Gallardo Vs IAC (Contracts Chap 3)

1.
GALLARDO vs IAC
G.R. No. L-67742 October 29, 1987
PREPARED BY: JEANELLA P. CARAS
PARAS, J.:
FORMS OF CONTRACTS
FACTS:
The subject matter of this controversy involves a parcel of land situated in Cavinti, Laguna
consisting of 81,300 square meters initially covered by an original Certificate of Title No. 2262
owned and registered in the name of the late Pedro Villanueva (former Justice of the Peace of
the Municipal Court, Cavinti, Laguna). Petitioners were nephew and niece of the late Pedro
Villanueva and first cousin of the private respondent Marta Villanueva vda. de Agana, the latter
being the daughter of Pedro Villanueva.
On August 10, 1937, petitioner claimed that the aforestated land was sold to them in a private
document, an unnotarized deed of sale written in Tagalog that was allegedly signed by the late
Pedro Villanueva conveying and transfering the property in question in favor of the petitioners.
During the Second World War, the records as well as the Office of the Register of Deeds of
Laguna, where the original of their new transfer certificate of title was kept, were completely
burned. Accordingly, by virtue of an Affidavit of Reconstitution and upon presentation of the
Owner's Duplicate Certificate of Title, the title was administratively reconstituted, and the Register
of Deeds of Laguna issued Transfer Certificate of Title in the name of the petitioners.
Defendant Marta Villanueva together with Pedro Villanueva, Jr., and Restituto R. Villanueva
executed and filed an Affidavit of Adverse Claim with the Office of the Register of Deeds of
Laguna. However,a joint affidavit was filed by Pedro G. Villanueva, Jr. and Restituto Villanueva
withdrawing their adverse claim on the said parcel of land, with the Office of the Register of Deeds
of Laguna. When petitioners learned of this Affidavit of Adverse Claim, attempt was made to settle
said controversy amicably. Several demands made by herein petitioners upon private
respondents Marta Vda. de Agana to withdraw her adverse claim but failed.
Private respondent executed a Deed of Conveyance and Release of Claim wherein the parties
agreed, among other things, that in consideration of the said transfer and conveyance over a
1,000 square meter portion, the VENDEE (Marta V. Agana) does hereby withdraw the adverse
claim mentioned.
However, when private respondent Marta Villanueva vda. de Agana refused to sign an Affidavit
of Quit-claim, petitioners instituted court suit against the private respondent and her husband, Dr.
Marcelo S. Agana, Sr. by filing a complaint for Quieting of Title and Damages with the Court of
First Instance of Laguna, demanding that their title over the questioned land be fortified by a
declaration of ownership in their favor and avoiding the forecited Deed of Conveyance and
Release of Claim. Accordingly, private respondents in their answer countered that the Deed of
Sale in Tagalog and petitioners' title over the land be declared void ab initio, among other
demands.
ISSUE:
Whether or not there is a valid sale through a valid reconstitution of transfer certificate of title.
RULING:
No.
Petitioners claim that the sale although not in a public document, is nevertheless valid and binding.
Generally, Art. 1356 of the Civil Code provides that contracts are obligatory, in whatever form they
may had been entered, provided all the essential requisites are present, except requiring a
contract to be in some form when the law so requires for its validity or enforceability.
Such law was violated in this case. The action of the Register of Deeds of Laguna in allowing the
registration of the private deed of sale was unauthorized and did not lend a bit of validity to the
defective private document of sale.
Sec. 127 of Act 496 – the conveyance be executed “before the judge of a court of
record or a clerk of a court of record or a notary public or a justice of the peace,
who shall certify such acknowledgement substantially in form next hereinafter
stated.”
Also, the document was signed by somebody else and not by Pedro Villanueva. The right to
recover possession of registered land is imprescriptible because possession is a mere
consequence of ownership where the land has been registered under the Torrens system
because its efficacy and integrity must be protected.

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