Bayan Vs Bayan
Bayan Vs Bayan
Bayan
FACTS: Petitioners, together with respondent Celia, are the registered co-owners of three
parcels of residential and commercial land. To secure the payment of her loans, Celia executed
a fraudulent Special Powers of Attorney (SPAs) which supposedly embodied her authority to act
on behalf of her frail mother Angelina and her brother, Jaime, who was permanently living in
the United States. With such spurious authority.
Angelina and Jaime insisted that all the transactions made by Celia were without their
knowledge and consent and their signatures embodied in the SPA were forged. This prompted
them to file the instant action. However, during the pendency of the case, Dy and Tanghal
proceeded to foreclose the mortgage.
RULING: Petitioners' right of redemption accrued the moment they have written notice of the
foreclosure sale. In legal pre-emption or redemption under the Civil Code of the Philippines,
written notice of the sale to all possible redemptioners is indispensable.
Art. 1623. The right of legal pre-emption redemption shall not be exercised except within thirty
days from the notice in writing by the prospective vendor, or by the vendor, as the case maybe.
The deed of sale shall not be recorded in the Registry of Property, unless accompanied by an
affidavit of the vendor that he has given written notice thereof to all possible redemptioners.
The bottomline is that petitioners need not wait for the Court to make a definitive ruling on the
validity or invalidity of the mortgage made by their co-owner. They should have known that any
co-owner can mortgage their undivided share in the co-owned property in accordance with
Article 49320 of the Civil Code. Upon notice of the foreclosure sale or receipt of any written
notice of the fact of sale, petitioners' right of legal redemption had already accrued such that
they should have included said issue at the very onset in their complaint. Not having raised the
same with the lower court, it cannot be entertained for the first time in the Motion for
Reconsideration with the appellate court.