STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION (CASE DIGEST)

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Case Digest - Banawa vs. Mirano, No. L-24750, 97 SCRA 517, May 16,
1980
Case Digest for Statutory Construction
FACTS: Defendants-appellants spouses Doroteo Banawa and Juliana Mendoza took care of Maria Mirano, Julianas niece, since Maria
is 9 years old and treated her the same way as they treated the co-appellant Gliceria Abrenica, their legally adopted child. On May
5, 1921, the spouses bought a parcel of land situated at Brgy. Iba, Taal, Batangas from Placido Punzalan and registered the said
parcel of land in the name of Maria, because the said spouses wanted something for Maria after their death.
On July 31, 1949, after a lingering illness, Maria Mirano died. At the time of her death she left only as her nearest relatives the
herein plaintiffs-appellees, namely Primitiva, who is a surviving sister, and Gregoria, Juana and Marciano, all surnamed Mirano, who
are children of the deceaseds brother.
The Miranos filed a case in court against the Banawas with regards to the possession of the Iba property as legal heirs of
Maria. The court ruled in favor of the Miranos. The Banawas appealed to the Court of Appeals stating that they are entitled to the
land in question by virtue of Section 5, Rule 100 of the Old Rules of Court, the pertinent portion of which reads:
In case of the death of the child, his parents and relatives by nature, and not by adoption, shall be his legal heirs, except
as to property received or inherited by the adopted child from either of his parents by adoption, which shall become the property
of the latter or their legitimate relatives who shall participate in the order established by the Civil Code for intestate estates.
The defendant spouses died during the pendency of the case at the Court of Appeals and were substituted by their
legally adopted child Gliceria Abrenica and her husband Casiano Amponin. The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the lower
court. The Appellants filed at the Supreme Court a petition for review by certiorari of the decision of the Court of Appeals regarding
its ruling that Sec. 5, Rule 100 of the Old Rules of Court does not apply in the instant case because Maria Mirano was not legally
adopted.
ISSUE: Whether or not, Sec. 5, Rule 100 of the Old Rules of Court applicable to the instant case?
HELD: NO. It is very clear in the rule involved that specifically provides for the case of the judicially adopted child and does not
include extrajudicial adoption. It is an elementary rule in statutory construction that when the language of the law is clear and
unequivocal, the law must be taken to mean exactly what it says.