G.R. No. 197923 - RUBY RUTH S. SERRANO MAHILUM, VS. SPOUSES EDILBERTO ILANO AND LOURDES ILANO.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, it is most respectfully prayed of this Honorable Court, that after due notice and hearing, judgment be rendered in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendants, as follows: 1. Ordering the annulment of the documents denominated as Agreement (Deed of Sale with Right to Repurchase), dated December 4, 2003, and Deed of Absolute Sale and declaring the same as null and void; 2. Ordering defendants Ilano to surrender and return to plaintiffs the duplicate original owner's copy of TCT No. 85533; 3. Ordering the defendants, jointly and severally, to pay the plaintiffs the sum of Fifty Thousand Pesos (P50,000.00) as moral damages; [4.] Ordering the defendants, jointly and severally, to pay the plaintiffs the sum of Twenty Thousand Pesos (P20,000.00) as attorney's fees, and the additional amount of Two Thousand Pesos (P2,000.00) for every court hearing; and [5.] Ordering the defendants to pay the costs of this suit. Other reliefs deemed just and equitable are also prayed for. [12] Respondents' Amended Answer with Compulsory Counterclaim [13] alleged and admitted, among others, that petitioner was the owner of the lot covered by TCT 85533; that said title was entrusted to Perez; that petitioner executed an affidavit of loss which was annotated on TCT 85533; that they caused the annotation of an affidavit of non-loss on TCT 85533, as Entry No. 1875-27; that petitioner confronted them; that they showed petitioner the Agreement and unnotarized Deed of Absolute Sale; that they are in possession of the owner's copy of TCT 85533; that sometime in October 2003, Perez - accompanied by one Corazon Tingson (Tingson) "and a female person who introduced herself as Ruby Ruth Serrano" - offered to sell to them the property covered by TCT 85533; that "in support of the identity of the said Ruby Ruth Serrano, the original owner's copies of the title (TCT No. T-85533), Declaration of Real Property, Tax Clearance, Barangay Clearance, Community Tax Certificate with picture of Ruby Ruth Serrano attached therein" were presented to respondent Edilberto Ilano (Edilberto); that upon being satisfied as to the "identity of the person who introduced herself as Ruby Ruth Serrano," Edilberto instructed his secretary to verify the authenticity of the title with the Register of Deeds of Las Piñas City and conduct an ocular inspection of the property; that "the person who introduced herself as Ruby Ruth Serrano" obtained a cash advance of P50,000.00; that after verification confirmed that the property is indeed owned by and registered in the name of Ruby Ruth Serrano, Edilberto - "believing in good faith that the person [with] whom he is dealing x x x is indeed the real Ruby Ruth Serrano" - entered into the sale transaction; that on the same day, or October 30, 2004, petitioner received the full consideration of P250,000.00 and signed the Agreement and Deed of Absolute Sale; that petitioner's affidavit of loss filed with the Registry of Deeds is false as TCT 85533 was nev