EMETERIO IPAPO, PETITIONER, VS. COURT OF APPEALS, GRACIOSO GERONIMO AND LYDIA GERONIMO, RESPONDENTS.

Emeterio Ipapo appealed from the decision of the Court of
Appeals, affirming the judgment of the Court of First Ins­tance of Bulacan,
Valenzuela Branch III, holding that the spouses Gracioso Geronimo and Lydia
Geronimo are entitled to the possession of a portion, with an area of 2,353
square meters, of Lot No. 2090 of the Meycauayan, Bulacan cadastre and ordering
Ipapo and all persons holding under him to vacate the said portion and to pay
the Geronimo spouses twenty pesos a month as rental from December, 1967 up to
the time the possession is restored to them plus P1,000 as attorney’s fees
(CA-G.R. No. 48264-R, August 18, 1978).

Appellant Ipapo filed his brief. 
This case was submitted for decision on January 11, 1980 without private
respondents’ brief.

On August 7, 1981, petitioner’s counsel, Benjamin H. Aquino,
filed a manifestation, informing this Court that Judge Eduardo P. Caguioa of
the Court of First Instance of Bulacan rendered in Civil Case No. 780-V,
“Emeterio Ipapo vs. Gra­cioso Geronimo, et al.” a decision dated
September 23, 1980, “declaring the disputed land with an area of 2,424
square meters x x x included in Lot No. 2090, Meycauayan Cadastre, with an area
of 14,301 square meters x x x to be of the sole and exclusive ownership of
plaintiff Emeterio Ipapo”.

The said decision, which refers to the same land involved in this
forcible entry case, is now final and executory because no appeal was
interposed by the Geronimo spouses.

Ipapo correctly observes that the instant case should be
dismissed because it was rendered moot and academic by the said decision in the
accion de reivindicacion.

WHEREFORE, this case is dismissed and considered
closed.  No costs.

Concepcion, Jr., and De
Castro, JJ., concur.

Guerrero and Melencio-Herrera,
JJ., designated to sit in the Second Division.

Barredo and Abad Santos,
JJ., on leave.