15/06/2023
The SC En Banc granted Naga City's 2nd MR, allowing it to retain possession of land where it built its City Hall, despite a void deed of donation.
It being a case of inverse condemnation -- ie., gov't took property without expropriation proceedings, and owner filed an action to recover -- the SC directed just compensation to be paid following the modified computation in Sps. Nocom, where "present economic value of the property taken by the government if just compensation at the time of taking was paid promptly" is considered -- as opposed to mere "value at the time of taking". The SC explained that this is to discourage government from non-compliance with expropriation procedures.
The SC penalized Naga City as follows: "in order to scourge respondent's deplorable act of establishing the now-entrenched public offices on petitioners' property despite the irrefragable invalidity of the donation, the Court hereby orders the former to pay the latter Pl,000,000.00 by way of exemplary damages."
The Supreme Court PH remanded the case to the RTC for determination of just compensation, even if the case originated from the MTC, on a pro hac vice basis, due to "the silence of the Rules of Court anent the determination of feasibility of returning a property in an action to recover possession".
(Heirs of Mariano, et al. v. City of Naga, GR 197743, 18 October 2022)
