If someone went up to you selling you an untitled parcel of land only presenting to you the tax decs certificate as proof of ownership that he or she is paying for its tax obligations reasoning to you that technically he/she is the one deemed to be the owner of said property. DON’T BE FOOLED. Chances are the document was fraudulently acquired.
Tax declarations are not conclusive proof of ownership as the Supreme Court ruled in this case. Besides, registration of ownership of real estate properties must first be settled in the Registry of Deeds before a tax declaration can be issued.
Not of course if there had been a previous owner and a transfer to a subsequent owner is but necessary. Of course such transfer can be effected and proved either through a Deed of Sale, a court declaration of a Judicial Settlement of Estate in case of a previously deceased owner, an Affidavit of Extra-Judicial Settlement of the Estate, Affidavit of Self Adjudication, Donation documents etc.
In my case when I have processed my mom’s papers when she inherited the property of my deceased aunt, I executed 2 affidavits. An Affidavit of Sole Surviving Legal Heir to prove her right to the succession and an Affidavit of Self Adjudication, an attestation that she is adjudicating the property to effect a legal transfer in her name. These were the requisite documents among others I’ve prepared for the Register of Deeds in order to effect a legally transferred title in her name. And in this case the payment of tax decs is prerequisite to the issuance of a new Transfer Certificate of Title. Of course an obligation subsequent to the TCT issuance is to effect a transfer of the designated name or payer in the former tax declaration certificates to the new owner’s name as the new taxpayer. But to an untitled parcel of land such in this case? I believe registration of ownership comes first.
FACTS:
FACTS:
This was a case of a purported Deed of Sale wherein a Tax Declaration Certificate was presented as Secondary Evidence to prove a supposed previously effected Absolute Deed of Sale.
When you say Secondary Evidence, this means evidences offered other than the Best Evidence itself, meaning if you can’t produce the original, you produce a certified true copy, or a Xerox or photocopy for that matter.
So in this case if you can’t produce the best evidence of proof of ownership, you produce another document that may support your claim. And this is what the defendant did. Relying on the court’s due application of the exception to the Best Evidence Rule which is the Secondary Evidence Rule, not knowing that in fact he was relying on a weak evidence, because there are strict requisites in applying this exemption to that general rule. And defendant-appellant Antonio Ebreo was found short of satisfying those requisites.
The Deed of Sale evidencing the supposed transaction was never presented. We must take note, this is an untitled parcel of land subdivided and extra-judicially partitioned into 6 lots by 5 heirs of the deceased Felipe Ebreo, the 6th lot meaning untitled.
ISSUE:
ISSUE:
Question is, by virtue of a registered and previously transferred ownership was there really a Deed of Sale to be presented?
RULING:
RULING:
The Court ruled otherwise. It held that “substitutionary evidence cannot inceptively be introduced as the original writing itself must be produced in court. And defendant appellant failed to prove their case is included among the exception to the rule.”
Antonio Ebreo loses this case.
