Petitioner Respondents Marcelino T Macaraeg Hermogenes S Decano
Petitioner Respondents Marcelino T Macaraeg Hermogenes S Decano
Petitioner Respondents Marcelino T Macaraeg Hermogenes S Decano
SYLLABUS
DECISION
CONCEPCION, C.J : p
Petitioner maintains that "it has not been shown by clear evidence"
that respondent Callejo had made the admission in question "through
palpable mistake"; and that Callejo's counsel and said appellate court had, in
turn, admitted the inexistence of evidence of such "palpable mistake."
The Court of Appeals did not make the admission imputed thereto.
Neither did it "disregard" the admission of Callejo. The latter is to the effect
that in cadastral case No. 92, Cadastral Record No. 1860, he had asserted
his claim to the "land in question" by filing an answer — dated June 25, 1952
— which refers to Lot No. 12340 of the cadastral survey. Callejo's counsel
had, also, made a similar admission, in the trial court. Callejo did not admit,
however, that Lot No. 12340, is the property conveyed to Fernando
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Domantay — his predecessor in interest — by the parents of Mariano and
Marcos Tamayo. Needless to say, in the answer (Exhibits P and 1) filed by
him in said Case No. 92, on June 25, 1952, to which petitioner referred in
connection with said "admission" — Callejo could not have legally claimed
any portion of Lot No. 12341 — covered by TCT No. 5486, in the name of
Mariano Tamayo — for the very reason that the latter's right to the
registration of this Lot 12341 had already been settled in the decision and
decree upon which OCT No. 2612 — from which said TCT No. 5486 has been
derived — was based and such decision is no longer subject to review,
although without prejudice to the corresponding action for reconveyance, if
proper. Hence, coetaneously with the filing of said answer (Exhibits P and 1),
Callejo had commenced the present action for reconveyance and damages.
Thus, Callejo claimed both Lot No. 12340 and the northern portion of
Lot No. 12341. Indeed, said answer describes the southern boundary of said
Lot No. 12340 as Lot No. "12341, Mariano Tamayo — portion claimed by
Aurelio Callejo." Thus, Callejo alleged in said pleading that, aside from Lot
No. 12340, he claimed, also, a portion of the land included in Lot No. 12341.
What is more, he alleged, in paragraph 5 of the aforementioned answer, that
he had acquired said Lot No. 12340 by "purchase from Maximo Rico," not
from Fernando Domantay, his predecessor in interest with respect to his title
to the northern portion of Lot No. 12341. And this is borne out by the very
testimony of petitioner herein, who admitted that the property inherited by
him from his parents is bounded on the north by the land formerly belonging
to said Maximo Rico, and, more significantly, by the deed Exhibit I, in which
petitioner acknowledged that the property sold by his parents to Fernando
Domantay is bounded "al norte, con el terreno de la propiedad de Maximo
Rico." These admissions by petitioner herein leave no room for doubt that
Lot No. 12340 is not the property so conveyed to Domantay and then
assigned by the latter to Callejo.
The full text of the finding of the Court of Appeals — of which the
contested observations are but a part — reads:
"CONSIDERING: Therefore, that question of whether or not
appellees' titled land had included appellant's portion bought from
Fernando Dumantay, and since an examination of the evidence would
show that the said land that had been bought by appellant was
bounded on the North by Maximo Rico and Moises Rosal, on the East
by Felomena Macaraeg, on the South by Mariano Tamayo and on the
West by Maria Olea, see Exhs. F and I, while the land that had been
titled in the name of defendants was bounded on the North by Felipe
Novida, on the NE by properties of Felomena Macaraeg and Santiago
Tamayo, on the South by property of the estate of Gregorio Flor Mata,
on the West by Macaro Creek and on the Northwest by the property of
Felipe Novida, see Exh. B, and since appellant's purchase referred only
to a portion of the Tamayo land, the fact that it was bounded on the
south by Mariano Tamayo according to Exhs. E and I would support his
claim that said portion was really part, the northern part, of the original
Tamayo land; the fact that the boundary on the north of the land he
purchased was Maximo Rico and Moises Rosal as shown in Exhs. F and
I, in the light of the proven fact that Maximo Rico was the successor in
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interest to that land toward the north, formerly of Felipe Novida, — and
this is admitted by appellee himself:
'Q. That land north of the land described in your title TCT
5486 was later owned by Maximo Rico, is it not?
'A. Not only Maximo Rico, also Fernando Dumatay, tsn. 39,
Rollazo.'
which confirms the testimony of witness, Fernando Rico, son of
Maximo:
'Q. That land bought by your father from Matias Lomibao
used to be the property of one Felipe Novida, is that
right?
'A. Matias Lomibao bought that land from Felipe Novida
and Matias Lomibao sold that land to Maximo Rico.'
tsn. 36, Rollazo;
therefore, the portion bought by appellant in 1918 is persuasively
shown by these details to be really that northern portion within
the former Tamayo land; it is true that appellees sought to show
that it was outside of their titled land, and north of this, and is now
identified as Lot 12340 of the Malasiqui cadastre, and peculiarly
enough, there is an answer in cross by appellant himself that
might indicate that he indeed admitted that this land in question
is Lot 12340 of the Malasiqui cadastre, tsn. 21, Abalos, but his
counsel must have apparently discovered that this was an error,
so much so that even in Lower Court, in the memorandum that he
filed, he contended that the questioned land could not be Lot
12340, R.A., p. 48, so that even were this testimony to be given
the category of a judicial admission, Rule 129, sec. 2 of the
Revised Rules of Court the same must have to give way to the
truth if the latter were shown to be otherwise from the evidence,
because then it would have been shown to have been due to a
palpable mistake, and let it be remembered that technical
numerations of their lots very probably are not known with
exactness by law witnesses; at any rate, and indeed, a further
examination of the proofs would demonstrate that this Lot 12340
is not really the land that had been bought by appellant from
Fernando Dumatay, but is a land north of that; because:
1st. — This Lot 12340 is shown by the very Exh. 2 of defendants-
appellees, to have been acquired by appellant, not from Fernando
Dumatay but from Maximo Rico, — see par. 5 thereof;
2nd. — The fact that appellant had bought a portion of said
Maximo Rico's land north of the titled property that is to say, north of
Lot 12341, is admitted by appellee himself in cross:
'Q. That land north of the land described in your title,
TCT 5486 was later owned by Maximo Rico, is it not?
'A. Not only Maximo Rico, also Fernando Dumatay.
'Q. Who is the owner now of that land north of the land
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covered by TCT 5486?
'A. It was sold to Aurelio Callejo, now the heirs of Aurelio
Callejo and Fernando Dumatay.' tsn. 39, Rollazo,
witness, Mariano Tamayo;
3rd. — This can only mean that Lot 12340, which is 4 the Lot
12341, — which is appellee's land — had been acquired by
appellant Aurelio, not from Fernando Dumatay, — but from
Maximo Rico, — successor in interest of Felipe Novida, the former
boundary owner north of the titled land, as shown indeed in
appellant's answer in the cadastral case, Exh. 2, exhibited by
appellees themselves;
None of the premises on which the foregoing finding is based has been
assailed by petitioner herein. Hence, the third assignment of error is clearly
untenable.
Under petitioner's fourth assignment of error, it is urged that the
conclusion of the Court of Appeals to the effect that Lot No. 12340 was
acquired by respondent Callejo from Maximo Rico "is not supported by any
direct testimonial evidence." This argument is in the nature of a negative
pregnant. It does not deny the existence of indirect testimonial evidence,
such as the circumstances pointed out in the above-quoted finding of the
Court of Appeals. Neither does it assail the existence of direct documentary
evidence, such as petitioner's aforementioned admission in Exhibit I. In
short, it does not deny the existence of substantial evidence in support of
the contested conclusion of fact of the Court of Appeals.
Apart from the foregoing, this assignment of error, like the third, tends
to impugn the finding of the Court of Appeals to the effect that the land sold
by petitioner's parents to Domantay is within the perimeter of the property
covered by TCT No. 5486. This, however, is essentially a question of fact,
and, consequently, the finding to this effect is final and not subject to review
in the present appeal on certiorari. 5 Indeed, its determination would require
an examination of all the evidence introduced before the trial court, a
consideration of the credibility of witnesses, and of the circumstances
surrounding the case, and their relevancy or relation to one another and to
the whole, as well as an appraisal of the probabilities of the entire situation.
6 It would thus abolish the distinction between an ordinary appeal on the one
hand, and a review on certiorari, on the other, and thus defeat the purpose
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for which the latter procedure has been established. In short, the issue raised
in petitioner's third and fourth assignments of error is basically one of fact,
not reviewable by Us on certiorari.
Under the last assignment of error, petitioner questions the right of
Callejo to demand a reconveyance, insofar as it may affect the portion of
70,000 square meters sold by him to Proceso Estacio, upon the ground that
the latter is a purchaser in good faith for value. This is, however, a defense
not available to petitioner herein, aside from the fact that he has not even
pleaded it in the trial court or otherwise raised it either in that court or in the
Court of Appeals.
We note that the dispositive part of the decision of the Court of Appeals
declares that the land in question is "declared reconveyed" to said
respondent. Such reconveyance cannot, however, be deemed made without
a survey defining with precision the metes and bounds of the area to be
segregated for herein respondent, Aurelio Callejo. Accordingly, this case
should be remanded to the court of origin for the preparation of a
subdivision plan of the portion thus to be segregated and the judicial
approval of such plan, and only after such approval has become final and
executory may the recoveyance be either made or deemed effected.
SO MODIFIED, the appealed decision of the Court of Appeals is hereby
affirmed in all other respects, with the costs of this instance against
petitioner Mariano Tamayo. It is so ordered.
Reyes, J .B.L., Makalintal, Zaldivar, Castro, Fernando, Teehankee,
Barredo, Makasiar, Antonio and Esguerra, JJ., concur.
Footnotes
1. I am responsible to said Mr. Fernando Domantay, his heirs and successors for
the property, the title to which I bind myself to defend against the claims of
whomsoever shall file the same.
2. Julio v. Dalandan, L-19012, Oct. 30, 1967.
3. See Fabian v. Fabian, L-20449, Jan. 29, 1968; Buencamino v. Matias, L-
19397, April 30, 1966; De Leon v. Molo-Peckson, L-17809, Dec. 29, 1962; J.
M. Tuason & Co. v. Magdangal, L-15539, Jan. 30, 1962; Tolentino v. Baltazar,
L-14597, March 27, 1961; Candelaria v. Romero, L-12149, Sept. 30, 1960.
4. Something must have been omitted inadvertently.
6. See Lim v. Calaguas, 83 Phil. 796, 799; Fortus v. Novero, L-22378, June 29,
1968; Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., Inc. v. Rich, L-22608, June 30, 1969.