INITIATION OF ACTION FOR CANCELLATION OF TITLE AND REVERSION

Category: Land Titles And Deeds

GOVERNMENT MAY INITIATE ACTION FOR CANCELLATION OF TITLE AND REVERSION

> Section 101 of Public Land Act provides for a remedy whereby lands of the public domain fraudulently awarded to the applicant may be recovered or reverted back to its original owner, the government

> Office of Solicitor General shall represent the government in all land registration and related proceedings and institute actions for the reversion to the government of lands of the public domain and improvements thereon as well as lands held in violation of the Constitution

> It is improper for the government to file an action for reversion of land titled to defendant pursuant to a free patent where the alleged fraud consists in the fact that said land, at the time of issuance of the free patent was no longer a part of the public domain, having been adjudicated as private property of another person in a previous registration case

> An action for reversion on the ground that defendant obtained patent through fraud would also fail where the land had successively been sold by the heirs of the patentee to third parties who are holding Torrens titles and enjoying the presumption of good faith

> Private parties cannot challenge the validity of the patent and title when they are not registered owners thereof nor had they been declared the owners as owners in the cadastral proceedings— whether the grant was in conformity with the law or not is a question which the government may raise, but until it is raised by the government and set aside, the defendant cannot question it. The legality of the grant is a question between the grantee and the government.

PRIVATE PARTY CANNOT BRING ACTION FOR REVERSION

> If there has been any fraud or misrepresentation in obtaining the title, an action for reversion instituted by the Solicitor General would be the proper remedy

ACTION FOR REVERSION NOT BARRED BY PRESCRIPTION

> Statute of limitations doesn’t run against the State

ACTION FOR CANCELLATION OF TITLE

> Proper when a private party claims ownership of the land as private property by virtue of a long period of possession and hence, no longer deemed a part of the public domain which could be disposed of under the provisions of the Public Land Act, or when the land is already covered by a previously issued certificate of title