LAND TITLE AND DEEDS

- Land Registration and Mortgages (before)

- Designation in the bar examinations Section 9, Rule 127, Old Rules of Court, now
amended by Section 11, Rule 138, New Rules of Court)
- It is not the land which is registered under any system of registration in the
Philippines and elsewhere, but it is the title to or any deed affecting land which is
actually registered.

WHY NEED TO REGISTER?

1.) To bind the land
2.) To prejudice third persons

TITLE (real estate or personal property)

- the lawful cause or ground of possessing that which is ours.
- the foundation of ownership of property, real or personal.
- Implies possession, either actual or constructive
- titulo (spanish)means the cause in virtue of which anything is possessed and the
instrument by which the right is accredited; and, in Spain and Mexico, they are a class
of titles (titulos), not translative of property. But it is to be applied as well to the term,
as to those which confer a mere right of occupancy.

DEFINITION: Title, therefore, may be defined briefly as that which constitutes

a just cause of exclusive possession, or which is the foundation of ownership of
property (See also Webster International Dictionary; Houston vs. Farris, 71 Ala.
570, 571; and Pratt vs. Fountain, 73 Ga., 261, 262).

1. ) Ownership/claim of ownership
2. ) Totality of facts/operative facts which result in such ownership or claim of
ownership is based.

Other terms:

A. Equitable Title/ownership - present title in land which will ripen into “legal
ownership” upon the performance of conditions subsequent.

B. Possession - does not necessarily imply title (Popovich vs. State, 177 N.E., 458,
462). Possession means actual control of property by physical occupation, while title
is the means whereby one holds possession of his land

Fee simple title

a title to the whole of the thing absolutely (Dumont vs. Dufore, 27 Ind. 263, 267).
Likewise, a title in fee is a full and absolute state beyond which and outside of which
there is no other interest or right (Bailey vs. Henry, 143 S.S. 1124,1127). Hence,
when such a title exists, there cannot be even a shadow of right beyond it because it
means complete and unconditional ownership in fact. It involves the exercise of the
maximum rights of dominion over the property without limitations except those
which may be established by law.