Balbin v Register of Deeds

FACTS:

Petitioners Aurelio and Francis Balbin presented to the Ilocos Sur register of deeds a duplicate copy of the
registered owner’s certificate of title and a deed of donation inter-vivos, requesting that the latter be annotated
on the title. The registered owner Cornelio Balbin appears to have donated inter-vivos 2/3 portion of the land.
The register of deeds denied the requested annotation for being “legally defective or otherwise not sufficient in
law.” It appears that previously annotated in the memorandum of encumbrances on the OCT are three separate
sales earlier executed by Cornelio Balbin in favor of Florentino Gabayan, Roberto Bravo and Juana Gabayan, who
each received their co-owner’s duplicate CTs. Mainly because these 3 co-owner’s copies of CTs had not been
presented by petitioners, the register of deeds refused to make the requested annotation. Petitioners referred
the matter to the Commissioner of Land Registration, who upheld the action of the Register of Deeds in a
resolution.

ISSUE:

W/N the refusal of the Register of Deeds to make the annotation is proper

HELD:

YES. There being several copies of the same title in existence, their integrity may be affected if an encumbrance,
or an outright conveyance, is annotated on one copy and not on the others. If different copies were permitted
to carry different annotations, the whole system of Torrens registration would cease to be available.

Since the property subject of donation is also presumed conjugal, that is, property of donor Cornelio and his
deceased wife Nemesia Mina, “there should first be a liquidation of the partnership before the surviving spouse
may make such a conveyance.” Assuming the conjugal nature of the property, the donation bears on its face an
infirmity which justified the denial of registration, namely, the fact that 2/3 portion of the property which Cornelio
donated was more than ½ his share, not to say more than what remained of such share after he had sold
portions of the same land to 3 other parties.

Pending the resolution of a separate case, wherein Cornelio’s civil status, character of land and validity of
conveyances are in issue, the registration may await the outcome of said case and parties may protect their
rights by filing the proper notices of lis pendens.