G.R. No. 140472 - NORA T. JIMENEZ, JOSEFINA T. GAVINO, LIBRADA T. DINO AND SUSAN T. JOVEN, VS. COMMISSION ON ECUMENICAL MISSION AND RELATIONS OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST IN THE PHILIPPINES AND POLICARPIO CARUNGIN.DECISION - Supreme Court

Ruling

WHEREFORE, the appealed Decision dated September 20, 1994 is REVERSED and SET ASIDE, and another is entered sustaining the validity of the Deed of Sale dated July 7, 1936 and of TCT No. 90689 issued in the name of UCCP as owner thereof, and DISMISSING the Complaint. [2] The assailed Resolution denied reconsideration. [3] The Facts The facts of the case are summarized by the CA in this wise: The [petitioners] are sisters and the children of x x x Nicanor Teodoro and Francisca Ciriaco. They filed their complaint in 1982 alleging that their mother was the owner of the subject property which was titled in her name under OCT No. 11757. Said property is now covered by TCT No. 90689 in the name of [respondent] United Church of Christ in the Philippines (or UCCP) for this was donated to it by the Commission on Ecumenical Mission in that Deed of Donation dated July 1, 1977. [Petitioners] claim that their parents never sold the lot to the Board of Foreign Missions nor any one else, and that their purported signatures on the impugned Deed of Sale have been found to be forgeries by government handwriting experts. Relying on this [respondents] filed this suit [imputing] the fraudulent act upon [respondents] and thus asked for the declaration of nullity of the subject deed and of TCT No. 90689 issued in the name of UCCP, the reconveyance of the subject property in their favor, and for the award of damages. In their answer, [respondents] denied that there was forgery and insisted that the said spouses legally conveyed their property under a valid deed of sale. They likewise averred that the action was already barred by prescription and/or laches for [petitioners] filed this suit after sleeping on their alleged rights for forty-five (45) years. At the trial [petitioners] submitted various exhibits as documentary evidences and presented five (5) witnesses, namely: [petitioners] Susan T. Joven and Nora T. Jimenez, handwriting experts Arcadio Ramos of the National Bureau of Investigation and Francisco Cruz, Jr., of PC Crime Laboratory, and [respondent] pastor Policarpio Carungin. On the other hand, [respondents] proffered as their evidences four (4) documents and the testimonies of [Respondent] Pastor Policarpio Carungin and that of his wife Felicula. According to [petitioners], their father and mother died respectively on September 30, 1979 and April 3, 1943, and they were then only minors when their mother died. In 1975 they learned for the first time about the subject property from Irene Cruz, their aunt and the caretaker of their mothers said property. They had no copy of the original title to the property and the only documents they possessed proving their mothers ownership were the Application for Registration of Title filed by their mother in 1929 docketed as G.L.R.O. Rec. No. 35469 and the Court Order for the issuance of Decree No. 381166 in 1930 commanding the registration of the subject property in their mothers name. With these papers on hand, [p