Plaintiffs want RTC Br. 21 to hear case vs. hospital

Plaintiffs of a civil case filed against Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and the Registry of Deeds for Cebu City wants Regional Trial Court branch 21 where a similar case with identical issues is pending to hear case. Heirs of Francisco Quijada, in their motion prepared by their counsel Loreto Durano, reasoned that the transfer from RTC 16 is meant to "speed up the disposition of the case because of the similarity of issues involved in Civil Case No. CEB-30906" and that once the case is transferred to RTC branch 21 it would then be "treated with dispatch."

Civil case CEB-30906 is a case filed by other heirs of Bibiana Cabarrubias who, like the Quijadas, are one of the claimants of the lots where then Southern Island Hospital is standing. This case is pending before RTC branch 21.

The plaintiffs said that their motion is not intended to delay the proceedings and that it should not be construed as an expression of lack of confidence in RTC branch 16 but "impelled solely for the desire to speed up the disposition of the case considering similarity of issues involved in that case in RTC 21."

Several claimants, of which the Quijadas are one, of the lots where the hospital is constructed claim that Cabarrubias already has owned the property since 1915.

They said that there was a "misdeclaration of property" in the part of VSMMC through a survey plan prepared by Michael Mayol on May 28, 1958 which was also declared at the Cebu City Assessors Office by Dr. Jose Agustines on February 9, 1962.

"It is an established doctrine in this jurisdiction that plans alone cannot be relied upon to determine the land in question, it is the land and not the plan which is registered owner in accordance with the provisions of the Land Registration Act," the claimants maintained. - Liv G. Campo