ttr "HOME OF THE NATION'S TOP BAR REVIEWERS''

CIVIL LAW

Handout No. 006-B

REMINDERS IN LAND TITLES AND DEEDS

Torrens System

Concept and background

1. It is system of registration of land under which, upon the landowners'

application, the court may, after appropriate proceedings, direct the register of deeds for

the issuance of a certificate of title.

2. The system was devised and first introduced in South Australia by Sir Robert R.

Torrens in 1857.

3. Introduced in the Philippines by Act No. 496, which took effect on January 1,

1903 (Sotto vs. Sotto, 1922).

4. It was later amended and superseded by P.D. 1529, which took effect on June 11,

1987, otherwise known as the Property Registration Decree

Certificate of title

1.

(a)

(b)

There are two types of certificate of title:

Original Certificate of Title is the first title issued in the name of the registered owner by the Register of Deeds covering a parcel of land which had been registered under the Torrens system by virtue of judicial or administrative proceeding. It consists of one original copy files in the Register of Deeds, and the owner's duplicate certificate delivered to the owner.

Transfer Certificate of Title is the title used by the Register of Deeds in favor of a transferee to whom the ownership of a registered land has been transferred by any legal mode of conveyance (e.g. sale, donation). It also consists of an original and an owner's duplicate certificate.

Regalian doctrine.

Concept

l. The Regalian Doctrine is a time-honored Constitutional precept that all lands of

Effects

the public domain belong to the State, and that the State is the source of any asserted

right to ownership in land and charged with the conservation of such patrimony.

l. The Regalian Doctrine does not negate native title to lands held in private ownership since time immemorial.

Concepts of native title, time immemorial possession

1. Native Title refers to pre-conquest rights to lands and domains which, as far back as memory reaches, have been held under a claim of private ownership by ICCs/IPs, have never been public lands and are thus indisputably presumed to have been held that way since before the Spanish Conquest.

CIVIL LAW Page 2.of 6

2. Time immemorial possession refers to a period of time when as far back as memory can go, certain ICCs/IPs are known to have occupied, possessed in the concept of owner, and utilized a defined territory devolved to them, by operation of customary law or inherited from their ancestors, in accordance with their customs and traditions. It justifies the presumption that the land had never been part of the public domain and that it had been private property even before the Spanish conquest.

Citizenship Requirement

1. In case of individuals, must be Filipino citizen; and 2. In case of corporations, such may acquire private lands but not alienable and

disposable public agricultural lands. The test to determine corporation's nationality is based on the citizenship of its stockholders.

Original Registration

Who may apply

1. Under PD 1529, the following persons may file in the proper Court of First Instance an application for registration of title to land, whether personally or through their duly authorized representatives:

(a) Those who by themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest have been in

open, continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation of

alienable and disposable lands of the public domain under a bona fide claim of

ownership since June 12, 1945, or earlier;

(b) Those who have acquired ownership of private lands by prescription under the

provision of existing laws;

(c) Those who have acquired ownership of private lands or abandoned river beds by

right of accession or accretion under the existing laws;

(d) Those who have acquired ownership of land in any other manner provided for

bylaw.

Land owned in common, all the co-owners shall file the application jointly.

Land sold under pacto de retro, the vendor a retro may file an application for the original registration of the land, provided, however, that should the period for redemption expire during the pendency of the registration proceedings and ownership to the property consolidated in the vendee a retro, the latter shall be substituted for the applicant and may continue the proceedings.

A trustee on behalf of his principal may apply for original registration of any land held in trust by him, unless prohibited by the instrument creating the trust.

2. Under CA 141 (for the confirmation of incomplete or imperfect title under Sec. 48(b) of the Public Land Act), the following persons may file in the proper Court of First Instance an application for registration of title to land, whether personally or through their duly authorized representatives:

CIVIL LAW Page3 ?f6

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

3.

(a)

(b)

Those who by themselves or through their predecessors-in-interest have been in open, continuous, exclusive and notorious possession and occupation of alienable and disposable lands of the public domain under a bona fide claim of ownership since June 12, 1945, or earlier;

Those who have acquired ownership of private lands by prescription under the provision of existing laws;

Those who have acquired ownership of private lands or abandoned river beds by right of accession or accretion under the existing laws;

Those who have acquired ownership of land in any other manner provided for

bylaw.

Under RA 8371:

The allocation of lands within any ancestral domain to individual or indigenous corporate (family or clan) claimants shall be left to the ICCs/IPs concerned to decide in accordance with customs and traditions;

Individual and indigenous corporate claimants of ancestral lands which are not within ancestral domains may have their claims officially established by filing applications for the identification and delineation of their claims with the Ancestral Domains Office. An individual or recognized head of a family or clan may file such application in his behalf or in behalf of his family or clan, respectively;

Registration process and requirements

l.

(a)

(b)

(c) (d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h) (i) (j)

(k) (1)

In ordinary land registration:

Survey of the land by the Land Management Bureau or a duly licensed private surveyor; Filing of Application for Registration by the applicant at the RTC of the province, city or municipality where the property is situated; Setting of date for initial hearing by the court; Transmittal of application and date of initial hearing together with all documents or other evidences attached thereto by the Clerk of Court to the Land Registration Authority Publication of notice of filing of application and date and place of hearing once in the official gazette and once in the newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines; Service of notice upon contiguous owners, occupants and those known to have interest in the property by the sheriff; Filing of answer or opposition to application if any person whether named in the notice or not; Hearing of the case by the court; Promulgation of judgment by the court; Issuance of decree of order by the court declaring the decision final and instructing the Land Registration Authority to issue a Decree of Confirmation and Registration; Entry of decree in the LRA; Sending of copy of decree to the corresponding Register of Deeds;

CIVIL LAW Page4.of 6

(m) Transcription of decree in the registration book and issuance of Owner's Duplicate Original Certificate of Title of the applicant by the Register of Deeds upon payment of the prescribed fees.

Remedies

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

(a)

(b) (c) (d)

New Trial; grounds:

Fraud, accident mistake excusable negligence which ordinary prudence could not have guarded against; Award of excessive damages of insufficiency of evidence to justify the decision; Newly discovered evidence Period of filing: within the 15-day period for perfection an appeal

Appeal

Relief from judgment

Action for Reconveyance - an action seeking to transfer or reconvey the land

from the registered owner to the rightful owner.

Action for compensation from assurance fund

Action for damages

Cancellation of suits

Annulment of judgment

Quieting of title

Criminal action

Cadastral registration

L Compulsory registration initiated by the government, to adjudicate ownership of land.

2. Involuntary on the part of the claimants but they are compelled to substantiate their claim or interest through an answer.

3. Examples; expropriation1 auction sale in foreclosure1 forfeiture, levy on

1.

execution, mortgage, tax sale, attachment, mandamus, adverse claims and notice of lis pendens.

Subsequent Registration

Voluntary dealings - refer to deeds/ instruments or documents which are results of the free and voluntary acts of the parties thereto.

2. Effects of registration an innocent purchaser for value of registered land

becomes the owner the moment he presents and files a duly notarized and valid deed of

CIVIL lAW Page 5.of6

sale and the same is entered in the book and at the same time he surrenders or presents

the owner's duplicate certificate of title covered the land sold.

3. Involuntary dealings - refer to such writ order or process issued by a court

4.

1. 2. 3.

4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

10. 11.

affecting registered land which by law should be registered to be effective, and also to

such instruments which are not willful acts of the registered owner and which may have

been executed even without his knowledge or against his consent.

Effects of registration - entry thereof in the book of the Register of Deeds is

sufficient notice to all persons even of the owner's duplicate certificate of title is not

presented to the RD.

Non-registrable properties

Forest or timber land, public forest and forest reserve Mangrove swamps Mineral lands Foreshore lands and seashore Navigable rivers, streams and creeks Lakes Military reservations Watershed Grazing lands Previously titled land Alluvial deposit along river when man-made

-oOo-

CIVIL LAW Page 11of6