Sleeping on their rights
Ownership of a parcel of land may be acquired by the open, continuous, peaceful, and exclusive possession in the concept of an owner and in good faith for 10 years; or by the uninterrupted, adverse and notorious possession for 30 years without need of title or of good faith. The first is called ordinary acquisitive prescription while the latter is called extraordinary acquisitive prescription. This case is an example of extraordinary acquisitive prescription wherein possession in 30 years ripens into ownership.
The case involved a parcel of unregistered residential lot in a barangay up north originally declared for tax purposes in the name of Paeng. On
But Tina and Tibo did not take any action to have the said property adjudicated in their favor. When Tibo also died without any known heir the property was left solely in favor of Tina who had two daughters Lina and Maura. Even with the death of Tina, Lina and Maura did not take any concrete action in exercising their successional rights over the property, although Bernie, the son of Maura, continued to live in the property.
Sometime in 1947, the spouses Tino and
Hence on
After trial, the MCTC ruled in favor of the heirs of Lina and Maura. The court said that the adverse possession by
No. The notice of adverse claim filed by Lina in 1977 is nothing more than a notice of claim which did not effectively interrupt or toll the running of the prescriptive period. Under the Civil Code (Article 1123) the interruption that tolls the running of the period is the filing of the complaint or civil action against the possessor and his receipt of the judicial summons. Moreover even with the receipt of the judicial summons, the running of the period of prescription is not interrupted if the summons is void for lack of legal solemnities; if the plaintiff should desist or allow the proceedings to lapse ; or if the possessor should be absolved from the complaint (Article 1124).
Hence the Notice of Adverse claim cannot take the place of judicial summons which produces the civil interruption provided by law because there remains, as yet, a necessity for judicial determination of its validity in a civil action filed for that purpose. In this case, no action was in fact filed by Lina and Maura or their heirs against
Nothing was done by the heirs of Lina and Maura from the time their predecessors in interest died. It was only in 1977 when they attempted to call the attention of Pinang and her children which did not even operate as an interruption on the latter’s possession. From 1962 to the time they filed the complaint before the MCTC in 1995 and until the present time, Pinang and her children occupied the property without interruption in the concept of an owner thereby acquiring ownership via extraordinary acquisitive prescription. Plainly the heirs of Lina and Maura slept on their rights. The law comes to the succor only of the vigilant, not those who slumber on their rights (Heirs of Arzadon-Crisologo etc. vs. Ranon et. al. G.R. 171068, September 5, 2007).
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