LTD: Leah WP -UC-Law

11. When actual knowledge of purchaser does not constitute bad

faith

 When ownership is transfred from an owner who is in good faith

to a buyer or another person in good faith

 When the purchaser acquired the property from a previous

owner who is not a party to a litigation

 When the new owner is not a party to a litigation involving the

subject property

CASE

Facts:

Lot 246

A - sold Lot 246 to B

B - sold Lot 246 to C - a purchaser in good

faith for value

C - registered lot 246 in his name

- Lot 246 is free from liens and
encumbrances

D - C sold lot to D
- before finally acquiring, D
became aware of a
pending litigation
between A & B

Issue:
 1) Whether D is a purchaser in good faith, notwithstanding his
knowledge of the pending litigation
2) Whether D acquired valid title to the property free from lien or
encumbrance

Ruling:

1) D is a purchaser in good faith notwithstanding his knowledge of the

pending litigation because he bought the property from C and neither
from A nor B and C was a purchaser in good faith for having no
knowledge of such dispute between A and B.

2) D acquired valid title.

Legal basis:
 Article 1544 of the Civil Code provides that “the
registration of the real property, the ownership of which is
claimed by different persons, shall have the effect
transferig ownership thereof to the party who, in good
faith, first recorded it in the Registry of Property”.

 Section 39 of Act No. 496, as amended by Act No.

2011 states that “every person receiving a certificate of
title in pursuance of a decree of registration, and every
subsequent purchaser of registered land who takes a
certificate of title for value in good faith shall hold the
same free of all encumbrances except those noted on
said certificate.”

The decision of the court over the dispute of A and B will not divest
the right of D who has never been a party to the litigation.
—Nestor N. Pena, “Registration of Land Titles and Deeds”, 2008

12. Co-owners entitled to separate certificates

Co-ownership Defined
 Co-ownership is the right of commom dominion which two or more
persons have in a spiritual part of a thing, not materially or physically
divided.
—Sanchez Roman v. CA, 408 SCRA 540

There is co-ownership whenever the ownership of an undivided

thing or right belongs to different persons.

— (Article 484. Civil Code)

Intangible share

By nature of co-ownership, a co-owner cannot point to a specific

portion of the property owned in common as his own because his share
therein remains intangible.

May all the owners be issued a title over the whole property?

Yes. Where two or more persons are registered owners or as tenants

in common, one owner’s certificate may be issued for the whole land, or
separate duplicate may be issued to each for his undivided share.

It has been observed that in actual practice, some register of deeds

issue separate duplicates bearing the names of all co-owners of the
undivided shares contituting thw whole estate, while other registrars issue
separate duplicates each bearing only the name of a co-owner to whom it
is issued, setting forth the specific share belonging to him.
—Nestor N. Pena, “Registration of Land Titles and Deeds”, 2008

Purpose of surrendering a co-owners certificate of title

A co-owner cannot refuse to surrender his co-owner’s certificate

when required by the Register of Deeds (ROD) to enable the ROD to
register or annotate therein a document executed by another co-owner in
favor of a third party. If such co-owner would like to contest the existence,
legality or import of the deed, the said document must first be registered
and thereafter its authenticity and legality litigated in a separate
proceeding.

13. Sale by co-owners

 Under Article 493 of the Civil Code, the owner of an undivided interest
in the property has the right to freely sell and dispose of only his rights,
participation and interest in an undivided property held in common with
others, but has no right to sell a specific part, by metes and bounds, of the
property. The sale or other disposition can affect only his undivided share,
and the transferee gets only what corresponds to his grantor in the property
owned in common. It is elemental that until a partition is made among co-
owners, no one of them can claim any particular portion of an undivided
property as exclusively his own. That portion cannot be ascertained until
such time as the co-ownership shall have ceased. It is the essence and
juridical nature of co-ownership that each co-owner is the owner of the
whole, and over the whole he exercises rights of dominion, but at the same
time he is the owner of a part which is truly abstract, because until division
is effected, such part is not physically determined.

In the case of Pamplona v. Moreto ( G.R. No. L-33187, March 1980)

and supported by the provisions of Article 493 of the new Civil Code, it
was held that a co-owner may validly sell his undivided share of the
property owned in common. If there has been no express partition yet, but
the co-owner who sells, points out to his buyers the boundaries of that part
he was selling, and the other co-owners make no objection, there is in
effect already a partial partition, and the sale of the definite portion can no
longer be assailed.

If the part sold happens to be his alloted share after partition, the
transaction is entirely valid.

Thus, there is an unathourized sale if a co-owner sells the entire

common property without the consent of the other co-owners; otherwise,
the sale is valid only insofar as his share is concerned.
—Edgardo L. Paras, “Property”, 2008

A co-owner who signs not as a seller but only as an instrumental

witness to a sale involving his share in the property may be bound by the
conveyance. Thus, it was held that a co-heir who signs a deed of sale
executed by the other co-heirs conveying the community property in favor
of someone, not as vendor but only as an instrumental witness, without
objecting to the sale of his alleged share in the property, is bound by the
conveyance, and he cannot afterwards sue for partition after the vendee
has already acquired ownership of the property by adverse possession.
 —Nestor N. Pena, “Registration of Land Titles and Deeds”, 2008

14. Registration of sale with right of legal redemption

Accordingly, each co-owner may alienate his undivided or ideal share

in the community, even without the consent of his co-owners, although the
latter may exercise their right of redemption in accordance with law.

Article 1623 of the New Civil Code requires that a deed of sale which
may be subject to a right of legal redemption exercised within thirty (30)
days from the date of written notice by the vendor, be not recorded in the
Registry of Property, unless accompanied by an affidavit of the vendor
that he has given written notice thereof to all possible redemptioners.

Purpose

The evident purpose of this affidavit of the vendor is to impress upon

the affiant the necessity of making true, not false, statement in the narration
of facts therein.

Forclosed property

As to foreclosed property that has been registered, the mortgagor has

one year within which to redeem the property from and after registration of
sale with the Register of Deeds.

After the expiration of the period of redemption, the purchaser at the

foreclosure sale or anyone claiming under him may petition the court for the
entry of a new certificate to him. But before the entry of a new certificate of
title, the registered owner may pursue all legal and equitable remedies to
impeach or annul such proceedings.

The rule on redemption is liberally construed in favor of the original

owner of the property. The policy of the law is to aid rather than to defeat
him in the exercise of his right of redemption.

Writ of Possession
 Upon the expiration of the redemption period of one year from the
registration of the sale, the right of the purchaser to the possession of the
foreclosed property becomes absolute.277 He is entitled to possession
following the consolidation of ownership in his name.278 The writ of
possession becomes a matter of right and its issuance to a purchaser in an
extrajudicial foreclosure is merely a ministerial function.279 The trial court
has no discretion on this matter."
—Justice Oswaldo D. Agcaoili, “Property Registration
Decree and Related Laws (Land Titles and
Deeds)”, 2018

15. Splitting or consolidation of titles

Upon petition by a registered owner of two or more parcels of land

distinctly described in a certificate of title, the Register of Deeds may cancel
the certificate and issue in lieu thereof several new certificates each
covering one or such number of parcels as the owner may desire, without
the necessity of obtaining a prior authority of the court. So also, a
registered owner of several distinct parcels of land described in separate
certificates of title may, if he desires, cause that all his certificates be
cancelled and in lieu thereof a single certificate be issued for the different
portions thereof, by direct application to the Register of Deeds.

If a subdivision plan, be it simple or complex, duly approved by the

Commissioner of Land Registration or the Bureau of Lands, together with
the corresponding technical description and the owner’s duplicate
certificate of title, is presented for registration, the Register of Deeds may,
without requiring further court approval of said plan, register the same
under the Land Registration Act; provided, however, that he has to
annotate on the new certificate of title covering the street, passageway, or
open space, a memorandum to the effect that except by donation in favor
of the national government, province, city or municipality, no portion thereof
so delineated on the plan shall be closed or otherwise disposed of by the
registered owner without the approval of the Court of First Instance of the
province or city in which the land is situated.

When may a partition of land be made administratively?

The partition of a parcel of land already covered by a certificate of title

could be made even administratively by merely submitting the subdivision
plan to the Land Registration Commission for approval and thereafter
requesting the Register of Deeds concerned for the issuance of new
certificates of title provided there are no streets or passageways included in
the subdivision. But where there is no unanimity in the will of the co-owners
as regards the partition and the co-owners themselves deem it wise and
expedient to bring the matter to court under Section 112 of Act No. 496
(now Section 108 of P.D. No. 1529), the court can acquire jurisdiction to
hear the petition but only after notice to all parties in interest.

A registered owner desiring to consolidate several lots into one or

more, requiring new technical description, shall file with the National Land
Titles and Deeds Registration Administration (NALTDRA), a consolidation
plan on which shall be shown the lots to be affected, as they were before,
and as they will appear after the consolidation. Upon the surrender of the
owner’s duplicates and the receipt of consolidation plan duly approved by
the NALTDRA. The Registrar of Deeds shall cancel the corresponding
certificates of title and issue a new one for the consolidated lots.
—Antonio H. Noblejas, “Registration of
Land Titles and Deeds”, 2007