GR 38710; (April, 1934) (Digest)
G.R. No. 38710 ; April 24, 1934
RUBOSTIANA MONDEJAR, plaintiff-appellant, vs. CRISPINA DAGANI, administratrix of the intestate estate of the deceased Valentino Yu Alburo, defendant-appellee.
FACTS
Plaintiff Rubostiana Mondejar filed an action to recover two parcels of land, claiming she was the owner and had merely placed them under the administration of her son, Valentino Yu Alburo, during his lifetime. The defendant, as administratrix of Valentino’s estate, asserted that the lands belonged to the estate. She alleged the lands were allotted to Valentino as his share in the 1912 extrajudicial partition of the conjugal property of Mondejar and her deceased husband, and that Valentino had possessed them openly, peacefully, and exclusively under claim of ownership from 1912 until his death in 1930. The defendant also raised the defense of prescription and counterclaimed for the value of improvements made by Valentino.
ISSUE
Whether the two parcels of land belong to the plaintiff or to the intestate estate of the deceased Valentino Yu Alburo.
RULING
The Supreme Court ruled that the lands belong to the estate of Valentino Yu Alburo. The evidence showed that Mondejar delivered the lands to her son in 1912 as an advancement on his inheritance. Valentino thereafter possessed the lands as exclusive owner, cleaning and improving them at his own expense. In 1919, Mondejar herself caused the tax declaration for the lands to be changed to Valentino’s name. This possession was open, peaceful, exclusive, and under claim of ownership from 1912 until his death in 1930, a period exceeding the required time for acquisitive prescription. Consequently, Mondejar’s right to recover the property had prescribed, and Valentino had acquired ownership by prescription. The judgment dismissing Mondejar’s complaint was affirmed.
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