity to give consent under Article 166 is shared by both spouses; lack of that shared consent is akin to lack of capacity, which renders a contract voidable under Article 1390.
  • Treating Article 166 transactions as void would render Article 173’s specific remedial scheme illusory; the Family Code (effective August 3, 1988) later changed this rule by expressly declaring such dispositions void, but that change does not affect marriages governed by the Civil Code era.

Application to the Instant Case — Prescription and Timeliness

Applying Article 173, the Court held that Flora’s cause of action to annul the second sale accrued at the execution of the dee

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