Heirs of Guido & Isabel Yaptinchay vs.

Del Rosario, 304 SCRA 18

FACTS:

            Petitioners claim that they are the legal heirs of the late Guido and Isabel Yaptinchay claming the
Lot No. 1131 and Lot No. 1132. On 1994, petitioners executed an Extra-Judicial Settlement of the estate
of the deceased Guido and Isabel Yaptinchay. 

        However, the petitioners discovered that a portion, if not all, were already titled in the name of
respondent Golden Bay Realty and Development Corporation (GOLDEN BAY) in the TCT and already
sold a portions of the parcels of land. Upon discovery of what happened to subject parcels of land,
Petitioners filed a complaint for ANNULMENT and/or DECLARATION OF NULLITY OF five TCT  then
amended its petitions for the sale of the portion of the land but dismissed by RTC. On the other hand,
RTC allowed the petitioners to file its second amended compliant which was countered by Del Rosario’s
motion to dismiss on the grounds that compliant failed to show a cause of action or does not have the
right of action which they cannot established their status as heirs, granted by RTC which ruled that the
Petitioners does not shown any proof or even a semblance except the allegations that they are the legal
heirs of Yaptinchays, and they have been declared the legal heirs of the deceased couple.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the trial court can make a declaration of heirship in the civil action filed by the petitioners
considering that the petitioners are the legal heirs of the late Guido and Isabel Yaptinchay.

RULING:

No. The SC ruled that the proper remedy should have been an appeal. An order of dismissal, be it right or
wrong, is a final order, which is subject to appeal and not a proper subject of certiorari. Where appeal is
available as a remedy, certiorari will not lie. 

In addition, the trial court cannot make a declaration of heirship in the civil action for the reason that such
a declaration can only be made in a special proceeding. Under Section 3, Rule 1 of the 1997 Revised
Rules of Court, a civil action is defined as “one by which a party sues another for the enforcement or
protection of a right, or the prevention or redress of a wrong” while a special proceeding is “a remedy by
which a party seeks to establish a status, a right, or a particular fact.” It is then decisively clear that the
declaration of heirship can be made only in a special proceeding inasmuch as the petitioners here are
seeking the establishment of a status or right.

It is then decisively clear that the declaration of heirship can be made only in a special proceeding
inasmuch as the petitioners here are seeking the establishment of a status or right.