ADILLE vs.

CA
FACTS:
Alzul originally owned the land. She had Adille as a child from first marriage and Asejos from the
second marriage. She sold the land pacto de recto but wasn't able to repurchase because she died.
Adille was able to redeem the land and was able to place the title to the land solely in his name.
This prompted his siblings and the heirs to file an action for partition and accounting.
ISSUE:
May a co-owner acquire exclusive ownership over a property held in common
HELD:
The right to repurchase may be exercised by the co-owner with aspect to his share alone.
Granting Adille redeemed the entire property, that does not make him owner of all of it since acquisition
does not put to end an existing state of co-ownership.
Failure on the part of all the co-owners to redeem the property entitles the vendee a retro to
retain the property and consolidate title thereto to his name. Even so, this doesnt mean that the
redeeming co-owner has the right to the entire property. Purchase doesn't provide a mode of
transferring co- ownership.
Neither does the fact that the petitioner had succeeded in securing title over the parcel in his
name terminate the existing co-ownership. While his half-brothers and sisters are, as we said, liable to
him for reimbursement as and for their shares in redemption expenses, he cannot claim exclusive right
to the property owned in common. Registration of property is not a means of acquiring ownership. It
operates as a mere notice of existing title, that is, if there is one.
We agree with the respondent Court of Appeals that fraud attended the registration of the
property. The petitioner's pretension that he was the sole heir to the land in the affidavit of extrajudicial
settlement he executed preliminary to the registration thereof betrays a clear effort on his part to
defraud his brothers and sisters and to exercise sole dominion over the property.