The Employees' Club v. China Banking Corporation

Summary

This case involved a dispute over the registrability of a lease contract under the Torrens system. China Banking Corporation, holding a mortgage on Jose Javier Go Chioco's property, refused to surrender the duplicate certificate of title for notation of a lease granted by the estate administrator to The Employees' Club, Inc. China Banking argued that the three-year lease was not registerable under Civil Code and Mortgage Law provisions. The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's order requiring surrender of the duplicate title, holding that under Act No. 496 (Torrens system), all interests in registered land must be registered to affect third persons, regardless of the Civil Code's distinction between real and personal rights in leases. The decision established that lease contracts on Torrens-registered land are mandatorily registerable.