NOTICE OF LIS PENDENS:

Lis pendens which literally means pending suit refers to the jurisdiction, power or control which a court acquires over the property involved in a suit, pending the continuance of the action, and until final judgment. (St. Mary of the Woods School, Inc. v. Office of the Registry of Deeds of Makati City, G.R. No. 174290 and G.R. No. 176116, January 20, 2009, 576 SCRA 713, 730; Heirs of Eugenio Lopez, Sr. v. Enriquez, G.R. No. 146262, January 21, 2005, 449 SCRA 173, 186; Romero v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 142406, May 16, 2005, 458 SCRA 483, 492).  

Founded upon public policy and necessity, lis pendens is intended to keep the properties in litigation within the power of the court until the litigation is terminated, and to prevent the defeat of the judgment or decree by subsequent alienation. (Heirs of Eugenio Lopez, Sr. v. Enriquez, supra; Romero v. Court of Appeals, supra, citing Lim v. Vera Cruz, 356 SCRA 386, 393 (2001).  Its notice is an announcement to the whole world that a particular property is in litigation and serves as a warning that one who acquires an interest over said property does so at his own risk, or that he gambles on the result of the litigation over said property^. (Yared v. Ilarde, 391 Phil. 722, 730 (2000). A notice of lis pendens, once duly registered, may be cancelled by the trial court before which the action involving the property is pending. This power is said to be inherent in the trial court and is exercised only under express provisions of law. (St. Mary of the Woods School, Inc. v. Office of the Registry of Deeds of Makati City, supra note 24; Fernandez v. Court of Appeals, 397 Phil. 205, 216 (2000). 

Accordingly, Section 14, Rule 13 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure authorizes the trial court to cancel a notice of lis pendens where it is properly shown that the purpose of its annotation is for molesting the adverse party, or that it is not necessary to protect the rights of the party who caused it to be annotated. Be that as it may, the power to cancel a notice of lis pendens is exercised only under exceptional circumstances, such as: where such circumstances are imputable to the party who caused the annotation; where the litigation was unduly prolonged to the prejudice of the other party because of several continuances procured by petitioner; where the case which is the basis for the lis pendens notation was dismissed for non prosequitur on the part of the plaintiff; or where judgment was rendered against the party who caused such a notation. In such instances, said notice is deemed ipso facto cancelled. (Fernandez v. Court of Appeals, supra, at 217, citing Regalado, Justice Florenz D., Remedial Law Compendium, Vol. I, 5th Revised Edition, p. 145, 1988) (LU vs. LU YM, Sr. G.R. No. 153690, August 4, 2009, Special 3rd Division, Nachura, J.).