G.R. No.

133638 April 15, 2005

Perpetua Vda. De Ape, Petitioner

vs.

The Honorable Court of Appeals and Generosa Cawit Vda. De

Lumayno, Respondents.

CASE DIGEST:

FACTS

Cleopas Ape, a registered owner of a parcel of land (Lot No.

2319), died in 1950. Upon his death, he passed the said property to

his wife and eleven (11) of their children. The children never formally

divided the property amongst themselves except through hantal-

hantal where each of them just resides in their respective assumed

portions.

On the other hand, the spouses Lumayno were interested in the

land so they started buying the portion of the land that each of the

heirs occupied. On April 11, 1973, one of the children, Fortunato,

entered into a contract of sale with Lumayno. In exchange of his lot,

Lumayno agreed to pay ₱ 5,000.00. She paid in advance ₱ 30.00.

The payment was indicated in a receipt prepared by Lumayno’s son-

in-law. The son-in-law in the person of Andres Flores acted as

witness. Lumayno also executed sales transactions with Fortunato’s

siblings separately.
 In 1973, Lumayno compelled Fortunato to make the delivery to

her of the registrable deed of sale over Fortunato’s portion on Lot No.

2319. Fortunato assailed the validity of the contract of sale. He also

invoked his right to redeem the portions of land sold by his siblings to

Lumayno. Fortunato died during the pendency of the case.

ISSUE

Whether or not there was a valid contract of sale?

HELD

No. Fortunato was a “no read no write person”. It was

incumbent for the other party to prove that details of the contract were

fully explained to Fortunato before Fortunato signed the receipt.

A contract of sale is a consensual contract, thus, it is perfected

by mere consent of the parties. It is born from the moment there is a

meeting of minds upon the thing which is the object of the sale and

upon the price. Upon its perfection, the parties may reciprocally

demand performance, that is, the vendee may compel the transfer of

the ownership and to deliver the object of the sale while the vendor

may demand the vendee to pay the thing sold. For there to be a

perfected contract of sale, however, the following elements must be

present: consent, object, and price in money or its equivalent.

For consent to be valid, it must meet the following requisites:

(a) it should be intelligent, or with an exact notion of the matter to

which it refers;
(b) it should be free and

(c) it should be spontaneous. Intelligence in consent is vitiated by

error; freedom by violence, intimidation or undue influence;

spontaneity by fraud.

Lumayno claimed that she explained fully the receipt to

Fortunato, but Flores’ testimony belies it. Flores said there was

another witness but the other was a maid who also lacked education.

Further, Flores himself was not aware that the receipt was “to transfer

the ownership of Fortunato’s land to her mom-in-law”. It

merely occurred to him to explain the details of the receipt but he

never did.