ALFONSO QUIJADA ET. AL.

VS COURT OF APPEALS
G.R. NO. 126444, 4 December 1998, SECOND DIVISION (Martinez, J.)

FACTS:

On April 5, 1956, Trinidad Quijada, together with her siblings, donated a two-hectare
parcel of land to the Municipality of Talacogon with the condition that the same shall be used
solely and exclusively as part of the campus of the proposed provincial high school.
Subsequently, on July 29,1962, Trinidad sold the property to Regalado Mondejar.

Since the lot was never used for the school, the Sangguniang Bayan enacted a resolution
in 1987 reverting the land back to the donors. In the meantime, Mondejar sold portions of it to
several people.

The petitioners herein filed an action for the quieting of title, recovery of possession and
ownership of the lands alleging that Trinidad never sold the same as the land still belonged to the
Municipality of Talacogon.

The trial court decided in favor of the petitioners but the CA reversed the decision ruling
that the sale made by Trinidad was valid as she retained an inchoate interest by virtue of the
automatic reversion clause in the deed or donation.

ISSUE: Whether or not the sale made by Trinidad was valid.

HELD:

Yes. Ownership by the seller of the thing sold at the time of the perfection of the contract
of sale is not an element for its perfection. What the law requires is that the seller has the right to
transfer ownership at the time the thing sold is delivered. Perfection per se does not transfer
ownership which occurs upon the actual or constructive delivery of the thing sold. A perfected
contract of sale cannot be challenged on the ground of non-ownership on the part of the seller at
the time of its perfection; hence the sale is still valid.

Wherefore the assailed decision of the Court of Appeals is AFFIRMED.

*notes on the full text