Acap vs CA GR No. 118114 Dec.

7, 1995 Facts: The title to a lot in Negros Occidental was issued and is registered in the name of spouses Santiago Vasquez and Lorenza Oruma. After both spouses died, their only son Felixberto inherited the lot. In 1975, Felixberto sold the lot to Cosme Pido. Since 1960, Teodoro Acap was tenant of a portion of the land. When ownership was transferred in 1975, Acap continued to be the registered tenant and religiously paid his rentals to Pido, and after his death, to his widow Laurencia. Pido died intestate and his surviving heirs (wife and four children) executed a document (Declaration of heirship with waiver of rights), adjudicating the land equally amongst themselves, and waiving all their rights in favor of Edy de los Santos. The title continued to be registered in the name of the Vasquez spouses. Upon obtaining the Declaration of Heirship with waiver of rights, Edy filed it with the Registry of Deeds as part of a notice of adverse claim against the original certificate of title. Edy told Acap personally he was the new owner of the land and that the lease rentals (10 cavans of palay per annum) were to be paid to him. Allegedly, Acap agreed and complied. In 1983 however, Acap refused to pay any further lease rentals, prompting private respondent to get the assistant of the Ministry of Agrarian Reform. A MAR officer informed Acaps wife about Edys ownership, but she said she and her husband did not recognize the ownership over the land. After four years, Edy filed a complaint for recovery of possession and damages against Acap, as he refused to pay agreed rentals. The trial court decided in favor of Edy & stated that the evidence had established that the subject land was "sold" by the heirs of Cosme Pido to Edy. It forfeited Acaps preferred right underPD 27 and ordered Acap to deliver the farm to Edy which was affirmed by the CA. Issue: W/N the Declaration of Heirship and Waiver of Rights can be considered a deed of sale in favour of Edy de los Santos of the lot in question. Held: The Declaration of Heirship was not the same as a contract/deed of sale. In a contract of sale, one party obligates himself to transfer ownership and to deliver a determinate thing, and the other party to pay a certain price. A declaration of heirship and waiver of rights operates as a private instrument when filed with the Registry of Deeds. It is in effect an extrajudicial settlement. There is a difference between sale of hereditary rights and waiver. The first presumes a deed of sale. The second is a mode of extinction of ownership. Edy, being a stranger to the succession of Cosme Pido cannot conclusively claim ownership on the sole basis of the waiver document which neither recites the elements of a sale, donation or any other derivative mode of acquiring ownership. The fact that the adverse claim was duly proven does not prove ownership. It is nothing but a notice of adverse claim. In itself is not sufficient to transfer title to Edy de los Reyes.