Case Digest: Ramos vs. Gatchalian G.R. No. 75905 I October 12, 1987

FACTS:

Petitioner Ramos is the owner of a house and lot situated at Barrio San Dionisio, Parañaque, Metro Manila. Two road lots abut petitioner's property namely lot 4133-G-12 clearly appearing as a proposed road in the Lombos subdivision plan and Lot 4135 of the Parañaque Cadastre now known as Pambansa Road but more commonly referred to as Gatchalian Avenue. Respondents Asprec own Lot 4135. Gatchalian Avenue is alongside Lot 4135. Respondent Gatchalian Realty was granted the road right of way and drainage along Lot 4135 to service the Gatchalian and Asprec subdivision, by the respondent Asprecs.

On April 30, 1981, a complaint for an easement of a right of way with preliminary mandatory injunction was filed by Ramos against the private respondents, alleging that he constructed his house at 27 Gatchalian Avenue and has since resided therein from 1977; that Gatchalian Realty, Inc. built a 7-8, feet high concrete wall right infront of appellant's premises, blocking his entrance/exit to Gatchalian Road, the nearest, most convenient and adequate entrance/exit to the public road. or highway, formerly Sucat Road but now known as Dr. A. Santos Avenue, Parañaque; that with the construction of the 7-8 feet concrete wall appellant and his family have been constrained to pass through the back portion of their lot bounded by other lots belonging to different owners, which is grassy and cogonal as temporary ingress/egress with great inconvenience and hardship, and this becomes all the more pronounced during the rainy season due to flood and mud; and that the aforesaid concrete wall is dangerously leaning towards appellant's premises posing great danger or hazard.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the petitioner Ramos is entitled to a legal or compulsory easement of a right of way.   

DECISION:

The petition was dismissed for lack of merit. The petitioner failed to prove the non-existence of an adequate outlet to the Sucat Road except through the Gatchalian Avenue. There is a road right of way provided by the Sabrina Rodriguez Lombos Subdivision indicated as Lot 4133-G-12 in its subdivision plan for the buyers of its lots. The fact that said lot is still undeveloped and causes inconvenience to the petitioner when he uses it to reach the public highway does not bring him within the ambit of the legal requisite. To allow the petitioner access to Sucat Road through Gatchalian Avenue inspite of a road right of way provided by the petitioner's subdivision for its buyers simply because Gatchalian Avenue allows petitioner a much greater ease in going to and coming from the main thoroughfare is to completely ignore what jurisprudence has consistently maintained through the years regarding an easement of a right of way, that "mere convenience for the dominant estate is not enough to serve as its basis. To justify the imposition of this servitude, there must be a real, not a fictitious or artificial, necessity for it."