G.R. No. L-25450 January 31, 1969
LEONARDO SANTOS, petitioner, vs. HON. ANGEL H. MOJICA, Judge, Court of First Instance of Rizal, Pasay City Branch, THE PROVINCIAL SHERIFF of Rizal, Pasay City Branch, TEODORICO, CARMEN, ANTERO, VIDAL, CATALINA, MELANIO, MANUEL, FELICIDAD, AURELIO, PACITA, and ELEUTERIA, all surnamed ALLANIGUE, respondents.

FACTS

On March 19, 1959, the Allanigue siblings filed an action for partition and annulment of conveyances involving a 360-square-meter lot in Parañaque, Rizal, against their sister Lorenza Allanigue, her husband Simeon Santos, and others. The defendants were declared in default, and the trial court rendered judgment ordering partition among the plaintiffs and defendant Lorenza Allanigue. A writ of execution was issued ordering the defendants to vacate the lot. Petitioner Leonardo Santos, son of the defendant spouses but not a party to the case, owned a house on the lot. He filed a third-party claim and a motion to recall the writ concerning his house, which was denied. The court later ordered the demolition of the houses for failure to remove them. Leonardo Santos and the defendants filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition in the Supreme Court (G.R. No. L-19618), which was denied, with the Court ruling that Santos did not follow the proper procedure to vindicate his alleged ownership. After this decision became final, the respondent Judge, on motion of the plaintiffs, ordered the demolition of the defendants’ houses. The defendants voluntarily removed their houses, leaving only the house of Leonardo Santos. Subsequently, the respondent Judge issued an order on December 9, 1965, directing the sheriff to demolish Leonardo Santos’s house, prompting the present petition for certiorari and prohibition.

ISSUE

Whether the respondent Judge had jurisdiction to issue the order of demolition against the house of petitioner Leonardo Santos.

RULING

The petition is denied. The Supreme Court held that:
1. Petitioner Leonardo Santos is bound by the judgment in Civil Case No. 217-R as a successor-in-interest of his parents, the defendants Simeon Santos and Lorenza Allanigue, from whom he claims his right. His house, built and reconstructed after his parents were summoned in 1959, makes him a builder in bad faith. Under Article 449 of the Civil Code, a builder in bad faith loses the improvement without right to indemnity. The landowners (the Allanigue siblings) may appropriate the accession or demand its demolition under Article 450. They chose demolition via their motion, which the respondent Judge granted.
2. The present petition is barred by res judicata due to the prior judgment in G.R. No. L-19618. There is identity of parties, subject matter (the portion of the lot and the house), and cause of action (the order for demolition) between the two cases. The decision in the prior case was on the merits and had become final.