This case has been cited 1 times or more.
|
2006-12-06 |
CALLEJO, SR., J. |
||||
| Our reading of the Orders (dated June 16, 1997 and October 13, 1997) in Civil Case No. 4917 reveals that the RTC, Branch 3, Tuguegarao, Cagayan, dismissed the complaint for partition because of the discovery of the alleged last will and testament of Isabel Cuntapay. The court did not declare respondents [referring to the petitioners herein] the owners of the disputed property. It simply ordered them to petition the court for the allowance of the will to determine the proper legitimes of the heirs prior to any partition. Instead of filing the appropriate petition for the probate of Isabel Cuntapay's will, the respondents filed the present complaint for unlawful detainer. Viewed from this perspective, we have no doubt that the court's Orders cited by the respondents are not "judgments on the merits" that would result in the application of the principle of res judicata. Where the trial court merely refrained from proceeding with the case and granted the motion to dismiss with some clarification without conducting a trial on the merits, there is no res judicata.[17] Further, it is not quite correct for petitioners to contend that the children of Isabel Cuntapay by her first marriage could not have conveyed portions of the subject lot to respondent, as she had claimed, because until the present, it is still covered by OCT Nos. 196 and 1032 under the names of Pedro and Leona Cuntapay. To recall, it was already agreed by the heirs of the said spouses in a Partition Agreement dated December 28, 1979 that the subject lot would belong to Isabel Cuntapay. The latter died leaving her six children by both marriages as heirs. Considering that her purported last will and testament has, as yet, no force and effect for not having been probated, her six children are deemed to be co-owners of the subject lot having their respective pro indiviso shares. The conveyances made by the children of Isabel Cuntapay by her first marriage of their respective pro indiviso shares in the subject lot to respondent are valid because the law recognizes the substantive right of heirs to dispose of their ideal share in the co-heirship and/co-ownership among the heirs. The Court had expounded the principle in this wise:This Court had the occasion to rule that there is no doubt that an heir can sell whatever right, interest, or participation he may have in the property under administration. This is a matter which comes under the jurisdiction of the probate court. | |||||