"When the sale of a piece of land or any interest thereon is through an agent, the authority of the latter shall be in writing; otherwise, the sale shall be void.29
This authority must be contained in a special power of attorney, that is, a specific written grant of authority in favor of an agent to sell a piece of land belonging to the principal. This is so because a special power of attorney is necessary to enter into any contract by which the ownership of an immovable is transmitted or acquired either gratuitously or for a valuable consideration.30 For the principal to confer the right upon an agent to sell real estate, a power of attorney must so express the powers of the agent in clear and unmistakable language. When there is any reasonable doubt that the language so used conveys such power, no such construction shall be given the document.31
The Authorization contained no such authority in favor of Arriola to sell Candelaria's lot. Assuming that the Authorization was genuine, its wordings gave Arriola nothing more than an authority to receive the payment for the supposed sale of Candelaria's lot. There was no explicit mention of any sale to be facilitated by Arriola. Despite such a patently defective Authorization, Arriola still volunteered information to Del Rosario that he was also the broker of Candelaria's lot and could negotiate the sale of the property.32
An authority to receive the payment cannot be impliedly construed as an authority to sell a piece of real property. Here, the Authorization was not in any way the special power of attorney contemplated and required by law. Being a real estate broker by profession, Arriola should be well-equipped with the basic knowledge on the technicalities in conveyances of real property for another person. This pretense can only be perceived as misleading, false, and fraudulent, as Arriola acted before Del Rosario as though there was an express grant of authority to sell Candelaria's lot in his name, when in fact there was none."
G.R. No. 199975, February 24, 2020
LUIS T. ARRIOLA, PETITIONER, V. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, RESPONDENT.
https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2020/feb2020/gr_199975_2020.html
