SCJ rules that any land title regularization carried out on a previously regularized plot is null and void 

The Joint Chambers of the Supreme Court of Justice established that any subsequent titling carried out on a parcel that has already been titled is null and void, “since the basis of all titling, the recognition or acquisition of a right over a property, is possession.”. 

By means of judgment number SCJ-SR-23-00046, dated March 31, 2023, the Joint Chambers maintain that once a property has been adjudicated, it begins its legal life under the Registration System known as the Torrens System, and that the effect of such adjudication is to purge all prior rights, and, therefore, no valid rights exist that are not registered in the corresponding Registry of Titles. 

In that order, underline the decision, a second land regularization cannot modify the rights conferred in the first land regularization after the judgment that puts an end to it has acquired the authority of *res judicata*. 

“It is important to note that, in registration terms, the owner is considered to be the person who registers their right in the corresponding Title Registry,” adds the court ruling.     

For these reasons and after deliberation, the Joint Chambers dismiss the appeal in cassation filed against judgment no. 201900062, rendered on February 14, 2019, by the Departmental Land Tribunal of the East, acting as a remand court. 

The foregoing decision was signed by magistrates Henry Molina (presiding), Pilar Jiménez Ortiz, Francisco Antonio Jerez Mena, Fran Euclides Soto Sánchez, Justiniano Montero Montero, Anselmo A. Bello Ferreras, Vanessa Elizabeth Acosta Peralta, Napoleón Ricardo Estévez Lavandier, Samuel Amaury Arias Arzeno, María Gerinelda Garabito Ramírez, Moisés Alfredo Ferrer Landrón, and Francisco Antonio Ortega Polanco. 

Access the full judgment via this link: https://poderjudicial.gob.do/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SCJ-SR-23-00046.pdf 

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