Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Morta VS Occidental

    Uploaded by

    Joji Marie Castro Palec
    65 views1 page
    1) Jaime Morta and Purification Padilla filed cases for damages against Jaime Occidental, Atty. Mariano Baranda, Jr., and Daniel Coral, alleging they gathered crops and destroyed plants from petitioners' land. 2) Respondents denied the accusations and claimed the petitioners did not own the land, whose title was registered under Josefina Opiana-Baraclan. 3) While courts initially ruled in favor of DARAB jurisdiction, the Supreme Court determined ownership of the land was in dispute and not a matter for the agrarian dispute body, but rather the appropriate trial court.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    MORTA VS OCCIDENTAL.docx

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    1) Jaime Morta and Purification Padilla filed cases for damages against Jaime Occidental, Atty. Mariano Baranda, Jr., and Daniel Coral, alleging they gathered crops and destroyed plants from petitioners' land. 2) Respondents denied the accusations and claimed the petitioners did not own the land, whose title was registered under Josefina Opiana-Baraclan. 3) While courts initially ruled in favor of DARAB jurisdiction, the Supreme Court determined ownership of the land was in dispute and not a matter for the agrarian dispute body, but rather the appropriate trial court.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    65 views1 page

    Morta VS Occidental

    Uploaded by

    Joji Marie Castro Palec
    1) Jaime Morta and Purification Padilla filed cases for damages against Jaime Occidental, Atty. Mariano Baranda, Jr., and Daniel Coral, alleging they gathered crops and destroyed plants from petitioners' land. 2) Respondents denied the accusations and claimed the petitioners did not own the land, whose title was registered under Josefina Opiana-Baraclan. 3) While courts initially ruled in favor of DARAB jurisdiction, the Supreme Court determined ownership of the land was in dispute and not a matter for the agrarian dispute body, but rather the appropriate trial court.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    MORTA VS OCCIDENTAL

    Facts:

    Jaime Morta, Sr. and Purification Padilla (petitioners) filed two cases for damages with preliminary
    injunction against Jaime Occidental, Atty. Mariano Baranda, Jr., and Daniel Coral (respondents).

    In their complaint, petitioners alleged that respondents, through instigation of Atty. Baranda gathered
    pilinuts, anahaw leaves and coconuts from their respective land. The products were delivered to Atty.
    Baranda. They also alleged the respondents destroyed their banana and pineapple plants.

    Respondents denied the accusation against them. They claimed that the petitioners were not owners of
    the land in question. They alleged that the Torrens title is registered to the father of one Josefina
    Opiana-Baraclan. The respondent contended that he was a bona fide tenant of Josefina.

    MTC rendered decision in favor of the petitioner.

    Respondents appealed to the RTC questioning the MTC’s jurisdiction that the case was cognizable by the
    DARAB and not of the MTC. RTC reversed MTC’s ruling and remanded the case to DARAB for it falls
    within their exclusive original jurisdiction.

    CA affirmed RTC’s ruling.

    Issue:

    WON the civil action for damages are tenancy-related and is cognizable by the DARAB and not the trial
    court.

    Ruling:

    No, the case is cognizable by the trial court.

    For DARAB to have jurisdiction, there must exist a tenancy relationship between the parties.

    The RTC in ruling that the case falls within DARAB, relied on the findings in DARAB that Josefina Opiana-
    Baraclan appears to be the lawful owner of the land and Jaime Occidental was her recognized tenant.

    However, petitioner Morta claimed that he is the owner of the land. Thus, there is even a dispute as to
    who is the rightful owner of the land, Josefina Opiana-Baraclan or petitioner Morta.

    The issue of ownership cannot be settled by the DARAB since it is definitely outside its jurisdiction. The
    issue of ownership shall be resolved in a separate proceeding before the appropriate trial court between
    the claimants thereof.

    At any rate, whoever is declared to be the rightful owner of the land, the case cannot be considered as
    tenancy-related for it still fails to comply with the other requirements. The case in not between a
    landowner and tenant.

    You might also like