MARIA CANO , applicant-appellee, vs . DIRECTOR OF LANDS,
EUSTAQUIA GUERRERO, ET AL. , oppositors-appellants. JOSE FERNANDEZ, ET AL. , oppositors-appellants.
Ramon C. Fernandez for appellants.
Jose B. Dealca for appellee.
SYLLABUS
1. SUCCESSION; RESERVA TRONCAL; RECORD RESERVA; DEATH OF
RESERVISTA; ISSUANCE OF CERTIFICATE OF TITLE OF RESERVEE. — Once an original certificate of title by virtue of the final decree of the land court was duly issued in the name of the reservista, subject to reserva troncal, and subsequently the latter died, the registration court, in view of the said recorded reserva has authority under Sec. 112 of Act 496 to order the reservatario; for the reason that the death of the reservista vested the ownership of the property in the sole reservatario troncal. 2. ID.; ID.; ID.; ID.; EXCEPTION. — Where, however, the registration decree merely specifies the reservable character of the property, without determining the identity of the reservatario (as in the case of Director of Lands vs. Aguas, 63 Phil., 279) or where several reservatories dispute the property among themselves, further proceedings would be unavoidable. 3. ID.; ID.; ID.; REQUISITES TO VEST TITLE IN RESERVE. — The only requisites for the passing of the title from the reservista to the reservee are (1) the death of the reservista; and (2) the fact the reservitario has survived the reservista. 4. ID.; ID.; RESERVATION NOT RESERVISTA'S SUCCESSOR MORTIS CAUSA. — The reservatario is not the reservista's successor mortis causa nor is the reservable property part of the reservista's estate; the reservatario receives the property as a conditional heir of the descendant (prepositus), the property merely reverting to the line of origin from which it had temporarily and accidentally strayed during the reservista's lifetime. The authorities are all agreed that there being reservatarios that survive the reservista, the latter must be deemed to have enjoyed no more a life interest in the reservable property. 5. ID.; ID.; DEATH OF RESERVISTA; RESERVATARIO AUTOMATICALLY BECOMES OWNER OF RESERVABLE PROPERTY. — Upon the death of the reservatario nearest to the prepositus becomes, automatically and by operation of law, the owner of the reservable property. 6. ID.; ID.; RESERVABLE PROPERTY CANNOT BE TRANSMITTED MORTIS CAUSA BY RESERVISTA. — The reservable property cannot be transmitted by a reservista to her or his own successors mortis causa so long as a reservatario, within the third degree from the prepositus and belonging to the line whence the property came, is in existence when the reservista dies.