Modesta Beltran v. Feliciana Doriano

Summary

This 1915 Supreme Court case involved a property dispute over a 71-hectare mangrove swamp land in Pampanga. Modesta Beltran and her children sued defendants who unlawfully cut nipa plants on land they owned through purchase from Feliciano de la Rosa in 1911. The defendants, including the same Feliciano de la Rosa who had sold the property, took possession and cut approximately 5,000 nipa plants worth P500. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision granting permanent injunction and damages, holding that the original sale was valid under Civil Code provisions allowing coheirs to sell hereditary rights before partition. The Court emphasized that defendants acted in manifest bad faith by seizing products from land they had already legally alienated, and that the plaintiffs' ownership was established through valid purchase and inheritance rights upon the husband's death.