Chapter VI
It will therefore be observed that while a judgment may always be
JUDGMENT AND DECREE
1. Decree and judgment compared.
DECREE- the court decision or judgment of dismissal.
Section 37 of Act No. 496 provides that if in any case without adverse
claim the court finds that the applicant does not have title proper for
registration, a decree shall be entered dismissing the application, and
such decree may be ordered to be without prejudice.
Section 38 for the issuance of a decree of registration and then fixes
one year from the entry of such a decree within which a person
deprived may file a petition for review, the term no longer conveys the
idea of a court decision or judgment; rather, it refers to the decree of
registration as issued by the Commissioner of Land Registration (now
Administrator of the Land Registration Authority).
AFTER TRIAL IN A REGISTRATION CASE, THREE ACTIONS ARE TAKEN:
1. Adjudicates ownership in favor of one of the claimants:
- Constitutes the decision — the judgment — the decree of the
court, and speaks in a judicial manner
2. The declaration of the court that the decree is final:
- Ordering the Chief of the General Land Registration Office
(Administrator of the Land Registration Authority) to issue the
corresponding decree of registration. Such order is made if
within thirty days from the date of receipt of a copy of the
decision or judgment no appeal is taken therefrom.
- a judicial action, although at a less degree than the
first.
3. Devolves upon the Land Registration Authority which was created
for the due effectuation and accomplishment of the laws relating
to the registration of land:
- This office prepares and issues the fi nal decree containing
the technical description of the land, which decree may not
be issued until after the finality of the court decree or
judgment of adjudication.
considered a decree, not all decrees are judgments; and it is all
the more when referring to a decree of registration issued by the
Administrator, which is distinct from the court decree dismissing an
application or awarding land to the applicant or an adverse claimant.
2. When judgment becomes final.
A decision without prejudice (sin perjuicio) becomes final after the
period within which to perfect an appeal shall have elapsed, and that is,
upon the expiration of thirty days from the date on which the party who
may appeal has been served with a notice of the judgment.
Section 39 of “The Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980”:
- The period to appeal from final orders, resolutions, awards,
judgments, or decisions of any court in all cases is limited to
fifteen days (15) only from date of notice thereof.
- No record on appeal is now required for such appealed cases.
- Exception to the rule is made with respect to appeals in
special proceedings and other cases wherein multiple appeals
are allowed under the applicable provisions of the Rules of
Court.
- Decisions, whether erroneous or not, become final
after the period fixed by law. (otherwise, litigation would
be endless, no questions would be finally settled, and titles to
property would become precarious if the losing party were
allowed to reopen them at any time in the future.)
- It was held that a subsequent re-interpretation of the law may
be applied only to new cases but certainly not to an old one
finally and conclusively determined, inasmuch as judicial
doctrines have only prospective operation.
- posterior changes in the doctrine of the Supreme Court
cannot retroactively be applied to nullify a prior final ruling in
the same proceeding where the prior adjudication was had,
whether the case be civil or criminal in nature.
 3. When judgment does not become final after lapse of
period.
A decision could not acquire finality until the amended plan which the
applicants were ordered to submit was presented to and approved by
the court. Such a decision, which leaves something yet to be done by
the parties and the court before it can be enforced, has in various cases
been declared to be interlocutory and not appealable. (Magbanua and Pineda
v. Dizon, 73 Phil. 622.)
4. Form of judgment.
A judgment or decision constitutes the opinion of the court after taking
into consideration the evidence submitted by the parties in the
controversy.
It may dismiss the application for registration or order the confirmation
and registration
of title to land in the name of the applicant or any of the oppositors,
depending upon the conclusiveness of their respective proofs or
evidence.
Section 28 of P.D. No. 1529 - in a case where only a portion of the
land subject of registration is contested, the court may render partial
judgment provided that a subdivision plan showing the contested and
uncontested portions approved by the Director of Land is previously
submitted to said court.
Section 29 of P.D. 1529 - judgment may be rendered confirming the
title of the applicant, or the oppositor as the case may be, to the land or
portions thereof upon finding that the party concerned has sufficient
title proper for registration, after considering the evidence and the
reports of the Administrator of Land Registration Authority and the
Director of Lands.
5. Issuance of decree.
Every decree of registration shall bind the land, and quiet title thereto
subject only to the exceptions stated in Section 39 of Act No. 496 (now
Section 44, P.D. No. 1529).
It shall be conclusive upon and against all persons including the National
Government and all the branches thereof, whether mentioned by name
in the application, notice or citation, or included in the general
description “To all whom it may concern.”
The issuance of a final decree is a judicial function and not an
administrative one.
May decree of registration be issued pending appeal?
- In any event, it was held that execution pending appeal is not
applicable to a land registration proceeding. It is fraught with dangerous
consequences inasmuch as innocent purchasers may be misled into
buying real property upon reliance on a judgment which may be
reversed on appeal.
A Torrens title issued on the basis of a judgment that is not final is a
nullity, as it is violative of the explicit provision of the Land Registration
Act which requires that a decree be issued only after the decision
adjudicating the title becomes final and executory, and it is on the basis
of said decree that the Register of Deeds concerned issues the
corresponding certificate of title.
6. Statutory liens affecting title.
Section 39 of Act 496, as amended by Section 44 of P.D. No. 1529:
Every registered owner receiving a certificate of title in pursuance of a
decree of registration, and every subsequent purchaser of registered
land taking a certificate of title for value and in good faith, shall hold the
same free from all encumbrances except those noted on said certificate
and any of the following encumbrances which may be subsisting,
namely:
- First, Liens, claims or rights arising or existing under the
laws and Constitution of the Philippines which are not by law
required to appear of record in the Registry of Deeds in order
to be valid against subsequent purchasers or encumbrancers
of record.

- Second. Unpaid real estate’s taxes levied and assessed
within two years immediately preceding the acquisition of any
right over the land by an innocent purchaser for value,
without prejudice to the right of the government to collect
taxes payable before that period from the delinquent
taxpayer alone.
- Third. Any public highway or private way established or
recognized by law, or any government irrigation canal or
lateral thereof, if the certificate of title does not state that the
boundaries of such highway or irrigation canal or lateral
thereof have been determined.
- Fourth. Any disposition of the property or limitation on the
use thereof by virtue of, or pursuant to, Presidential Decree
No. 27 or any other law or regulations on agrarian reform
such as Republic Act No. 6657 known as the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program.
The legal easement contemplated should have been pre-existing
at the time of registration of the land in order that the
registered owner may be compelled to respect it.
It is elementary that public use may not be imposed on private property
without proper expropriation proceedings and payment of just
compensation made to the owner.
7. Unrecorded liens.
The first exception mentioned in Section 39 of Act No. 496 relating to
encumbrances which may be deemed to affect registered land, although
no specific annotation thereof appears on the certificate of title, includes
liens, claims or rights arising or existing by operation of law but “which
the statutes of the Philippines Islands cannot require
to appear of record in the registry.’’ Just what are those liens, claims or
rights which cannot be required by statutes to be recorded or annotated
on the certificate of title, are difficult to conceive, except probably such
as would entail a deprivation of property without due process of law or
an impairment of contractual obligations.
8. Encumbrance created by administrative directive, null
and void.
Section 39 of Act No. 496 amended, every subsequent purchaser of a
registered land under the Torrens system, who takes a transfer
certificate for value in good faith, shall hold the same free of all
encumbrances, except those noted on the certificate and any of the
legal encumbrances, enumerated in the law.
9. Undisclosed encumbrances strictly construed.
10.Adverse possession not an encumbrance.
“Free of all encumbrances’’ in Section 44 of P.D. No. 1529:
- guaranteed to every applicant who receives a certificate of
title issued by virtue of a decree of registration as well as to
every subsequent purchaser who in good faith and for a
valuable consideration receives a certificate of title, does not
include adverse possession of a third person who subsequent
to the decree of registration entered and occupied the
registered land.
11.Form of decree.
- Every decree of registration shall bear the day of the year,
hour, and minute of its entry, and shall be signed by the Chief
of the General Land Registration Office (now the
Administrator of the Land Registration Authority) in his ex
officio capacity as Clerk of Court in land registration matters.
- The decree shall state whether the owner is married or
unmarried, and if married, the name of the husband or wife,
provided that if the land adjudicated is conjugal property, it
shall be issued in the names of both spouses.
- If the owner is under disability, it shall state the nature of the
disability, and if a minor, his age.
 - It shall contain a description of the land as finally determined
by the court, and shall set forth the estate of the owner, and
also, in such manner as to show their relative priority, all
particular estates, mortgages, easements, liens, attachments
and other encumbrances, including rights of tenant-farmer, if
any, to which the land or owner’s estate is subject, and may
contain any other matter properly to be determined in
pursuance of Presidential Decree No. 1529. The decree shall
be stated in a convenient form for transcription upon the
certificate of title.
A decree of registration issued pursuant to the Land Registration Act
only confirms the ownership of the applicant over the land subject of the
application.
Section 31 of Presidential Decree No. 1529 requires that if the land
adjudicated by the court is conjugal property, the decree should be
issued in the name of both spouses.
12.Decree of land includes buildings and improvements
thereon.

In concrete form, a decree of registration may be substantially as
follows:
Decree No. 145230
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
Court of First Instance
Quezon Province
Case No. 1232, L. F. C. Record No. 22862, having been duly and regularly
heard in accordance with the provisions of law, it is hereby decreed that
Alejandra de los Reyes, a widow, Filipino, and resident of Sariaya,
Quezon Province is the owner in fee simple of certain land situated in
said Province more particularly bounded and described as follows:
The registration of land in the name of a particular person vests in him
not only the title to the land but also the title to the improvements
thereon.
When land is registered under the Torrens system and a person other
than the owner makes valuable improvements in good faith thereon, the
lien given to such person may be noted in
the certificate of title by means of a petition filed in the original case
wherein the decree of registration was entered.
If the owner of the new improvements is the same registered owner of
the land, the notation of said new improvements on the certificate of the
title would seem to be a surplus age.

(Technical description of the land) By legal presumption, they belong to the owner of the land unless
otherwise expressly noted in his certificate of title.
Therefore, it is ordered by the Court that said land be registered in
accordance with the provisions of the Property Registration Decree in
the name of said Alejandra de los Reyes,
subject, however, to such of the encumbrances mentioned in section 44
of said law as may be subsisting, and to: . . . . . ..

WITNESS the Honorable . . . . . . . . Judge of said Court, the 30th day of

June, A.D., Nineteen hundred and seventy-eight.

Issued at Quezon City, Philippines, the 1st day of August, A.D., 1978, at
8:30 a.m.

Attest:
________________________________
Commissioner of Land Registration
(Seal of the L.R.C.)