Mercedes Moralidad v. Sps. Diosdado Pernes

Summary

Mercedes Moralidad, a retired teacher, owned property in Davao City and in 1986 executed a document allowing her niece Arlene Pernes and family to build a house and stay with conditions of maintaining harmony among kin. After Moralidad's return from the US in 1993, family relations deteriorated culminating in physical altercations in 1998. She filed an unlawful detainer action seeking to eject the Pernes family. The MTCC ruled for Moralidad, but RTC and CA reversed, finding the ejectment premature. The Supreme Court granted Moralidad's petition, ruling that the usufruct was validly terminated by breach of resolutory conditions requiring harmonious relationships. The Court applied Civil Code provisions on usufruct, denying respondents' right to reimbursement for improvements and ordering vacation without compensation. The decision established that usufructuary relationships can be terminated by fulfillment of resolutory conditions even when no specific time period is set.