G.R. No. 105567, 25 November 1993

FACTS:

 The petitioner GSIS conducted a lottery draw for the allocation of lots and housing units in Project 8-C of GSIS Village. Private respondent Esperanza Leuterio won and was issued a Certificate of Acknowledgment to purchase the subject house and lot. The parties entered into a Deed of Conditional Sale evidencing the conveyance of the subject property and all improvements thereon to the Leuterio spouses for the purchase price of P19,740.00, payable over a fifteen-year period, in 180 equal monthly installments.

Paragraph 11 of the Deed of Conditional Sale provides that upon the full payment by the Vendee of the purchase price of the lot, the Vendor agrees to execute in favor of the Vendee, or his/their heirs and successors-in-interest a final Deed of Sale.

After the land development and housing construction of Project 8-C were completed, petitioner’s Board of Trustees increased the purchase price indicated in the Deeds of Conditional Sale covering houses and lots therein. The new price was based on the alleged final cost of construction of the GSIS Village. It is noted that, on the face of the Leuterio’s Conditional Deed of Sale is the marginal notation “subject to adjustment pending approval of the Board of Trustees.” The Leuterio spouses alleged that this notation was not in the Deed when they signed the same in 1965. Resolving this factual issue, the trial court found that the appended words were inserted into the document without the knowledge or consent of the Leuterio spouses.

Meanwhile, after years of diligently paying the monthly amortizations 6 and real estate taxes on the subject property, the private respondents spouses informed 7 petitioner that the payments 8 for the property had been completed, and hence, the execution of an absolute deed of sale in their favor was in order. No action on the matter was taken by petitioner.

ISSUE:

WHETHER OR NOT the spouses Leuterio agreed to the notation “subject to adjustment pending approval of the Board of Trustees” appearing on the margin of the parties’ Conditional Deed of Sale.

RULING:

No. The purchase price agreed upon by the parties was P19,740.00 and this agreement was not made subject to any posterior event or condition. This finding of fact was based on the explicit testimony of private respondent Raul Leuterio that when he and his wife signed the Deed of Conditional Sale in 1965, the notation “subject to adjustment pending approval of the Board of Trustees” was not in the Deed. Likewise, the Answer of petitioner to the Complaint of the private respondents admitted the non-existence of this notation at the time the Deed of Conditional Sale was signed, albeit, it called the omission an honest mistake.

Quite clearly, therefore, the purchase price mutually agreed upon by the parties was P19,740.00. The spouses Leuterio did not give their consent for petitioner to make a unilateral upward adjustment of this purchase price depending on the final cost of construction of the subject house and lot.

 * Case digest by Prince Dave Santiago, LLB-1, Andres Bonifacio Law School, SY 2017-2018