CHING v RODRIGUEZ

FACTS: Respondents filed a Complaint against the petitioners and all persons claiming rights or
titles from Ching and his successors-in-interest. In the Complaint, the respondents alleged the
following as causes of action:

1) That Ramon misrepresented himself as Antonio's and Lucina's son when in truth and in
fact, he was adopted and his birth certificate was merely simulated.
2) That Ramon had illegally transferred to his name the titles to the real estate properties.
3) That Ramon fraudulently misrepresented to the respondents that they will promptly
receive their complete shares, exclusive of the stocks in Po Wing from the estate of
Antonio.
4) That Antonio's 40,000 shares in Po Wing, were illegally transferred by Ramon to his own
name through a forged document of sale. Lucina's shares in Po Wing had also banished
through Ramon's machinations.
5) That Ramon executed an Affidavit of Extra-Judicial Settlement of Estate adjudicating
solely to himself Antonio's entire estate to the prejudice of the respondents.
6) That by reason of Ramon's lack of authority to dispose of any part of Antonio's estate, the
conveyances are null and void ab initio.

The petitioners filed with the RTC a Motion to Dismiss. RTC denied the motion.
Respondents filed an Amended Complaint and added a seventh cause of action relative to the
existence of a Certificate of Premium Plus Acquisition (CPPA) originally issued by PhilBank to
Antonio. The respondents prayed that they be declared as the rightful owners of the CPPA and
that it be immediately released to them. Respondents prayed for the issuance of a hold order
relative to the CPPA to preserve it during the pendency of the case.

ISSUE: Whether or not the RTC should have granted the Motion to Dismiss with regard to the
issues which could only be resolved in a special proceeding and not in an ordinary civil action.
HELD: No reversible errors were committed by the RTC and the CA when they both ruled the
denial of the petitioners' second motion to dismiss.

This Court agrees with the CA that the nullification of the documents subject of Civil Case
No. 02-105251 could be achieved in an ordinary civil action, which in this specific case was
instituted to protect the respondents from the supposedly fraudulent acts of Ramon. In the event
that the RTC will find grounds to grant the reliefs prayed for by the respondents, the only
consequence will be the reversion of the properties subject of the dispute to the estate of Antonio.
Civil Case No. 02-105251 was not instituted to conclusively resolve the issues relating to the
administration, liquidation and distribution of Antonio's estate, hence, not the proper subject of
a special proceeding for the settlement of the estate of a deceased person under Rules 73-91
of the Rules of Court.

The respondents' resort to an ordinary civil action before the RTC may not be strategically
sound, because a settlement proceeding should thereafter still follow, if their intent is to recover
from Ramon the properties alleged to have been illegally transferred in his name. Be that as it
may, the RTC, in the exercise of its general jurisdiction, cannot be restrained from taking
cognizance of respondents' Complaint and Amended Complaint as the issues raised and the
prayers indicated therein are matters which need not be threshed out in a special proceeding.