Back

Vicente Tan vs. City of Davao

VICENTE TAN, petitioner, vs. CITY OF DAVAO, respondent.

G.R. No. L-44347 | 1988-09-29

D E C I S I O N


GRIá'O-AQUINO, J.:

This 26-year old case involves what is probably now a valuable lot in the City of Davao whose owner left for China with her entire family in 1923 and never returned. Like all such estates facing escheat proceedings, it is fair game for poseurs and fakers claiming to be the missing heir of the deceased owner.

The spouses Cornelia Pizarro and Baltazar Garcia, during their lifetime, were residents of Davao City. As they were childless, they adopted a three-year old girl whom they named Dominga Garcia and brought up as their own. At the age of nineteen years, Dominga Garcia married a Chinaman, Tan Seng...