[ G.R. No. 44388, September 22, 1938 ]
ENGRACIO DE ASIS, APPELLANT, VS. MANILA TRADING & SUPPLY CO., APPELLEE.
D E C I S I O N
LAUREL, J.:
Of the three errors assigned by the appellant in his brief only the second need be considered. This error raises the question of preference in favor of the appellant, in view of the prior registration of the sale with pacto de retracto aforesaid.
A sale with pacto de retracto transfers the legal title to the vendee, subject to a resolutory condition. If the vendor does not at the expiration of the term for repurchase exercise his right, the purchaser acquires irrevocable ownership of the thing sold. In the present case, the title of the appellant, Engracio de Asis, was consolidated approximately two years before the sale by the sheriff and the recording thereof in the office of the register of deeds. It is true that no notation was made of the consolidation of title in the appellant De Asis. Proper notation, however, of the contract of sale with pacto de retracto is notice to all those dealing with the property of the character of the agreement entered into and duly recorded and, therefore, of the resolutory condition which implies the consolidation of ownership in the purchaser if the vendor a retro does not comply with the provisions of article 1518 of the Civil Code within the time stipulated or prescribed. (Articles 1508, 1509, Civil Code; Manresa, Vol. 10, p. 305.) It follows that the sale by the sheriff and the registration thereof could not affect the ownership of the appellant over the property.
The judgment of the lower court is accordingly reversed, with costs against the appellee. So ordered.
Avanceña, C. J., Villa-Real, Abad Santos, Imperial, Diaz, and Concepcion, JJ., concur.