1.

Definitions
Land Title
It is the evidence of the right of the owner or the extent of his interest,
and by which means he can maintain control, and as a rule, assert right to
exclusive possession and enjoyment of the property.
Deed
A written instrument executed in accordance with law, wherein a
person grants or conveys to another certain land, tenements or
hereditaments.
Torrens title
A Torrens title is the certificate of ownership issued under the Torrens
system of registration by the government, thru the Register of Deeds naming
and declaring the owner in fee simple of the real property described therein,
free from all liens and encumbrances except such as may be expressly noted
thereon or otherwise reserved by law.
Fee Simple
An absolute title; it is an absolute estate in perpetuity. It is where title
to land is conferred upon a man and his heirs absolutely and without any
limitation imposed upon the estate.
Lis pendens
Latin term for pending suit or litigation. It indicates the control which a
court has, during the pendency of an action, over the property involved
therein.

2. Registration of title / Recording of evidence of title

Registration

Recording

The State provides a public record of

the title itself upon which a
prospective purchaser or someone
else interested may rely.

Provide for the recording of deeds of

conveyance and other instruments,
without
guaranteeing
the
title,
leaving to the prospective purchasers
or other persons interested to
examine the instruments in the

records and formulate their own

conclusions as to their effect on the
title.

3. Modes of acquiring land titles

(a) by public grant;
(b) by adverse possession;

(e) by private grant or voluntary

transfer;

(c) by accretion;

(f) by involuntary alienation;

(d) by reclamation;

(g) by descent or devise; and

(h) by emancipation patent.

4. Rights of Co-owners
Under the co-ownership, the ownership of an undivided thing or right
belongs to different persons. During the existence of the co-ownership, no
individual can claim title to any definite portion of the community property
until the partition thereof; and prior to the partition, all that the co-owner has
is an ideal or abstract quota or proportionate share in the entire land or thing.
5. Purpose of the Torrens System
The real purpose of the Torrens system of registration is to quiet title to
land; to put a stop forever to any question of the legality of the registration,
in the certificate, or which may arise subsequent thereto.
6. Procedure of Registration under PD 1529
No new certificate of title shall be entered or issued upon any transfer
of registered land which does not divest the land in fee simple from the
owners or from someone of the registered owners. All interests in registered
land less than an estate in fee sample are registered by filing with the
Register of Deeds the instrument creating or transfer- ring or claiming such
interests, and this official makes a brief memorandum thereof upon the
certificate of title, signed by him. A similar memorandum is also made on the
owners duplicate. In like manner, the cancellation or extinguishment of such
interests is registered.
7. Effect of Failure to Answer
If no person appears and answers within the time allowed, the court
may at once upon motion of the applicant, no reason to the contrary
appearing, order a general default to be recorded and the application to be

taken for confessed.

8. Effect of Withdrawal of Application of Land Registration
In a land registration case, when the applicant withdraws her
application with the consent of the court, and only the Director of Lands and
the private oppositors are left, it does not mean, that the withdrawal
terminates the proceedings.

9. Dismissal with prejudice / Dismissal without prejudice

With prejudice

Without prejudice

It is a conclusive judgment and the

principle of res judicata applies.

It is is not a conclusive judgment and

the principle of res judicata does not
apply.

The applicant may not file another

application anymore, unless it is
based upon a ground different from
that
alleged
in
the
previous
application.

The applicant may file another

application for registration of the
same property when he improves his
position.

10. Jurisdiction of RTC under PD 1529

RTCs shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all applications original for
registration of title, with power to hear and determine all questions arising
upon such applications or petition.
11. Requisites of Registrable Title
(a) the land is alienable public land; and
(b) his open, continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation
of the same are either since time immemorial or for the period prescribed in
the Public Land Act.
12. Decree / Judgment
Decree

Judgment

Decree of registration as issued by

the
Commissioner
of
Land
Registration (now Administrator of
the Land Registration Authority).

The court decision or judgment of

dismissal.

A judgment may always be considered a decree, not all decrees are

judgments.
13. Statutory liens affecting title
a. Liens, claims or rights arising or existing under the laws and Constitution of
the Philippines which are not by law required to appear of record in the
Registry of Deeds in order to be valid against subsequent purchasers or
encumbrancers of record.
b.
Unpaid real estates taxes levied and assessed within two years
immediately preceding the acquisition of any right over the land by an
innocent purchaser for value, without prejudice to the right of the
government to collect taxes payable before that period from the delinquent
taxpayer alone.
c. Any public highway or private way established or recognized by law, or
any government irrigation canal or lateral thereof, if the certificate of title
does not state that the boundaries of such highway or irrigation canal or
lateral thereof have been determined.
d. Any disposition of the property or limitation on the use thereof by virtue
of, or pursuant to, Presidential Decree No. 27 or any other law or regulations
on agrarian reform such as Republic Act No. 6657 known as the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
14. When decree of registration becomes final
The adjudication of land in a registration or cadastral case does not
become final and incontrovertible until the expiration of one year after the
entry of the final decree.
15. Remedies available to the aggrieved party
1) new trial;
(2) appeal;
(3) review of decree of registration;

(4) relief from judgment;

(5) reconveyance; and
(6) recovery of damages.

16. Who has the right to possess owners duplicate copy

The owners duplicate certificate shall be issued by the Register of
Deeds in the name of the person in whose favor the land was decreed, and
said duplicate shall be delivered to the registered owner.
17. Rules to be applied when land is registered in the name of 2
persons
If there is only one common original certificate of title from which the
two transfer certificates came from, the transfer certificate issued at an
earlier date along the line should prevail, barring anomaly in the process of
registration. But if there are two original certificates, then whichever of the
two transfer certificates traceable to the earlier original certificate should
prevail.
18. Nature and purpose of adverse claim
The claim asserted must affect the title or be adverse to the title of the
registered owner in order to be duly annotated as an adverse claim to the
land against the registered owner. The annotation of an adverse claim is a
measure designed to protect the interest of a person over a piece of real
property where the registration of such interest or right is not otherwise
provided for by the Land Registration Act, and serves as a notice and warning
to third parties dealing with said property that someone is claiming an
interest on the same or a better right than the registered owner.
19. Assurance Fund
The act of registration is the operative act, and the transfer and
vesting of the title is effected, not by the execution of an instrument of
transfer, not by the act of the owner of the land, not by the transfer of a valid
title by the transferor, but by the State acting through its officer the
Registrar; and because it transfers and vests the title by the issue of a
certificate which is declared by statute to be conclusive evidence of an
indefeasible title to the land, the State creates a fund for the compensation of
such person as may be injured by the divesting and cutting off of rights and
interests under this statutory declaration
20. Consultas and appeals to land registration authority
To pursue an appeal by consulta from the Register of Deeds to the
Commissioner of Land Registration, the party in interest is allowed a period of
the five days from receipt of notice of the denial of registration, provided the

documents involved have not been withdrawn from the Registry and the
prescribed consulta fee paid, in accordance with the provision of Section 117
of Presidential Decree No. 1529.
21. Tomas Claudio Memorial College vs. CA
Even if the co-owner sells the whole property as his, the sale will affect
only his share but not those of the co-owners who did not consent to the sale.
Under Article 493, NCC, the sale or other disposition affects only the sellers
pro indiviso share and the transferee gets only what corresponds to his
grantors share in the partition of the property owned in common. Since a coowner is entitled to sell his undivided share, a sale of the entire property by
one co-owner is not null and void. However, only the rights of the coowner/seller are transferred, thereby making the buyer a co-owner of the
property.
22. Director of Lands vs. CA
The Supreme Court held that land registration proceedings are actions
in rem. It is not necessary to give personal notice to the owners or claimants
of the land sought to be registered, to vest the court with authority over the
res. Instead, it is the publication of notice of the application for registration
which serves to apprise the whole world that such petition has been filed and
whosoever is minded to oppose it, may do so within 30 days before the date
set by the court for hearing the petition. It is the publication of such notice
that brings in the whole world as a party and vests the court with jurisdiction
to hear the case.
23. Benin vs. Tuason
Under Section 23 of Act 496, the registration court may allow, or
order, an amendment of the application for registration when it appears to
the court that the amendment is necessary and proper. Under Section 24 of
the same Act, the court may at any time order an application to be amended
by striking out one or more parcels of land by severance of the application.
The amendment may be made in the application or in the survey plan, or in
both since the application and survey plan go together. If the amendment
consists in the inclusion in the application for registration of an area or parcel
of land not previously included in the original application, as published, a new
publication of the amended application must be made. The purpose of the
new publication is to give notice to all persons concerned regarding the
amended application. Without a new publication the registration court cannot
acquire jurisdiction over the area or parcel of land that is added to the area
covered by the original publication, and the decision of the registration would

be a nullity insofar as the decision concerns the newly included land. The
reason is because without a new publication, the law is infringed with respect
to the publicity that is required in registration proceedings, and third parties
who have not had the opportunity to present their claim might be prejudiced
in their rights because of failure of notice. But if the amendment consists in
the exclusion of a portion of the area covered by the original application and
the original plan as previously published, a new publication is not necessary.
In the latter case, the jurisdiction of the court over the remaining area is not
affected by the failure of a new application.
24. Matute vs. Government of the Philippines
The dismissal of the action at the request of the plaintiff, even without
prejudice to his right to reinstate the same, becomes a final decision after the
expiration of the time within which an appeal may have been taken, and the
cause cannot be reinstated without new notices and new citations to all of the
persons interested. Such interpretation of Section 37 of Act No. 496 may work
hardship upon the petitioner in a particular case. However, it is the safer rule
to fol- low even at the cost of an occasional hardship, to adhere to the right
principle.
From the foregoing doctrine, it can be inferred that if a retrial which in
a sense is also a form of reinstatement of the case should be sought before
the order for dismissal has become final or before the lapse of the period
within which to appeal, the requisite of publica- tion of new notices and new
citations to all persons interested may be dispensed with.
25. Paraiso et al vs. Camon
Where the property sold by a widow was in fact conjugal in nature
because it was her husband who initiated its purchase on the installment
basis and had paid several installments on account up to the time of his
death in 1946, but thereafter the widow continued with the installments and
paid the price in full in 1951 when the subdivision company executed a final
deed of sale in her favor, describing her civil status as widow, the subsequent
purchaser who acquired the property from said widow without actual
knowledge of the history of the previous transaction and who relied on the
face of the certificate of title did acquire valid title thereto even as against
the husbands heir.