Posted by: Von Derek on July 25, 2018
FACTS:
On May 2, 2000, the petitioners commenced an action for quieting of title and reconveyance in the RTC in Trece Martires City (Civil Case No. TM-983), averring that they were the true and real owners of the parcel of land (the land) situated in Trez Cruzes, Tanza, Cavite, containing an area of 47,708 square meters, having inherited the land from their father who had died on July 11, 1983; that their late father had been the grantee of the land by virtue of his occupation and cultivation; that their late father and his predecessors in interest had been in open, exclusive, notorious, and continuous possession of the land for more than 30 years; that they had discovered in 1999 an affidavit dated March 1, 1966 that their father had purportedly executed whereby he had waived his rights, interests, and participation in the land; that by virtue of the affidavit, Sales Certificate No. V-769 had been issued in favor of respondent Lorenzo Mores by the then Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources; and that Transfer Certificate of Title No. T-64071 had later issued to the respondents.
On August 1, 2000, the respondents, as defendants, filed a motion to dismiss, insisting that the RTC had no jurisdiction to take cognizance of Civil Case No. TM-983 due to the land being friar land, and that the petitioners had no legal personality to commence Civil Case No. TM-983.
On October 29, 2001, the RTC granted the motion to dismiss, holding:
Considering that plaintiffs in this case sought the review of the propriety of the grant of lot 2938 of the Sta. Cruz de Malabon Friar Lands Estate by the Lands Management Bureau of the defendant Lorenzo Mores through the use of the forged Affidavit and Sales Certificate No. V-769 which eventually led to the issuance of T.C.T. No. T-64071 to defendant Lorenzo Mores and wife Virginia Mores, and considering further that the land subject of this case is a friar land and not land of the public domain, consequently Act No. 1120 is the law prevailing on the matter which gives to the Director of Lands the exclusive administration and disposition of Friar Lands. More so, the determination whether or not fraud had been committed in the procurement of the sales certificate rests to the exclusive power of the Director of Lands. Hence this Court is of the opinion that it has no jurisdiction over the nature of this action. On the second ground relied upon by the defendants in their Motion To Dismiss, suffice it to state that the Court deemed not to discuss the same.
ISSUE:
Whether or not the Court of Appeals was correct when it dismissed the case on the ground that the subject land is a friar land, thus, LMB has jurisdiction and not the RTC?
HELD:
The CA seems to be correct in dismissing the petition for certiorari, considering that the order granting the respondents motion to dismiss was a final, as distinguished from an interlocutory, order against which the proper remedy was an appeal in due course. Certiorari, as an extraordinary remedy, is not substitute for appeal due to its being availed of only when there is no appeal, or plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.
As the provisions indicate, the authority of LMB under Act No. 1120, being limited to the administration and disposition of friar lands, did not include the petitioners action for reconveyance. LMB ceases to have jurisdiction once the friar land is disposed of in favor of a private person and title duly issues in the latters name. By ignoring the petitioners showing of its plain error in dismissing Civil Case No. TM-983, and by disregarding the allegations of the complaint, the RTC acted whimsically and capriciously.
Given all the foregoing, the RTC committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction. The term grave abuse of discretion connotes whimsical and capricious exercise of judgment as is equivalent to excess, or lack of jurisdiction.[26] The abuse must be so patent and gross as to amount to an evasion of a positive duty or to a virtual refusal to perform a duty enjoined by law, or to act at all in contemplation of law as where the power is exercised in an arbitrary and despotic manner by reason of passion or hostility.[27]
The dismissal of Civil Case No. TM-983, unless undone, would leave the petitioners bereft of any remedy to protect their substantial rights or interests in the land. As such, they would suffer grave injustice and irreparable damage. In that situation, the RTCs dismissal should be annulled through certiorari, for the task of the remedy was to do justice to the unjustly aggrieved.
