G.R. No. 6878, 13 September 1913, 25:295

FACTS:

Marcelina Edroso was married to Victoriano Sablan until his death on September 22, 1882. In this marriage they had a son named Pedro who at his father’s death inherited the two said parcels. Pedro also died on July 15, 1902, unmarried and without issue and by this decease the two parcels of land passed through inheritance to his mother, Marcelina Edroso. Hence the hereditary title whereupon is based the application for registration of her ownership.

Two legitimate brothers of VictorianoSablan — that is, two uncles german of Pedro Sablan — appeared in the case to oppose the registration, claiming one of two things: Either that the registration be denied, “or that if granted to her the right reserved by law to the opponents be recorded in the registration of each parcel.”

The Court of Land Registration denied the registration.
Registration was denied because the trial court held that the parcels of land in question partake of the nature of property required by law to be reserved and that in such a case application could only be presented jointly in the names of the mother and the said two uncles of Pedro Sablan.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the Court of Land Registration erred in denying the registration of the reservable properties by reservista, Edroso.

RULING:

YES. The Court held that applicant is entitled to register in her own name the two parcels of land which are the subject matter of the applicants, recording in the registration the right required by the law to be reserved to either or both of the opponents, Pablo Sablan and Basilio Sablan, should they survive her.

The reservista has all the rights inherent in ownership, he can use, enjoy, dispose of and recover it; and if, in addition to usufructuary, he is in fact and in law the real owner and can alienate it, although under a condition.

The ascendants who inherits from descendants, whether by the latter’s wish or by operation of law, requires the inheritance by virtue of a title perfectly transferring absolute ownership. All the attributes of the right of ownership belong to him exclusively — use, enjoyment, disposal and recovery.
During the whole period between the constitution in legal form of the right required by law to be reserved and the extinction thereof, the relatives within the third degree, after the right that in their turn may pertain to them has been assured, have only an expectation, and therefore they do not even have the capacity to transmit that expectation to their heirs.

*Case digest by Jan Robert M. Corre, LLB-IV, Andres Bonifacio College Law School, SY 2018-2019