MOHAMMAD ALI SALASA, SPOUSES CONCEPCION AND JAMES TAN, SPOUSES SONIA AND ALNAEB JULJANI, SPOUSES RASALIE AND YUSOP ABDULLA, PROVINCIAL PROSECUTOR MOHAMMADJAN SARAJAN, IN HIS CAPACITY AS ACTING REGISTER OF DEEDS OF SULU, AND ATTY. ULKA T. ULAMA, AS COUNSEL OF THE, VS. HON. COURT OF APPEALS, AND SPOUS

Ruling

WHEREFORE, the Order of the lower court under date of March 28, 1989 as well as the Order dated June 26, 1989 sustaining the motion to dismiss are hereby REVERSED and SET ASIDE. Let this case be remanded to the Court of origin for further proceedings consistent with our pronouncements herein. [5] On December 5, 1990, the appellate court denied the motion for reconsideration filed by petitioners. Petitioners filed a petition for certiorari with this Court docketed as G.R. No. 96450, which we denied in a resolution dated January 21, 1991. We held: x x x After deliberating thereon, the Court, in the exercise of its discretion, Resolved to DENY the petition for failure to show any reversible error in the decision and resolution subject of the petition.... [6] The resolution on G.R. No. 96450 became final and executory on February 14, 1991. Thus, the case was remanded to the RTC and trial of the same Civil Case No.21-3 proceeded. After trial, the RTC in a decision dated January 11, 1994 granted the complaint. Its decretal portion reads: WHEREFORE, in view of the foregoing considerations judgment is hereby rendered declaring NULL and VOID the following: (a) the Deed of Extrajudicial Settlement of Estate executed by the heirs of Dr. Paciano T. Garcia, Sr. and Mrs. Ernestina U. Garcia affecting the land described in Original Certificate of Title No. 106 and P-41 of the Sulu Registry: (b) the Deed of Sale of Lot No. 4 of the subdivision plan Pcs-09-000699 executed by defendant Henrietta G. Borja in favor of defendant Brigida Conculada; and (c) the Deed of Donation of Lot No. 4 of subdivision plan Pcs-09-000699 executed by defendant Brigida Conculada in favor of defendants Imelda, Concepcion, Ma. Sonia and Rosalie - all surnamed Conculada, and are hereby ordered cancelled. The Acting Register of Deeds Mohammadjan Sarajan is hereby directed and ordered to cancel and annul Transfer Certificate of Title No. T-4387 of the Registry of Deeds of Sulu. Defendants Paciano Garcia, Jr. and Henrietta G. Borja (or her representative) are ordered to forthwith execute a deed of conveyance in favor of plaintiff Kimtoy Jamaani-Wee married to plaintiff Tian Su Wee, of Lot No. 4 of the subdivision plan Pcs-09-000699 and collect the purchase price of the said land in the sum of Four Hundred Fifty-Five Thousand Pesos (P455, 000.00) which plaintiffs consigned and deposited with the Officer-in-Charge of Branch III, Regional Trial Court of Sulu. Likewise, defendants are hereby ordered to pay jointly and severally the plaintiffs-spouses Kimtoy Jamaani-Wee and Tian Su-Wee, as follows: (a) moral damages in the sum of Seventy Thousand Pesos (P70,000.00); (b) Attorney's fee in the sum of Fifteen Thousand Pesos (P15,000.00); (c) litigation expenses in the sum of Five Thousand Pesos (P5,000.00); and exemplary damages in the sum of Twenty Thousand Pesos (P20,000.00) all in Philippine Currency. [7] The Court of Appeals affirmed the RTC decision in the challenged decision [8] dated March 1