How to cancel a notice of lis pendens?

Or a notice of lis pendens annotated on the a land

title?

Ordinarily a notice of lis pendens which has been filed in a proper case cannot be cancelled
while the action is pending and undetermined, except in cases expressly provided for by statute.
The plaintiff in the case at bar filed a MR which is still pending to date; thus, under normal
circumstances the notice of lis pendens cannot be cancelled. However, it may be cancelled if any
of these circumstances is present:

• If the annotation was for the purpose of molesting the title of the adverse party
• When the annotation isn’t necessary to protect the title of the party who caused it to be
recorded

It may be cancelled only upon order by the court or upon action by the Register of Deeds at the
instance of the party who caused the registration of the notice.

As stated in Sec. 77 of PD 1529, before final judgment, a notice of lis pendens may be canceled
upon order of the court, after proper showing that the notice is for the purpose of molesting the
adverse party, or that it is not necessary to protect the rights of the party who caused it to
be registered. It may also be canceled by the Register of Deeds upon verified petition of the
party who caused the registration thereof.

In the case of Magdalena Homeowners vs. CA (G.R. No. L-60323), the Court ruled that a notice
of lis pendens is ordinarily recorded without the intervention of the court where the action is
pending. The notice is but an incident in an action, an extra judicial one, and does not affect the
merits thereof. It is intended merely to constructively advise all people who deal with the
property that they so deal with it at their own risk, and whatever rights they may acquire in the
property in any voluntary transaction are subject to the results of the action, and may well be
inferior and subordinate to those which may be finally determined and laid down therein. Thus,
as applied in the case at bar, the dismissal of the action for the dismissal of the defendant’s title
does not entail the dismissal of the notice of lis pendens. The continuance or removal of the
notice of lis pendens is not contingent on the existence of a final judgment in the action, and
ordinarily has no effect on the merits thereof.

Likewise in the case of Roxas vs. Spouses Dy (G.R. No. 101728), the Court ruled that
cancellation of a notice of lis pendens, being a mere incident to an action, may be ordered at any
given time by the court having jurisdiction over it. As the case at bar had properly come within
the appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals because of the perfection of the plaintiffs'
appeal, it therefore had power to deal with and resolve any incident in connection with the action
subject of the appeal, even before final judgment. In short, it is the CA which has the jurisdiction
to hear the issue of cancellation of notices of lis pendens.