Heirs lose right to buy again lot sold to gov't

The Supreme Court has ruled that the heirs of the owner of the lot formerly occupied by the Sudlon Agricultural High School in barangay Lahug, Cebu City had lost their right to repurchase the property from the government. In a decision penned by Associate Justice Romeo Callejo and was concurred with by the members of the SC's second division, it dismissed the petition for certiorari filed by heirs of Asuncion Sadaya-Misterio, who sold the 4,563-square-meter lot to Cebu province in 1956 for the use of the SAHS. It was stipulated in the deed of sale that the seller, or her heirs, has the right to repurchase the property once the Sudlon Agricultural High School shall have ceased to exist or shall have transferred another site elsewhere. Misterio's heirs moved to repurchase the lot after the SAHS was placed under the Cebu State College of Science and Technology, claiming that such high school no longer existed, particularly when it abandoned its location in Lahug and transferred its school to Barili town. The Regional Trial Court here recently issued a decision in favor of the Misterio heirs declaring the deed of sale entered into by Sadaya-Misterio and SAHS as null and void for the latter's lack of juridical personality to acquire real property. The court then ordered the CSCST to deliver and re-convey the concerned property to the Misterio heirs upon payment of the purchased price, but the officials of the CSCST appealed the RTC decision before the Court of Appeals. The appellate court reversed the RTC decision. It prompted the Misterio heirs to elevate the case before the Supreme Court, but the high tribunal ruled that the petitioners have already lost their right to repurchase the property, citing Article 1606 of the new civil code. It is provided for in the law that in the absence of an express agreement, the right to repurchase shall last up to four years from the date of the contract, but should there be an agreement, the period cannot exceed ten years. However, despite the final judgment, the vendor may still exercise the right to repurchase within thirty days from the time final judgment was rendered in a civil action on the basis that the contract was a true sale with right to repurchase, the SC said.