G.R. No. L-7614 May 31, 1955
CONRADO POTENCIANO (deceased) substituted by LUIS, MILAGROS, VICTOR, and LOURDES, all surnamed POTENCIANO, plaintiffs-appellees, vs. NAPOLEON DINEROS and THE PROVINCIAL SHERIFF OF RIZAL, defendants-appellants.

FACTS

On November 3, 1944, plaintiff Conrado Potenciano bought a parcel of land and house from Gregorio Alcabao. The following day, November 4, 1944, Potenciano presented the deed of sale and Alcabao’s owner’s duplicate certificate of title to the Register of Deeds of Greater Manila for registration. The deed was entered in the day book, and Potenciano paid the corresponding fees. The clerk erroneously copied the certificate of title number as TCT No. 28436 instead of the correct number, TCT No. 18438 (or 28438 as later stated), but the property description matched. Due to the confusion from the bombing of Manila, the papers were lost or destroyed, and no new certificate was issued to Potenciano. In April 1946, defendant Napoleon Dineros sued Gregorio Alcabao for damages, obtained a judgment, and caused the attachment of the property, which still appeared in Alcabao’s name. Potenciano filed a third-party claim, explaining the discrepancy in title numbers, but his claim was denied. Dineros posted a bond to keep the attachment, and later, the court ordered the sheriff to disregard Potenciano’s claim. The property was sold at public auction to satisfy Dineros’s judgment, with Dineros as the highest bidder. The sheriff issued a certificate of sale to Dineros on February 10, 1951, which was noted on the certificate of title two days later. Potenciano filed the present action to annul the execution sale.

ISSUE

Whether the execution sale of the property to Dineros is valid, considering Potenciano’s prior purchase and registration of the deed of sale.

RULING

The execution sale is not valid, and the trial court’s judgment annulling it is affirmed. A purchaser at an execution sale acquires only the right, title, interest, and claim that the judgment debtor had at the time of the sale. Here, Alcabao had already sold and conveyed the property to Potenciano years before the attachment and execution sale. The act of Potenciano presenting the deed and certificate of title to the Register of Deeds and having it entered in the day book constituted registration under Section 56 of the Land Registration Act, which provides that deeds are “regarded as registered from the moment” entered in the entry book. This operated to convey the property to Potenciano. Dineros, as purchaser at the auction, cannot invoke protection as a purchaser in good faith because he had notice of Potenciano’s claim through the third-party claim. Furthermore, the denial of Potenciano’s third-party claim in the execution proceedings did not bar the present reivindicatory action, which is expressly allowed by Section 15 of Rule 39 of the Rules of Court.