6) Tagatac v.

Jimenez

F: Trinidad Tagatac bought a car for $4, 500 in the US, and 7 months later, she brought the car to
the Philippines. When her friend Joseph Lee came to see her, he was with Warner Fesit who
posed himself as a wealthy man. He then offered to buy Tagatac’s car for P15,000 and Tagatac
was amenable to the idea. The deed of sale was made, and Feist paid by means of a postdated
check, and the car was delivered to Feist. When Tagatac tried to encash the check, PNB refused
to honor it and told her that Feist had no account in the bank. Tagatac notified law enforcement
agencies of the estafa committed to her by Feist, but he was not apprehended and he
disappeared w/ the car. Feist managed to have the private deed of sale notarized, so he
succeeded tin having the car’s registration certificate transferred in his name. He sold the car to
Sanchez, who was able to transfer the registration certificate to his name. He offered to sell the
car to defendant Liberato Jimenez, who bought the car for P10, 000 after investigating in the
Motor Vehicles Office. Jimenez delivered the car to the California Car Exchange so that it may
be displayed for sale. Masalonga offered to sell the car for Jimenez, so the car was transferred to
the former, but when Masalonga failed to sell it right away, he transferred it to Villanueva so he
could sell it to Jimenez. Tagatac discovered that the car was in California Car Exchange’s
[possession, so she demanded from the manager the delivery of her car but the latter refused.
The registration certificate was transferred to Jimenez. Tagatac filed a suit for the recovery of
the car’s possession, and the sheriff seized and impounded the car, but was delivered back to
Jimenez upon his filing of a counter-bond.

I: WON the sale to Jimenez was invalid as there was no valid transfer from Tagatac to Feist.

H: No. The car was not stolen from Tagatac, and Jimenez came into possession of the car 2
months after Feist swindled Tagatac. When Jimenez acquired the car, he had no knowledge of
any flaw in the title of the person from whom he acquired it. It was only later that he became
fully aware that there were some questions regarding the car, when he filed a petition to
dissolve Tagatac’s warrant. There was a valid transmission of ownership from Tagatac to Feist,
considering that they had a contract of sale. Jimenez bought the car from Sanchez in good faith,
for value and w/o notice of any defect in Sanchez’ title, so he acquired a good title to the car.