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ANTECEDENTS
On April 17, 2001, plaintiff Karen Santos, claiming to be the only child of deceased Rufino and Caridad Geronimo filed a complaint for annulment of document and recovery of possession against the defendants Eugenio and Emiliano Geronimo who are the brothers of her father. She alleged that with the death of her parents, the property consisting of one half of the parcel of land located at San Jose, Paombong, Bulacan with Tax Declaration No. 99-02017-00219 and belonging to her parents was passed on to her by the law on intestacy.
SPONSORED
In an amended answer, the defendants denied the allegation that plaintiff was the only child and sole heir of their brother. They disclosed that the deceased Rufino and Caridad Geronimo were childless and took in as their ward the plaintiff who was in truth, the child of Caridad’s sister.
The appellate court – similar to the trial court – relied on Article 172 of the Family Code which allows the introduction and admission of secondary evidence to prove one’s legitimate filiation via open and continuous possession of the status of a legitimate child. The CA agreed with the trial court that respondent has proven her legitimate filiation.
Aggrieved, the petitioner file this petition with the SC.
Petitioner argues, viz.:
x x x [T]he lower court’s reliance on Articles 170 and 171 of the Family Code is totally misplaced, with due respect. It should be read in conjunction with the other articles in the same chapter on paternity and filiation of the Family Code. A careful reading of said chapter would reveal that it contemplates situations where a doubt exists that a child is indeed a man’s child, and the father [or, in proper cases, his heirs] denies the child’s filiation. It does not refer to situations where a child is alleged not to be the child at all of a particular couple. Petitioners are asserting not merely that respondent Karen is not a legitimate child of, but that she is not a child of Rufino Geronimo at all. x x x
SC RULING:
We grant the petition.
What petitioner failed to recognize, however, is that this procedural rule is applicable only to actions where the legitimacy – or illegitimacy – of a child is at issue. This situation does not obtain in the case at bar.
In the instant case, the filiation of a child – herein respondent – is not at issue. Petitioner does not claim that respondent is not the legitimate child of his deceased brother Rufino and his wife Caridad. What petitioner alleges is that respondent is not the child of the deceased spouses Rufino and Caridad at all.
Our ruling in Cabatbat- Lim vs. Intermediate Appellate Court, 166 SCRA 451, 457 cited in the impugned decision is apropos, viz:
"Petitioners’ recourse to Article 263 of the New Civil Code [now Art. 170 of the Family Code] is not welltaken.
This legal provision refers to an action to impugn legitimacy. It is inapplicable to this case because this is not an action to impugn the legitimacy of a child, but an action of the private respondents to claim their inheritance as legal heirs of their childless deceased aunt. They do not claim that petitioner Violeta Cabatbat Lim is an illegitimate child of the deceased, but that she is not the decedent's child at all. Being neither legally adopted child, nor an acknowledged natural child, nor a child by legal fiction of Esperanza Cabatbat, Violeta is not a legal heir of the deceased."
...The mere registration of a child in his or her birth certificate as the child of the supposed parents is not a valid adoption, does not confer upon the child the status of an adopted child and the legal rights of such child, and even amounts to simulation of the child's birth or falsification of his or her birth certificate, which is a public document."
Furthermore, it is well-settled that a record of birth is merely a prima facie evidence of the facts contained therein. It is not conclusive evidence of the truthfulness of the statements made there by the interestedparties.
In view of these premises, we are constrained to disagree with both courts a quo and rule that the confluence of the circumstances and the proof presented in this case do not lead to the conclusion that respondent is a child of the deceased spouses. (Benitez-Badua v. Court of Appeals)
Citing the aforecited cases of Benitez-Badua and Lim v. Intermediate Appellate Court, we stated, viz.:
This article should be read in conjunction with the other articles in the same chapter on paternity and filiation in the Civil Code. A careful reading of said chapter would reveal that it contemplates situations where a doubt exists that a child is indeed a man’s child by his wife, and the husband (or, in proper cases, his heirs) denies the child’s filiation. It does not refer to situations where a child is alleged not to be the child at all of a particular couple.
Article 263 refers to an action to impugn the legitimacy of a child, to assert and prove that a person is not a man’s child by his wife. However, the present case is not one impugning petitioner’s legitimacy. Respondents are asserting not merely that petitioner is not a legitimate child of Jose, but that she is not a child of Jose at all.
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