G.R. No. 139524 - PHILIP C. SANTOS AND HEIRS OF ELISEO M. SANTOS, VS. LADISLAO M. SANTOS REPRESENTED HEREIN BY HIS ATTORNEY-IN-FACT NOE M. SANTOS.DECISION - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, it is most respectfully prayed of this Honorable Court that after due hearing judgment be rendered as follows: (1) Ordering the division of the intestate estate of the late Isidra Santos between petitioner and respondent Eliseo M. Santos; (2) Declaring Tax Declaration No. 04-0015 in the name of Virgilio Santos as null and void; (3) Declaring the Deed of Sale dated December 11, 1980, executed by Virgilio Santos in favor of Philip Santos as null and void; (4) Declaring Tax Declaration No. 04-00161 (sic) in the name of Philip Santos as null and void; Petitioner prays for other relief which this Court may deem just and equitable in the premises." ( at page 3, Records ) In their Answer to the complaint, the Appellees admitted that, upon the demise of Isidra Santos, the Appellant and the Appellee Eliseo Santos inherited the said property and the latter's share in Lot 1522 of the San Mateo Cadastre, which they and their sister, Isidra Santos, inherited from their father, Bonifacio Santos who died before the outbreak of the Second World War but insisted that the Appellant and the Appellee Eliseo Santos had agreed, in 1969, after the death of Isidra Santos, on April 1, 1967, to partition Lot 1522, under which a portion of Lot 1522, with an area of 3,387 square meters, was adjudicated to the Appellant, and a portion of the same lot, with an area of 3,000 square meters, was conveyed to the Appellee Eliseo Santos and the parcel of land left by Isidra Santos was conveyed by Appellee Eliseo Santos to Virgilio Santos, who, from infancy had been under the care of Isidra Santos, to approximately equalize the share of the Appellee Eliseo Santos in the estate of Bonifacio Santos. The Appellees further averred that Appellees had acquired the Isidra property by acquisitive prescription. Neither Appellant Ladislao Santos nor Appellee Eliseo Santos testified in the Court a quo . Although the Appellee Eliseo Santos was present during the proceeding, he did not testify anymore because of senility being then about 88 years old. Virginia Santos, the widow of Virgilio Santos, testified, in the Court a quo , and declared, that she and Virgilio Santos married, on February 12, 1967, and resided in the house of Isidra Santos until the sale, by Virgilio Santos, of the Isidra property to his brother, the Appellee Philip Santos and in exchange with the property of the latter located at Kambal Street, Gitnangbayan, San Mateo, Rizal, where the couple and, after Virgilio Santos' death, on April 5, 1984, had been residing. Virginia Santos likewise declared that Appellant Ladislao Santos and the Appellee Eliseo Santos had an agreement, notarized by Atty. Sixto Natividad, that Virgilio Santos and Virginia Santos became the new owners of the Isidra property. The copy of the Agreement given Virgilio Santos was xeroxed and the xerox copy was given to Appellee Philip Santos while Virgilio Santos' copy was filed with the Provincial Assessor's Office on the basis of which, Tax Decl