G.R. No. 488 : April 5, 1902
GREGORIA MARTINEZ, plaintiff-appellee, vs. HOLLIDAY, WISE & CO., defendants-appellants.

FACTS:
Holliday, Wise & Co. obtained an attachment against the property of Marcelo Lerma, which was provisionally recorded in the register of property. Subsequently, Gregoria Martinez filed a complaint in intervention, claiming ownership and a prior lien over the attached property. The lower court limited her intervention to the claim of preference. Martinez asserted a claim of 4,520 pesos against Lerma, evidenced by a public document. The document, however, showed that Lerma acknowledged receiving from Martinez, as executrix of his father’s estate, the full amount of his hereditary share (4,374.43 3/8 pesos) and an additional sum of 149.56 5/8 pesos as a loan. The document constituted an acquittance for the hereditary share, leaving only the 149.56 5/8 pesos as a subsisting debt. Holliday, Wise & Co.’s claim was a simple debt evidenced by a promissory note.

ISSUE:
Did the provisional record (anotacion preventiva) of the attachment in favor of Holliday, Wise & Co. give their claim a preference over the prior recorded claim of Gregoria Martinez?

RULING:
No. The provisional record of an attachment does not alter the nature of the obligation or convert a simple credit into a real right (right in rem). Its effect, under Article 44 of the Mortgage Law and Article 1923(4) of the Civil Code, is purely prospective; it grants preference only against claims contracted after the record was made. It does not affect or prejudice prior existing claims. Since Martinez’s claim for 149.56 5/8 pesos, being evidenced by a public document, was a preferred credit under Article 1924(3) of the Civil Code and existed prior to the attachment, it retained its preference over the subsequent simple credit of Holliday, Wise & Co. The judgment of the lower court was reversed, and it was declared that Martinez was entitled to preference only in respect to the sum of 149 pesos and 56 5/8 cents.