LTD notes

LTD provisions

Innocent purchaser for value

I. Concept
A. An innocent purchaser for value is one who buys the property of another
without notice that some other person has a right to or interest in it, and
who pays a full and fair price at the time of the purchase or before receiving
any notice of another person’s claim.1
B. Requisites for good faith:
1. The seller is the registered owner of the land;
a. One who buys from one who is not the registered owner is expected
to examine not only the certificate of title but all factual
circumstances necessary for him to determine if there are any flaws
in the title of the transferor, or in his capacity to transfer the land.2
2. The seller is in possession thereof; and
3. At the time of the sale, the buyer was not aware of any claim or interest
of some other person in the property, or any defect or restriction in the
title of the seller or in his capacity to convey title to the property.3
a. A person is deemed to have knowledge of a public record, like a prior
reconstituted title on file with the Registry of Deeds.4

Constructive notice
I. Record  Primary entry book of the RD (Sec. 56, PD 1529)
A. Every deed or other instrument, whether voluntary or involuntary, so filed
with the Register of Deeds shall be numbered and indexed and endorsed
with a reference to the proper certificate of title. All records and papers
relative to registered land in the office of the Register of Deeds shall be
open to the public in the same manner as court records, subject to such
reasonable regulations as the Register of Deeds, under the direction of the
Commissioner of Land Registration, may prescribe.
B. All deeds and voluntary instruments shall be presented with their
respective copies and shall be attested and sealed by the Register of Deeds,
endorsed with the file number, and copies may be delivered to the person
presenting them.

1 Agcaoili 364, Land Titles and Deeds 2015 ed.; Rosales v. Burgos, G.R. No. 143573, 30 Jan
2009; Cabigas v. Limbaco, G.R. No. 175291, 27 July 2011, etc cited in footnote.
2 Yu v. Pacleb, G.R. No. 172172, 24 February 2009.
3 Id.; Uy v. Fule, G.R. No. 164961, 30 June 2014.
4 De Santos v. IAC, G.R. No. L-69591, 25 Jan 1988.

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LTD notes

C. Certified copies of all instruments filed and registered may also be obtained
from the Register of Deeds upon payment of the prescribed fees.
II. Jurisprudence
A. When a conveyance has been properly recorded such record is
constructive notice of its contents and all interests, legal and
equitable, included therein. Under the rule of notice, it is presumed that
the purchaser has examined every instrument of record affecting the title.
Such presumption is irrebutable. He is charged with notice of every fact
shown by the record and is presumed to know every fact which an
examination of the record would have disclosed. This presumption cannot
be overcome by proof of innocence or good faith. Otherwise the very
purpose and object of the law requiring a record would be destroyed. Such
presumption cannot be defeated by proof of want of knowledge of what the
record contains any more than one may be permitted to show that he was
ignorant of the provisions of the law. The rule that all persons must take
notice of the facts which the public record contains is a rule of law. The
rule must be absolute. Any variation would lead to endless confusion and
useless litigation.5
III. Notes
A. A second registrant’s claim that he was not aware of a prior registration is
wrong since he did know because recording is constructive notice to the
whole world. The second registrant cannot claim good faith.

Rules
I. The applicable rule would then be that “(s)hould there be only one common
original certificate of title, as in this case under consideration, the transfer
certificate issued on an earlier date along the line must prevail, absent any
anomaly or irregularity tainting the process of registration.”6

5 Legarda v. Saleeby, G.R. No. 83936, 2 Oct 1915.

6 Spouses Mathay v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 115788, 17 September 1998.

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