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DOL v. CA & PASTOR

G.R. No. L-47847 | 31 JULY 1981
DIRECTOR OF LANDS COURT OF APPEALS and MANUELA PASTOR
v.
petitioner respondents
Petition for review on certiorari of CA decision
Justice Makasiar
Private respondent Pastor filed with CFI-Batangas an application for confirmation of imperfect
title over 13 lots in Gulod & Pallocan, Batangas City alleging that she and her predecessors-in-
FACTS

interest have been in continuous, uninterrupted, open, public, adverse and notorious possession
of said lots under claim of ownership for more than 30-years.
o 7 were allegedly inherited from her parents;
ISSUE

Whether there is a final judgment that bars private respondents application.

HELD

NO. Petition dismissed.

The Court held that there is no prior final judgment at all to speak of that will give credence to
petitioners contention of res adjudicata. The decision in Cadastral Case No. 41 does not
RATIO

constitute a bar to the application of private respondent; because a decision in a cadastral

proceeding declaring a parcel of land as public land is not the final decree contemplated in
Sections 38 and 40 of the Land Registration Act.