This case has been cited 2 times or more.
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2015-01-28 |
DEL CASTILLO, J. |
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| In a potential sale transaction, the prior payment of earnest money even before the property owner can agree to sell his property is irregular, and cannot be used to bind the owner to the obligations of a seller under an otherwise perfected contract of sale; to cite a well-worn cliché, the carriage cannot be placed before the horse. The property owner-prospective seller may not be legally obliged to enter into a sale with a prospective buyer through the latter's employment of questionable practices which prevent the owner from freely giving his consent to the transaction; this constitutes a palpable transgression of the prospective seller's rights of ownership over his property, an anomaly which the Court will certainly not condone. An agreement where the prior free consent of one party thereto is withheld or suppressed will be struck down, and the Court shall always endeavor to protect a property owner's rights against devious practices that put his property in danger of being lost or unduly disposed without his prior knowledge or consent. As this ponente has held before, "[t]his Court cannot presume the existence of a sale of land, absent any direct proof of it."[37] | |||||
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2013-07-24 |
REYES, J. |
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| A valid contract of sale requires: (a) a meeting of minds of the parties to transfer ownership of the thing sold in exchange for a price; (b) the subject matter, which must be a possible thing; and (c) the price certain in money or its equivalent.[22] | |||||