MARCOS ROQUE ET AL., PLAINTIFFS AND APPELLEES, VS. LEONCIA SONGCO ET AL., DEFENDANTS AND APPELLANTS.

The present litigation concerns a parcel of land in Guagua,
Pampanga, with an area of seven hectares and four centiares known as plantation
No. 1084 of the Pampanga Sugar Mills, with a quota of 238,126 metric tons of
sugar cane. 

On September 23, 1926, Marcos Roque and his co-owners sold th
land to Esteban Pecson and Leoncia Songco, reserving for themselves the right to
repurchase it within six years, in consideration of the sum of P1,977.65.

On July 27, 1927, Esteban Pecson died, living six children.

On September 20, 1932, three days before the vendors’ right to
repurchase should have expired, Leoncia Songco, the surviving wife of Esteban
Pecson, executed a document granting the vensdors an extension of ten years
within which to repurchase the land.

The vendors seek to exercise the right to repurchase the parcel
of land by virtue of the extension granted them by Leoncia Songco, by tendering
payment.

Leoncia Songco is willing to reconvey her interest in the land,
but the heirs of Esteban Pecson claim that they are already the absolute owners
of teh other half of the land. Plaintiffs sued and on August 27, 1940, the day
they filed their complaint, they deposited with the trial court the sum of
P1,977.65, for the repurchase of the land.

The trial court rendered judgment for the plaintiffs and
ordered that the sum deposited by plaintiffs be delivered to defendants.

The whole controversy in this appeal is whether or not the
defendants, the children and heirs of Esteban Pecson, are bound by the extension
of repurchase granted by Leoncia Songco, without their intervention
whatsoever.

There is no question that the heirs and children of Esteban
Pecson are not signatories in the document of extension executed by Leoncia
Songco, who had no legal authority to represent said heirs and children. The
extension granted by her to the vendors could and can only affect one-half of
the property, her share thereof.

The trial court’s judgment is modified in the sense that
plaintiffs can repurchase within the extension given by Leoncia Songco one-half
of the property, the remaining one-half thereof having become the absolute
property of the defendants who are children and heirs of the deceased Esteban
Pecson and, therefore, the complaint is dismissed with respect to them.

Moran, C. J., Feria, Pablo, Bengzon, Briones, Tuason,
Montemayor, and Reyes, JJ., concur.
Paras, J., concurs in
the result.