533 Phil. 28
AUSTRIA-MARTINEZ, J.:
Plaintiff, Federico U. Gorospe, is the registered owner of a parcel of land (Exhibit "H") situated in Maddalero, Buguey, Cagayan, having bought the same from Maria Ugale (Exhibit "A") and Enrique Unciano (Exhibit "B"), evidenced by two separate Deeds of Sale. As a consequence, Transfer Certificate of Title No. 85450 was issued in his name. When Gorospe tried to exercise attributes of ownership of the lot, he was prevented from doing so by defendants Danny Ugale, Jerry Ugale and Pablo Ugale, claiming to be the installed tenants of defendant Juanita A. Vibangco and her brother, Ninoy Altura. Hence, the present case to remove the clouds over Gorospe's title and for the recovery of possession of the controversial realty.[3]On November 14, 1997, the RTC ruled in favor of Danny Ugale, Jerry Ugale, Pablo Ugale, Ninoy Altura and Juanita Vibangco (petitioners) and disposed of the case in this wise:
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the court renders judgment as follows, to wit:The RTC upheld the stand of petitioners Juanita and Ninoy and concluded that respondent's title is void having been obtained through fraud.[5]
a) Plaintiff's complaint is hereby dismissed; b) To pay them [sic] moral damages in the amount of Forty Thousand (P40,000.00) Pesos; c) To pay exemplary damages in the amount of Twenty Thousand (P20,000.00) Pesos; d) To pay attorney's fees in the amount of Fifteen Thousand (P15,000.00) Pesos plus litigation expenses in the amount of Five Thousand (P5,000.00) Pesos; and e) To pay the costs of suit. SO ORDERED.[4]
IN VIEW OF THE ALL THE FOREGOING, the appealed Decision is hereby REVERSED and SET ASIDE and a new one is entered declaring and affirming ownership of the disputed land in favor of appellant as against herein appellees, ordering the appellees to deliver possession of the subject property to the appellant, ordering the appellees to desist from committing any act of dispossession or molestation of the controversial lot against the appellant, and to pay the costs of this suit. Other prayer for damages and counterclaims are dismissed for insufficiency of evidence.[9]Petitioners' Motion for Reconsideration having been denied, they now come before this Court claiming that the CA gravely erred:
Petitioners argue that: the CA went beyond the grounds raised by respondent in his appeal when it delved on the issue of indefeasibility of title issued under the Torrens system; it is not accurate to state that since respondent was able to register the subject property in his name, he is the legal owner thereof as registration is not equivalent to title; ownership over the land was already granted to the Alturas in 1953 by the CFI in Civil Case No. 557-A and therefore, Maria and Enrique had no right to sell the property; Juanita's predecessor-in-interest were purchasers for value and were in open, continuous and peaceful possession thereof while respondent's predecessors-in-interest never possessed the subject lot neither did they pay any realty taxes thereon; respondent admitted that he was aware that there were persons in possession of the property, he therefore cannot be deemed a buyer in good faith; the principle on indefeasibility of Torrens titles, such that certificates of title could not be collaterally attacked, is not applicable in the present case as such principle does not extend to a transferee who takes the certificate of title with notice of a flaw in his title; respondent paid taxes on the property only so that the title of the property could be transferred to his name; Juanita and her predecessors-in-interest meanwhile have been paying taxes long before respondent made such payments; Juanita did not register the property under her name as she and her predecessors-in-interest have never been disturbed in their possession and they never suspected that any insidious scheme would be committed by anyone; forgery may be deduced from the face of the purported deeds themselves; it was incumbent upon respondent to present the alleged vendors to prove that their signatures were not forged; the deeds of sale were notarized in Tuguegarao, Cagayan, about 100 kilometers from Buguey, although there were notaries public in the town and the nearby municipalities, and even while both Enrique and Maria were already too old and sickly to travel; respondent admitted that no actual survey was made as all that was done was mere table survey.[11]
- IN DELVING BEYOND THE GROUNDS RAISED BY RESPONDENT IN HIS APPEAL.
- IN NOT UPHOLDING THE FINDINGS OF THE TRIAL COURT THAT PETITIONER JUANITA VIBANGCO AND HER PREDECESSORS-IN-INTEREST ARE THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS OF THE DISPUTED PROPERTY.
- IN NOT DECLARING THAT RESPONDENT IS GUILTY OF FRAUD IN CAUSING THE REGISTRATION OF THE LAND IN QUESTION NOT ONLY ON THE BASIS OF THE FORGED DEEDS OF SALE BUT ALSO BY REASON OF HIS PRIOR KNOWLEDGE THAT OTHERS WERE OCCUPYING THE SUBJECT PROPERTY PRIOR TO THE PURPORTED EXECUTION OF THE SAID DOCUMENTS.
- IN NOT UPHOLDING THE AWARD OF DAMAGES IN FAVOR OF PETITIONERS. [10]
(a) grounds not assigned as errors but affecting jurisdiction over the subject matter; (b) matters not assigned as errors on appeal but are evidently plain or clerical errors within contemplation of law; (c) matters not assigned as errors on appeal but consideration of which is necessary in arriving at a just decision and complete resolution of the case or to serve the interests of justice or to avoid dispensing piecemeal justice; (d) matters not specifically assigned as errors on appeal but raised in the trial court and are matters of record having some bearing on the issue submitted which the parties failed to raise or which the lower court ignored; (e) matters not assigned as errors on appeal but closely related to an error assigned; and (f) matters not assigned as errors on appeal but upon which the determination of a question properly assigned, is dependent.[17]This is in the interest of justice, to reserve to the appellate court the right, resting in public duty to take cognizance of palpable error on the face of the record and proceedings; to notice errors which are obvious upon inspection and of a controlling character, in order to prevent the miscarriage of justice from oversight. Indeed, an appellate court has wide discretion to correct a fundamental error or one which lies at the base of the proceeding and affects the judgment necessarily.[18]
Certificate not Subject to Collateral attack.- A certificate of title shall not be subject to collateral attack. It cannot be altered, modified, or cancelled except in a direct proceeding in accordance with law.Indeed, a certificate of title, once registered, should not thereafter be impugned, altered, changed, modified, enlarged or diminished, except in a direct proceeding permitted by law.[20] Otherwise, reliance on registered titles would be lost.[21]
Ninoy, in his Answer meanwhile stated that:
- The alleged registration made by plaintiff is fraudulent and illegal, even as no notice was given to answering defendant (Juanita) or her tenant, and, hence, the same is ineffective.
- Accordingly, the purported deeds of sale allegedly executed in favor of plaintiff, as well as the registration made by plaintiff, should be annulled and voided and that the title of answering defendant over the subject property should be judicially affirmed.[22]
Such defense is in the nature of a collateral attack which is not allowed by law as the issue of the validity of title, i.e. whether or not it was fraudulently issued, can only be raised in an action expressly instituted for that purpose. [24]
- The alleged registration caused by plaintiff over the property is null, void and ineffective, the same having been effected through fraud and without notice to the actual occupants of the property, even as the same was based on a null, void, ineffective, forged, fake and spurious documents.[23]
When this case was called for hearing, the parties submitted the following stipulation of facts:
Come now the parties in the above-entitled case and to this Honorable Court respectfully state:
- That the plaintiff Caridad Ugale hereby sells to the defendants any and all rights and interests she has in the homestead covered by Original Certificate of Title No. 80, particularly the land in question herein which contains an area of 1.6785 hectares;
WHEREFORE, the Court hereby renders judgment in accordance with the terms and conditions of said stipulation and orders the parties to strictly follow and observe the terms and conditions thereof. Without costs.
Finally, We sustain plaintiff-appellant's assertion that the disputed land is different from the one referred to in Civil Case No. 557-A. Apart from the Decision in the latter case, no other proof was presented by the appellees to show that the case involved with the same land. The purported Original Certificate of Title in the name of Pablo Carino is not much of help either considering that it is but a photocopy of the original and was not even certified by the Register of Deeds. It is but a mere scrap of paper and has no evidentiary value whatsoever. Further still, a perusal of the title number would seem to indicate that the number "80" was just superimposed before it was photocopied in order to make it appear that it is the same land referred to in Civil Case No. 577-A. This seems to underscore appellees' vain attempt to cloak with legal color their design to retain the parcel of land at the expense of the rightful owner.[31]And even if we assume, en arguendo, that the land claimed by petitioners is the same as that claimed by respondent, the argument of petitioners that they have been in possession of the subject property since time immemorial does not persuade us. Petitioner Ninoy in his testimony admitted that the property they are occupying was covered by a title in the name of Pablo Cariño and that he (Ninoy) personally cultivated the land only from 1929 to 1960. While he claims that his father cultivated the land before him, he did not specify however from what year, his father possessed the same.[32] On the other hand, TCT No. T-40562, from which respondent's title was derived, was issued on November 22, 1977; this in turn was derived from OCT No. 80 (112) issued on July 5, 1923.[33] It therefore appears that the title of respondent's predecessor issued in 1923 preceded the alleged possession of petitioners in 1929. Lands covered by title cannot be acquired by prescription or by adverse possession and allegations of uninterrupted possession for many years cannot prevail over respondent's certificate of title, which is the best proof of ownership thereof.[34]