Eversley gets to stay on property after SC overturns CA decision

The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that land occupied by the Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital in Barangay Jagobiao, Mandaue City belongs to the government.

The SC’s Third Division made permanent the temporary restraining order it issued in 2011, which had barred Anastacio and Perla Barbarona from claiming ownership of the property.

“Respondents failed to state when petitioner’s possession was initially lawful, and how and when their dispossession started,” read the SC decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.

The case stemmed from the petition for review on certiorari filed by the Barbarona couple, who sought to recover Lot 1936 in Jagobiao, Mandaue City, where the health facility is situated.

The owners said they own the property based on the Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) 53698. They said that they acquired the property from Tarcelo Gonzales and Cirila Alba.

On May 6, 2005, the Barbarona couple filed a complaint for ejectment before the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) of Mandaue City against the occu- pants of Lot 1936.

Named respondents were Eversley, Jagobiao National High School, the Bureau of Food and Drugs, and some residents occupying the property.

The couple said that they had sent demand letters to occupants, who were given until April 15, 2005, to vacate the premises.

Moot

Despite the lapse of the period, the occupants refused to vacate. The couple said they were constrained to file the complaint.

Replying to the complaint, the occupants said they have occupied the property for more than 70 years.

They argued that the couple was guilty of unreasonable delay in seeking a remedy for a legal right since it took them more than 60 years to seek the issuance of a Torrens title over the property.

In September 2005, the MTCC ordered the occupants to vacate the property, saying the complaint was for unlawful detainer.

The court ruled the Barbarona couple was the lawful owners of Lot 1936 and that the occupants were occupying the property by “mere tolerance.”

In November 2006, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) affirmed the Municipal Trial Court’s (MTC) decision.

Last Feb. 17, 2011, the Court of Appeals (CA) also ruled in favor of the Barbarona couple, saying the petitioners’ complaint for unlawful detainer was properly filed with the MTC.

In May 2011, the SC issued a temporary restraining order stopping the implementation of the appeals court’s ruling.

In the decision, the SC granted Eversley’s appeal.

While a registered owner has a right of possession over the property, ejectment cases, however, are not automatically decided in favor of the party who presents proof of ownership.

The Barbarona couple should have filed an accion publiciana, or the plenary action for the recovery of the real right of possession, before the RTC and not in the MTC, the SC said.

Thus, the judgments issued by the RTC and the CA are deemed void.

“Considering that respondents filed the improper case before the Municipal Trial Court, it had no jurisdiction over the case. Any disposition made, therefore, was void,” the SC ruled. /