- Petitioner
- Rosana Ereña
- Respondent
- Vida Dana Querrer-Kauffman
- Citation
- G.R. No. 165853
- Court
- Supreme Court
- Division
- First Division
- Ponente
- So Ordered. Panganiban, C.J.
- Decided
- June 22, 2006
Summary
This Supreme Court case involved a dispute over a real estate mortgage executed through elaborate fraud. Respondent Querrer-Kauffman, who owned property in Las Piñas City, left for the US in 1997, entrusting her house to others. Criminals broke into her house, stole her duplicate title and documents, then used an impostor to execute a P250,000 mortgage to petitioner Ereña. The RTC initially ruled in favor of Ereña as a good faith mortgagee, but the Court of Appeals reversed, finding the mortgage void due to forgery. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the doctrine of mortgagee in good faith does not protect mortgagees when the mortgage is executed by impostors using forged documents, as opposed to situations where the mortgagor has defective but genuine title. The Court emphasized that mortgage validity requires the mortgagor to be the absolute owner, and registration procured through forged instruments is null and void under P.D. 1529.