- Petitioner
- Guillermo Adriano
- Respondent
- Romulo Pangilinan
- Citation
- G.R. No. 137471
- Court
- Supreme Court
- Division
- Third Division
- Ponente
- Panganiban, J.
- Decided
- January 16, 2002
Summary
Property owner Guillermo Adriano entrusted his land title to relative Angelina Salvador to help find a mortgage lender. Without his knowledge, Salvador enabled an impostor to execute a P60,000 real estate mortgage with experienced mortgagee Romulo Pangilinan, forging Adriano's signature. The RTC declared the mortgage void, but the CA reversed, holding Adriano liable for enabling the fraud through his negligence. The Supreme Court reversed the CA, reinstating the RTC decision. The Court held that under Article 2085 of the Civil Code, a mortgage requires the mortgagor to be the absolute owner, which was absent here. More importantly, between two negligent parties, the mortgagee - who was experienced in the business and failed to exercise due diligence in verifying the impostor's identity during a mere 5-10 minute inspection - should bear the loss as he was in the primary position to prevent the fraud. The decision emphasizes that professional mortgagees must exercise heightened care in verifying borrowers' identities and cannot rely on cursory inspections.