Susi v. Razon, GR No. 24066, Dec. 9, 1925, 48 Phil.

424
G.R. No. L-24066 December 9, 1925

VALENTIN SUSI, plaintiff-appellee, vs.

ANGELA RAZON and THE DIRECTOR OF LANDS, defendants. THE DIRECTOR OF
LANDS, appellant.

VILLA-REAL, J.:

FACTS:

On September 5, 1899, Valentin Susi bought a parcel of land from Apolonio Garcia and Basilio
Mendoza. Prior to such purchase, the said sellers have been in an open, continuous, adverse
and public possession of the land for 19 years.
After the purchase, Valentin Susi took possession of the land in an open, continuous, adverse
and public manner and without interruption. However on September 13, 1913, the possession
was interrupted when Angela Razon filed an action to recover possession of the land. The Court
of First Instance dismissed Angela Razon’s complaint.
Despite the dismissal of the case, Angela Razon filed for the purchase of the disputed land with
the Director of Lands. Valentin Susi filed his opposition and asserted his right over the land.
However, the Director of Land overruled the opposition and sold the land to Angela Razon on
the ground that the land was still a public land and Valentin Susi does not have a title over it.
ISSUE:
Whether or not Valentin Susi already acquired title to the land.
HELD:
Yes. Valentin Susi has been in possession of the land in question openly, continuously,
adversely and publicly personally and through his predecessors for 45 years.
This being the case, the doctrine laid down by the Supreme Court of United States in Cariño vs
Government of the Philippine Islands is applicable. Here, it held that to acquire a right to a
certificate of title over a land of the public domain, under the provisions of Chapter VI of Act No.
926, as amended by Chapter VIII of Act No. 2874, an open, adverse, public and continuous
possession from July 26, 1894, is sufficient, provided the possessor makes application therefor
under the provisions of section 47 of Act No. 2874. The possessor under such circumstances
acquires by operation of law, not only a right to a grant, but a grant of the government, and the
actual issuance of a title is not necessary in order that said grant may be sanctioned by the
courts.
The doctrine laid down by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Cariño vs.
Government of the Philippine Islands, is applicable here. In favor of Valentin Susi, there is,
moreover, the presumption juris et de jure established in paragraph (b) of section 45 of Act No.
2874, amending Act No. 926, that all the necessary requirements for a grant by the Government
were complied with, for he has been in actual and physical possession, personally and through
his predecessors, of an agricultural land of the public domain openly, continuously, exclusively
and publicly since July 26, 1894, with a right to a certificate of title to said land under the
provisions of Chapter VIII of said Act. So that when Angela Razon applied for the grant in her
favor, Valentin Susi had already acquired, by operation of law, not only a right to a grant, but a
grant of the Government, for it is not necessary that certificate of title should be issued in order
that said grant may be sanctioned by the courts, an application therefore is sufficient, under the
provisions of section 47 of Act No. 2874. If by a legal fiction, Valentin Susi had acquired the land
in question by a grant of the State, it had already ceased to be the public domain and had
become private property, at least by presumption, of Valentin Susi, beyond the control of the
Director of Lands.
Consequently, in selling the land in question to Angela Razon, the Director of Lands disposed of
a land over which he had no longer any title or control, and the sale thus made was void and of
no effect, and Angela Razon did not thereby acquire any right. If, as above stated, the land, the
possession of which is in dispute, had already become, by operation of law, private property of
the plaintiff, there lacking only the judicial sanction of his title, Valentin Susi has the right to bring
an action to recover possession thereof and hold it.