Alonzo Vs IAC
Alonzo Vs IAC
Alonzo Vs IAC
CRUZ, J.:
FACTS:
Five brothers and sisters inherited in equal pro indiviso shares a parcel of land registered in 'the
name of their deceased parents under OCT No. 10977 of the Registry of Deeds of Tarlac.
On March 15, 1963, one of them, Celestino Padua, transferred his undivided share of the herein
petitioners for the sum of P550 by way of absolute sale. One year later, Eustaquia Padua, his sister, sold
her own share to the same vendees, in an instrument denominated "Con Pacto de Retro Sale," for the sum
of P 440. By virtue of such agreements, the petitioners occupied, after the said sales, an area
corresponding to two-fifths of the said lot, representing the portions sold to them. The vendees
subsequently enclosed the same with a fence. In 1975, with their consent, their son Eduardo Alonzo and
his wife built a semi-concrete house on a part of the enclosed area.
On February 25, 1976, Mariano Padua, one of the five coheirs, sought to redeem the area sold to
the spouses Alonzo, but his complaint was dismissed when it appeared that he was an American citizen.
On May 27, 1977, however, Tecla Padua, another co-heir, filed her own complaint invoking the
same right of redemption claimed by her brother.
The trial court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the right had lapsed, not having been
exercised within thirty days from notice of the sales in 1963 and 1964. Although there was no written
notice, it was held that actual knowledge of the sales by the co-heirs satisfied the requirement of the law.
In truth, such actual notice as acquired by the co-heirs cannot be plausibly denied. The other co-heirs,
including Tecla Padua, lived on the same lot, which consisted of only 604 square meters, including the
portions sold to the petitioners . Eustaquia herself, who had sold her portion, was staying in the same
house with her sister Tecla, who later claimed redemption petition. Moreover, the petitioners and the
private respondents were close friends and neighbors whose children went to school together.
CA, reversed the trial court decision. It declared that the notice required by Art.1088 of the Civil
Code was written notice and that actual notice would not suffice as a substitute. To wit:
Art. 1088. Should any of the heirs sell his hereditary rights to a stranger before the
partition, any or all of the co-heirs may be subrogated to the rights of the purchaser by
reimbursing him for the price of the sale, provided they do so within the period of one
month from the time they were notified in writing of the sale by the vendor.
ISSUE:
1.) WON there was a valid and sufficient notice of the sale.
2.) WON there was laches.
RULING:
The petition before us appears to be an illustration of the Holmes dictum that "hard cases make
bad laws" as the petitioners obviously cannot argue against the fact that there was really no written notice
given by the vendors to their co-heirs. Strictly applied and interpreted, Article 1088 can lead to only one
conclusion, to wit, that in view of such deficiency, the 30 day period for redemption had not begun to run,
much less expired in 1977.
In requiring written notice, Article 1088 seeks to ensure that the redemptioner is properly notified
of the sale and to indicate the date of such notice as the starting time of the 30-day period of redemption.
Considering the shortness of the period, it is really necessary, as a general rule, to pinpoint the precise
date it is supposed to begin, to obviate any problem of alleged delays, sometimes consisting of only a day
or two.
The instant case presents no such problem because the right of redemption was invoked
not days but years after the sales were made in 1963 and 1964. The complaint was filed by Tecla Padua in
1977, thirteen years after the first sale and fourteen years after the second sale. The delay invoked by the
petitioners extends to more than a decade, assuming of course that there was a valid notice that tolled the
running of the period of redemption.
1.) YES.
In the face of the established facts, we cannot accept the private respondents' pretense that they
were unaware of the sales made by their brother and sister in 1963 and 1964. By requiring written proof
of such notice, we would be closing our eyes to the obvious truth in favor of their palpably false claim of
ignorance, thus exalting the letter of the law over its purpose.
The purpose is clear enough: to make sure that the redemptioners are duly notified. We are
satisfied that in this case the other brothers and sisters were actually informed, although not in writing, of
the sales made in 1963 and 1964, and that such notice was sufficient.
2.) YES.
While we do not here declare that this period started from the dates of such sales in 1963 and
1964, we do say that sometime between those years and 1976, when the first complaint for redemption
was filed, the other co-heirs were actually informed of the sale and that thereafter the 30-day period
started running and ultimately expired. This could have happened any time during the interval of thirteen
years, when none of the co-heirs made a move to redeem the properties sold. By 1977, in other words,
when Tecla Padua filed her complaint, the right of redemption had already been extinguished because the
period for its exercise had already expired. The following doctrine is also worth noting:
While the general rule is, that to charge a party with laches in the assertion of an alleged
right it is essential that he should have knowledge of the facts upon which he bases his
claim, yet if the circumstances were such as should have induced inquiry, and the means
of ascertaining the truth were readily available upon inquiry, but the party neglects to
make it, he will be chargeable with laches, the same as if he had known the facts.
It was the perfectly natural thing for the co-heirs to wonder why the spouses Alonzo, who were
not among them, should enclose a portion of the inherited lot and build thereon a house of strong
materials. This definitely was not the act of a temporary possessor or a mere mortgagee. This certainly
looked like an act of ownership. Yet, given this unseemly situation, none of the co-heirs saw fit to object
or at least inquire, to ascertain the facts, which were readily available. It took all of thirteen years before
one of them chose to claim the right of redemption, but then it was already too late.
We realize that in arriving at our conclusion today, we are deviating from the strict letter of the
law, which the respondent court understandably applied pursuant to existing jurisprudence. The said court
acted properly as it had no competence to reverse the doctrines laid down by this Court in the above-cited
cases. In fact, and this should be clearly stressed, we ourselves are not abandoning the De Conejero and
Buttle doctrines. What we are doing simply is adopting an exception to the general rule, in view of the
peculiar circumstances of this case.
The co-heirs in this case were undeniably informed of the sales although no notice in writing was
given them. And there is no doubt either that the 30-day period began and ended during the 14 years
between the sales in question and the filing of the complaint for redemption in 1977, without the co-heirs
exercising their right of redemption. These are the justifications for this exception.