G.R. No. 128850 - ARCHIPELAGO MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING CORPORATION, VS. COURT OF APPEALS AND THE HEIRS OF ROSALINA SANTOS-MORALES, NAMELY, EMETERIO MORALES, LYDIA TRINIDAD, ROGELIO DE LA PAZ AND EMMANUEL S. DE LA PAZ.

Ruling

WHEREFORE, the Decision of this Court dated July 31, 1996 dismissing the complaint is SET ASIDE, and a new one is hereby rendered, REVERSING the appealed Decision of the lower court and declaring the Deed of Absolute Sale dated May 3, 1989 ANNULLED. " [5] The April 23, 1997 Resolution, on the other hand, denied petitioners own Motion for Reconsideration. This case originated from a Complaint for Annulment of Contract with Damages, filed [6] before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City [7] by Rosalina Santos-Morales, through her daughter Lydia Trinidad, against Petitioner Archipelago Management and Marketing Corporation. Upon the death of Rosalina on October 7, 1992, [8] herein private respondents, in their capacity as heirs, filed an Amended Complaint [9] stating inter alia that they were substituting the deceased as plaintiffs. [10] On April 15, 1994, the Complaint and the Counterclaim [11] were dismissed in the RTC Decision, which was initially affirmed by the Court of Appeals (CA) in its original Decision dated July 31, 1996. [12] Acting on private respondents Motion for Reconsideration with Motion for New Trial, the appellate court,[13] in its Amended Decision, reversed its previous ruling. Subsequently, as already stated, it also denied petitioners own plea for reconsideration. Undaunted, petitioner has brought this appeal for a final ruling on the matter. [14] The Facts The factual antecedents of the case were identically summarized by the appellate tribunal in both its original and its amended Decisions, as follows: "At the center of the controversy is a parcel of land upon which are erected residential buildings located at No. 58, South Maya Street, Philamlife Homes, Quezon City. Before the controversy, the subject property was owned and titled in the name of Rosalina Santos Morales, covered by TCT No. 255716. The latter had children by first marriage, one of whom is Lydia Trinidad (plaintiff-appellant). When Rosalina was widowed, she married Emeterio Morales, a widower, who also had children by a former marriage, including Narciso Morales, president of Archipelago Management and Marketing Corporation (defendant-appellee). For more than forty (40) years, Rosalina and Emeterio lived together in the subject property, leasing out the building as a retreat house to outside parties. "When several offices in the Quezon City Hall w[ere] razed by fire in 1988, many records, including original certificates of title[,] were reduced to ashes. Consequently, landowners with real properties in Quezon City had to apply for reconstitution of their individual titles. Sometime in August of that year, it is alleged that Emeterio Morales took the owners duplicate certificate of title over the subject property from Rosalinas designated caretaker, and on the pretext that he was going to apply for reconstitution of title, he was able to convince Rosalina to affix her signature on several documents. One of those documents turned out to be a Deed of