SANJORJO vs.

QUIJANO
An action for reconveyance is one that seeks to transfer property, wrongfully
registered by another, to its rightful and legal owner.[21] All that must be alleged
in the complaint are two (2) facts which, admitting them to be true, would entitle
the plaintiff to recover title to the disputed land, namely,
(1) that the plaintiff was the owner of the land and,
(2) that the defendant had illegally dispossessed him of the same.
[22] The body of the pleading or complaint determines the nature of an action,
not its title or heading.[23] In their complaint, the petitioners clearly asserted
that their predecessors-in-interest have long been the absolute and exclusive
owners of the lots in question and that they were fraudulently deprived of
ownership thereof when the private respondents obtained free patents and
certificates of title in their names.[24] These allegations certainly measure up to
the requisite statement of facts to constitute an action for reconveyance.
Article 1456 of the New Civil Code provides that a person acquiring property
through fraud becomes by operation of law a trustee of an implied trust for the
benefit of the real owner of the property. The presence of fraud in this case
created an implied trust in favor of the petitioners, giving them the
right to seek reconveyance of the property from the private
respondents. However, because of the trial courts dismissal order adverted to
above, the petitioners have been unable to prove their charges of fraud and
misrepresentation.
The petitioners action for reconveyance may not be said to have prescribed, for,
basing the present action on implied trust, the prescriptive period is ten years.
[25] The questioned titles were obtained on August 29, 1988 and November 11,
1988, in OCT Nos. OP-38221 and OP-39847, respectively. The petitioners
commenced their action for reconveyance on September 13, 1993. Since the
petitioners cause of action is based on fraud, deemed to have taken place when
the certificates of title were issued,[26] the complaint filed on September 13, 1993
is, therefore, well within the prescriptive period.

Art. 1456. If property is acquired through mistake or fraud,

the person obtaining it is, by force of law, considered a trustee
of an implied trust for the benefit of the person from whom the
property comes.

Reconveyance
Petitioners committed a fatal procedural error when they filed a motion in LRC
No. N-18887 on 16 July 1997. The remedy of petitioners is an action for
reconveyance against Sandoval, Ozaeta and their spouses. Reconveyance is based
on Section 55 of Act No. 496, as amended by Act No. 3322, which states that xxx
in all cases of registration procured by fraud the owner may pursue
all his legal and equitable remedies against the parties to such fraud,
without prejudice, however, to the rights of any innocent holder for
value of a certificate of title xxx.
An action for reconveyance is an action in personam available to a person whose
property has been wrongfully registered under the Torrens system in anothers
name. Although the decree is recognized as incontrovertible and no longer open
to review, the registered owner is not necessarily held free from liens. As a
remedy, an action for reconveyance is filed as an ordinary action in the ordinary
courts of justice and not with the land registration court. Reconveyance is
always available as long as the property has not passed to an innocent
third person for value. A notice of lis pendens may thus be annotated on the
certificate of title immediately upon the institution of the action in court. The
notice of lis pendens will avoid transfer to an innocent third person for value and
preserve the claim of the real owner
An action for reconveyance is a legal and equitable remedy granted to the
rightful owner of land which has been wrongfully or erroneously registered in
the name of another for the purpose of compelling the latter to transfer or
reconvey the land to him. Its aim is to show that the person who secured the
registration of the questioned property is not its real owner. In an action for
reconveyance, the decree of registration is respected as incontrovertible. What is
sought instead is the transfer of the property, which has been wrongfully or
erroneously registered in another persons name, to its rightful and legal owner,
or to one with a better right.

PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO.

1529
G.R. No. 157954

March 24, 2006