G.R. No. 139306 - MARIA MERCEDES NERY, BENJAMIN NERY, MARIA PAZ NERY, APOLINAR NERY AND ROBERTO FRANCISCO NERY - ALL REPRESENTED BY LICINIUS ABADIANO AND LOURDES DEL RIO ESPIRITU, VS. GABRIEL LEYSON, JOSEFINA LEYSON POBLETE, FE LEYSON, ESPERANZA LEYSON, CARIDAD LEYSON, ESTATES OF DECEASED SPOUSES JO

Ruling

WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Decision dated February 10, 1993 is hereby AFFIRMED in toto. Costs against the plaintiffs-appellants. The assailed Resolution denied reconsideration. The Facts The facts of this case are summarized by the CA, as follows: [4] The [Petitioners] Maria Mercedes, Benjamin, Maria Paz, Apolinar and Roberto Francisco, all surnamed Nery[,] claim that they xxx are the children of xxx Mercedes del Rio, who died during World War II. They are also heirs of their maternal grandmother Agatona del Corro, who as a widow, died in 1976. When Mercedes del Rio died, she left a share in the parcel of land in Lapu-Lapu City covered by O.C.T. No. RO-0083 in the name of Agatona del Corro, et al. The land is being managed by [petitioners] uncle Eduardo del Rio and Lourdes del Rio Espiritu. After the death of Mercedes del Rio, her heirs executed an Extrajudicial Partition and Declaration of Heirs dated January 28, 1964 covering the share of Mercedes del Rio in the land in question. The death of Mercedes del Rio was duly annotated on O.C.T. No. RO-0083 (Exh. A-1) on February 27, 1964. On December 2, 1964, a Notice of Lis Pendens (Re-Civil Case No. R-8646 C.F.I. of Cebu) was executed and annotated on the title by Atty. Regino Hermosisima representing Lourdes Leyson, et al. It appears that the Leysons had filed a case for annulment and cancellation of O.C.T. No. RO-0083. The [petitioners] claim that they were not made parties to said case and that although their mother Mercedes del Rio was impleaded as defendant, she was already dead when Civil Case No. [R-]8646 was filed in 1964. They maintain that the decision in Civil Case No. [R-]8646 does not bind them for they [were] not parties thereto, hence, the same [was] null and void. They therefore filed this case [docketed as Civil Case No. 2379-L] seeking the declaration of nullity of T.C.T. No. 119747 in the name of the Leysons and of the judicial proceedings in Civil Case No. [R-]8646. [Respondents] evidence, on the other hand, show that the land in dispute, Lot No. 73 of Cadastral Survey of Opon (now Lapu-Lapu City) is titled in their names under T.C.T. No. 19747 which was derived from O.C.T. No. 15615. Appearing in the said title is the name of their father Jose S. Leyson who acquired the land through purchase from Rosario Miranda. They were in possession of the property until 1963 when Agatona del Corro and her children took over the possession of the same. Lot No. 73 of the Cadastral Survey of Opon (now Lapu-Lapu City) covered by T.C.T. No. 19747 became the subject of litigation in Civil Case No. R-8646 entitled Lourdes Velez Leyson, Josefina Leyson Poblete, Fe Leyson, Esperanza Leyson, Caridad Leyson and Gabriel Leyson versus Agatona del Corro, Antolin del Rio, Consuelo del Rio, Mercedes del Rio, Socorro del Rio, Lourdes del Rio and Eduardo del Rio. The case was filed on December 2, 1964 before the then Court of First Instance of Cebu, Branch V. The trial court in Civil Case