Philippine Trust Company v. Honorable Court of Appeals

Summary

This case involves a decades-long property dispute stemming from a 1958 loan default and subsequent foreclosure. Philippine Trust Company sought to enforce res judicata against Simeon Policarpio Shipyard's damages claim for improper writ implementation. The Supreme Court affirmed that while res judicata applies to originally mortgaged properties, it does not apply to OCT-R-165, which was never mortgaged to Philtrust and was only titled in 1981. Despite Shipyard's failure to redeem the property from Landbank after foreclosure, the Court held that as lawful possessor when the writ was improperly implemented, Shipyard had standing to sue for damages under Civil Code Article 539, which protects all possessors' rights to undisturbed enjoyment of property.