Victorias vs. Leuenberger and Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 31189, March 31, 1989
Subject: Obligations and Contracts
FACTS
The petitioner is the registered
owner of a parcel of land located in the municipality of San Ildefonso,
Bulacan. The land is covered by Transfer Certificate of Title No. T-34546.
On March 1, 1974, the respondent
municipality assessed the petitioner for real property taxes for the years
1971, 1972, and 1973. The petitioner protested the assessment, claiming that
she had not been in possession of the land during the years in question.
The respondent municipality
denied the protest. On February 22, 1977, the respondent municipality filed a
complaint for collection of real property taxes against the petitioner.
The petitioner filed an answer to
the complaint, denying the allegations of the complaint and claiming that she
had not been in possession of the land during the years in question.
The case was tried before the
Regional Trial Court of Malolos, Bulacan. The trial court found in favor of the
respondent municipality and ordered the petitioner to pay the sum of P12,000.00
as back taxes.
The petitioner appealed the
decision of the trial court to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals
affirmed the decision of the trial court.
The petitioner is now before us
on certiorari.
ISSUE
Whether or not the secondary
evidence presented by the petitioner municipality is sufficient to substantiate
its claim that it acquired the disputed land by means of a Deed of Sale.
RULING
Yes.
Under the law (Art 1447, NCC),
the enumeration of the following cases of implied trust does not exclude others
established by the general law of trust, but the limitation laid down in
Article 1442 shall be applicable.
In this case, it is undisputed
that petitioner had been in open, public, adverse and continuous possession of
the land for a period of more than thirty years. Under the Torrens System,
"every person receiving a certificate of title in pursuance of a decree of
registration, . . . shall hold the same free of all encumbrances except those
noted on said certificate ...” However, respondent Norma Leuenberger, admitted
that she inherited the land covered by Transfer Certificate of Title No.
T-34036 from her grandmother, who had already sold the land to the petitioner
in 1934; hence, she merely stepped into the shoes of her grandmother, and she
cannot claim a better right than her predecessor-in-interest. When she applied
for registration of the disputed land, she had no legal right to do so as she
had no ownership of the land since land registration is not a mode of acquiring
ownership but only of confirming ownership of the land.
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