490 Phil. 74
CARPIO, J.:
This Decree is issued pursuant to the Decision dated 31st day of May, 1966 of the Hon. Pedro C. Navarro, Judge of [Court of First Instance of Rizal, Branch II, Pasig, Rizal], and the Honorable Briccio C. Ygaña, this 3rd day of July, 1998.
Issued at the National Land Titles and Deeds Registration Administration, Quezon City, this 20th day of October, in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven at 8:01 a.m.
Entered in the “Registration Book” for Marikina, pursuant to the provisions of section 39 of PD No. 1529, on the 18th day of August nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, at 1:16 p.m.
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Justice
LAND REGISTRATION AUTHORITY
Quezon City1 December 1998
Atty. Crisostomo A. Quizon
Quiason Makalintal Barot Torres & Ibarra Law Offices
2nd Floor Benpres Building
Exchange Road corner Meralco Ave.
Ortigas Center, Pasig City
Sir:
This concerns your letter requesting the recall of Decree Nos. N-217643 and N-217644 issued in Land Registration Case No. N-2858, LRC Record No. N-18887, both in the names of Alfonso Sandoval and his wife, Rosa Ruiz, and Roman Ozaeta, Jr., and his wife, Ma. Salome Lao.
Records of this Authority show that aforesaid decrees of registration were prepared on October 20, 1977 pursuant to the decision of the court dated May 31, 1966 and the order for issuance of decree dated August 24, 1993. Said decrees were forwarded to the Office of the Administrator on August 8, 1998 and was [sic] released therefrom on August 13, 1998. Consequently, said decrees were signed sometime between August 8 and 13 1998 and definitely not on October 20, 1997 as what is reflected thereon because the undersigned Administrator assumed office only on July 8, 1998. Apparently, at the time the decrees were signed it was not noticed, through oversight, that they were dated October 20, 1977. It is therefore hereby clarified that Decree Nos. N-217643 and N-217644 were actually issued sometime between August 8 and 13 1998 and not on October 20, 1997.
Regarding the claim that these decrees were prematurely issued as the motion for the issuance of the decrees in favor of the Heirs of Eugenio Lopez, the properties involved having been sold to him by the applicants, is still pending with the court, it is informed that no copy of said motion nor of the order directing this Office to comment thereon appears on file in the records of the case. Hence, these matters could not have been taken into consideration in the issuance of the decrees. Had the Administration been apprised of these incidents, perhaps the issuance of the decrees could have been held in abeyance until the court has resolved the same.
As to the recall of the decrees of registration, we regret to inform you that since the certificates of title transcribed pursuant to said decrees have already been issued and released by the Registrar of Deeds concerned, it is now beyond our authority to recall them unless duly authorized by the court.
We hope that we have satisfactorily disposed of the concerns raised in your letter.
On 25 November 1998, petitioners filed with the Register of Deeds of Marikina City an application to annotate the notice of lis pendens at the back of OCT Nos. O-1603 and O-1604 on the ground that petitioners have filed with the land registration court a motion to declare OCT Nos. O-1603 and O-1604 void.[14] Petitioners attached to the application a copy of the 25 November 1998 motion and the pertinent OCTs.
(signed)
ALFREDO R. ENRIQUEZ
Administrator
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Justice
LAND REGISTRATION AUTHORITY
Registry of Deeds, Marikina City
Atty. Crisostomo A. Quizon
2nd Floor, Benpres Bldg.
Exchange Road cor. Meralco Avenue
Pasig City
Sir:
This is in connection to [sic] your application to have a Notice of Lis Pendens [annotated] at the back of OCT Nos. O-1603 and O-1604 issued in the name of ALFONSO SANDOVAL AND SPOUSE.
Pursuant to Sec. 76, PD No. 1529[,] the contents of the notice are the name[s] of the parties, the court where the action is pending, the date the action was instituted and a copy of the compalint [sic] in order to determine if the person named in the title is impleaded.
We regret to inform you that the application, bereft of the original petition or compaint [sic] upon which this office will base its action, is DENIED.
If you do not agree with our findings, you can, without withdrawing the documents you submitted, elevate the matter en consulta five (5) days from receipt hereof to the Office of the Administrator, Land Registration Authority, East Avenue cor. NIA Road, Quezon City.
Until and after the Order of General Default in LRC Case No. 18887 is lifted, petitioners cannot be clothed with personality as oppositors in said land registration case by merely filing a motion after a judgement has been rendered. Such being the case, a notice of lis pendens on the basis of the motion filed by petitioners cannot be admitted for registration. To rule otherwise would preempt the judgment of the Court in so far as the personalities of the movants as oppositors in the land registration case is concerned.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, this Authority is of the opinion and so holds that the notice of lis pendens is not registrable.
SO ORDERED.[17]
- WHETHER PETITIONERS’ MOTION TO DECLARE VOID THE DECREES ISSUED BY THE LAND REGISTRATION AUTHORITY IS A PROPER BASIS FOR FILING THE NOTICE OF LIS PENDENS, and
- WHETHER PETITIONERS CAN FILE THE MOTION TO DECLARE VOID THE DECREES ISSUED BY THE LAND REGISTRATION COURT IN LRC CASE NO. N-18887 DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE COURT HAS NOT LIFTED THE GENERAL ORDER OF DEFAULT.[18]
SECTION 14. Notice of lis pendens. – In an action affecting the title or the right of possession of real property, the plaintiff and the defendant, when affirmative relief is claimed in his answer, may record in the office of the registry of deeds of the province in which the property is situated a notice of the pendency of the action. Said notice shall contain the names of the parties and the object of the action or defense, and a description of the property in that province affected thereby. Only from the time of filing such notice for record shall a purchaser, or encumbrancer of the property affected thereby, be deemed to have constructive notice of the pendency of the action, and only of its pendency against the parties designated by their real names.Section 76 of PD 1529 states:
The notice of lis pendens hereinabove mentioned may be cancelled only upon order of the court, after proper showing that the notice is for the purpose of molesting the adverse party, or that it is not necessary to protect the rights of the party who caused it to be recorded.
SECTION 76. Notice of lis pendens. – No action to recover possession of real estate, or to quiet title thereto, or to remove clouds upon the title thereof, or for partition or other proceedings of any kind in court directly affecting the title to land or the use or occupation thereof or the buildings thereon, and no judgment, and no proceeding to vacate or reverse any judgment, shall have any effect upon registered land as against persons other than the parties thereto, unless a memorandum or notice stating the institution of such action or proceeding and the court wherein the same is pending, as well as the date of the institution thereof, together with a reference to the number of the certificate of title, and an adequate description of the land affected and the registered owner thereof, shall have been filed and registered.
The notice of lis pendens x x x is ordinarily recorded without the intervention of the court where the action is pending. The notice is but an incident in an action, an extrajudicial one, to be sure. It does not affect the merits thereof. It is intended merely to constructively advise, or warn, all people who deal with the property that they so deal with it at their own risk, and whatever rights they may acquire in the property in any voluntary transaction are subject to the results of the action, and may well be inferior and subordinate to those which may be finally determined and laid down therein. The cancellation of such a precautionary notice is therefore also a mere incident in the action, and may be ordered by the Court having jurisdiction of it at any given time. And its continuance or removal x x x is not contingent on the existence of a final judgment in the action, and ordinarily has no effect on the merits thereof.[24]A notice of lis pendens may involve actions that deal not only with title or possession of a property, but also with the use or occupation of a property.[25] The litigation must directly involve a specific property which is necessarily affected by the judgment. Magdalena Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Court of Appeals[26] enumerated the cases where a notice of lis pendens is appropriate:
[A] notice of lis pendens is proper in the following cases, viz:On the other hand, the doctrine of lis pendens has no application in the following cases:
a) An action to recover possession of real estate;
b) An action to quiet title thereto;
c) An action to remove clouds thereon;
d) An action for partition; and
e) Any other proceedings of any kind in Court directly affecting the title to the land or the use or occupation thereof or the buildings thereon.
a) Preliminary attachments;As decreed by Section 76 of PD 1529, a notice of lis pendens should contain a statement of the institution of an action or proceeding, the court where the same is pending, and the date of its institution. A notice of lis pendens should also contain a reference to the number of the certificate of title of the land, an adequate description of the land affected and its registered owner.
b) Proceedings for the probate of wills;
c) Levies on execution;
d) Proceedings for administration of estate of deceased persons; and
e) Proceedings in which the only object is the recovery of a money judgment.[27]
7.2.1 The Notice of Lis Pendens contains a statement of the filing by the Heirs of Eugenio Lopez of a motion to declare Original Certificates of Title Nos. O-1603 and O-1604 null and void;Petitioners’ enumeration readily reveals that they have not complied with the requisites. Both the LRA and the appellate court denied the application for a notice of lis pendens because petitioners are mere movants, and not original parties, in LRC No. N-18887. As petitioners are not parties to an action as contemplated in Section 76 of PD 1529, they failed to present the requisite pleading to the Register of Deeds of Marikina City. We hold that the Register of Deeds correctly denied the application for a notice of lis pendens.
7.2.2 It contains the name of the court wherein the motion is pending which is “the registration court, Regional Trial Court, Branch 152, Pasig City.” The date of the filing of the motion is shown on the motion itself wherein the receipt of said motion by the land registration court on November 25, 1998 is duly stamped;
7.2.3 The numbers of the Original Certificates of Title Nos. O-1603 and O-1604 are clearly indicated in the notice;
7.2.4 There is adequate description of the land affected in the Notice of Lis Pendens;
7.2.5 The names of the registered owners are indicated in Paragraph 4 of the Motion attached to the Notice;
7.2.6 A copy of the motion to declare OCT Nos. O-1603 and O-1604 null and void, dated November 25, 1998 upon which the Register of Deeds of the Province of Rizal will base its action is attached as Annex “A” of the Notice of Lis Pendens. (Emphasis in the original)[29]
Sec. 26. Order of default; effect. – If no person appears and answers within the time allowed, the court shall, upon motion of the applicant, no reason to the contrary appearing, order a default to be recorded and require the applicant to present evidence. By the description in the notice “To All Whom It May Concern”, all the world are made parties defendant and shall be concluded by the default order.Petitioners’ justification for filing a motion to annul the decrees and titles, as opposed to filing a motion to lift the order of general default, rests on two related assumptions. First, with the filing of the 16 July 1997 motion and giving of due course to the motion by the land registration court, petitioners assert that they acquired legal standing in the registration proceedings. Second, buyer Eugenio Lopez, Sr. stepped into the shoes of the sellers-applicants Sandoval and Ozaeta when applicants sold the property to him. As successors-in-interest of the buyer, petitioners contend that they are not strangers to the proceedings.
Where an appearance has been entered and an answer filed, a default order shall be entered against persons who did not appear and answer.
SECTION 22. Dealings with land pending original registration.—After the filing of the application and before the issuance of the decree of registration, the land therein described may still be the subject of dealings in whole or in part, in which case the interested party shall present to the court the pertinent instruments together with the subdivision plan approved by the Director of Lands in case of transfer of portions thereof, and the court, after notice to the parties, shall order such land registered subject to the conveyance or encumbrance created by said instruments, or order that the decree of registration be issued in the name of the person to whom the property has been conveyed by said instruments.The pertinent portion of Section 29 of Act 496 provides:
SECTION 29. After the filing of the application and before the issuance of the decree of title by the Chief of the General Land Registration Office, the land therein described may be dealt with and instruments relating thereto shall be recorded in the office of the register of deeds at any time before issuance of the decree of title, in the same manner as if no application had been made. The interested party may, however, present such instruments to the Court of First Instance instead of presenting them to the office of the Register of Deeds, together with a motion that the same be considered in relation with the application, and the court, after notice to the parties shall order such land registered subject to the encumbrance created by said instruments, or order the decree of registration issued in the name of the buyer or of the person to whom the property has been conveyed by said instruments. x x xMendoza v. Court of Appeals[35] explains the procedure in cases of conveyance of the land subject of a registration proceeding by an instrument executed between the time of filing of the application for registration and the issuance of the decree of title.
The law does not require that the application for registration be amended by substituting the “buyer” or the “person to whom the property has been conveyed” for the applicant. Neither does it require that the “buyer” or the “person to whom the property has been conveyed” be a party to the case. He may thus be a total stranger to the land registration proceedings. The only requirements of the law are: (1) that the instrument be presented to the court by the interested party together with a motion that the same be considered in relation with the application; and (2) that prior notice be given to the parties to the case xxx.[36]Petitioners also assert that they do not dispute the judgment of the land registration court. However, this position is in conflict with their 25 November 1998 motion to have the decree and the titles declared void. Petitioners now assume the roles of both successors-in-interest and oppositors. This confusion of roles brought about petitioners’ grave error in procedure.
Under Section 26, PD 1429, petitioners are deemed to have been included by the default order. Those who did not file an answer should be considered as having lost their standing in court from that stage (Republic v. Dela Rosa, 173 SCRA 12) except when they file a motion to set aside the order [of] default on the grounds mentioned in Section 3, Rule 18 of the Rules of Court (Toco v. Fay, 80 Phil. 166).One should be careful, however, to distinguish between movants as mere interested parties prescribed under Section 22 of PD 1529 and movants as intervenors-oppositors to the land registration proceedings. It is only in the latter case that a motion to lift the order of general default is required. It is only in the latter case that the doctrine pronounced in Serrano v. Palacio,[39] as repeatedly invoked by the LRA and OSG, is applicable:
In land registration cases (as in the said LRC No. N-18887), an order of general default was deemed to have been issued based on the presumption of regularity in judicial proceedings (Pascual, et al. v. Ortega, et al., 58 O.G. 12 March 1962 C.A.). Petitioners failed to adduce any evidence showing that the order of general default was lifted. Records disclosed that without first filing a motion to lift the order of general default, petitioners filed a motion to declare as null and void the decrees and titles. Until the order of general default is lifted by the court, petitioner could not be considered as a party to the action. They are deemed movants whose personality as far as the case is concerned is not yet admitted by the court considering that the order of default has not been lifted.[38]
x x x [P]etitioners committed an error of procedure when they filed a motion to intervene in the x x x land registration case for the proper procedure would have been for them to ask first for the lifting of the order of general default, and then, if lifted, to file an opposition to the application of the applicants. This is so because proceedings in land registration are in rem, and not in personam, the sole object being the registration applied for, and not the determination of any right not connected with the registration (Estila vs. Alvero, 37 Phil. 498).Petitioners are not mere interested parties in this case. By filing their motion to have the decrees and the corresponding certificates of title declared void, they took the role of oppositors to the application for land registration.