Pastor v. CA [G.R. No. L-56340, June 24, 1983]

 - CASE DIGEST -

Pastor v. CA

G.R. No. L-56340, June 24, 1983.

 

SUBJECT: LAW ON WILLS AND SUCCESSION

Topic: Intrinsic Validity and Ownership on a Probate Order; 

 
FACTS: Spouses Alvaro Pastor, Sr. and Sofia Bossio were survived by their two legitimate children Alvaro Pastor, Jr. (Pastor Jr.) and Sofia Pastor (Sofia), and an illegitimate child, Lewellyn Quemada. Quemada filed a petition for the probate and allowance of an alleged holographic will of Pastor Sr. with the CFI which contained only one testamentary disposition: a legacy in favor of Quemada consisting of 30% of Pastor Sr.’s 42% share in the operation by ATLAS. Thereafter, the probate court appointed Quemada as special administrator of the entire estate of Pastor Sr. whether or not covered or affected by the holographic will. Consequently, Quemada instituted against Pastor Jr., and his wife an action for reconveyance of alleged properties of estate which included the properties subject of the legacy which were in the names of spouses Pastor Sr. and Ma. Elena, who claimed to be the owners in their own rights, and not by inheritance.

 
The probate court issued an order allowing the will to probate. The order was affirmed by CA and on petition for review, the SC dismissed the petition and remanded the same to the probate court after denying reconsideration. For two years after remand of the case to the probate court, all pleadings of both parties remained unacted upon.

 
Not long after, the probate court set the hearing on the intrinsic validity of the will but upon objection of Pastor Jr. and Sofia on the ground of pendency of the reconveyance suit, no hearing was held. Instead, the probate court required the parties to submit their respective position papers. While the reconveyance suit was still pending in another court, the probate court issued Order of Execution and Garnishment, resolving the question of ownership of the royalties payable by ATLAS and ruling in effect that the legacy to Quemada was not inofficious.

 
Pursuant to said order, ATLAS was directed to remit directly to Quemada the 42% royalties due to decedent’s estate, of which Quemada was authorized to retain 75% for himself as legatee. Further, the 33% share of Pastor Jr. and/or his assignees was ordered garnished to answer for the accumulated legacy of Quemada. Being ―immediately executory‖, Quemada succeeded in obtaining a Writ of Execution and Garnishment.

 
The oppositors sought reconsideration thereof but in the meantime, the probate court ordered suspension of payment of all royalties due Pastor Jr. and/or his assignees until after resolution of oppositor’s motion for reconsideration. Pending motion, Pastor Jr. and his wife filed with the CA a petition for certiorari and prohibition with a prayer for writ of preliminary injunction assailing the writ of execution and garnishment issued by the probate court. However, said petition was denied as well as their motion for reconsideration. Hence, this petition for review by certiorari with prayer for a writ of preliminary injunction.

 
ISSUE: Whether or not the Probate Order resolved with finality the questions of ownership and intrinsic validity.
 

RULING: In a special proceeding for the probate of a will, the issue by and large is restricted to the extrinsic validity of the will. As a rule, the question of ownership is an extraneous matter which the Probate Court cannot resolve with finality. Thus, for the purpose of determining whether a certain property should or should not be included in the inventory of estate properties, the Probate Court may pass upon the title thereto, but such determination is provisional, not conclusive, and is subject to the final decision in a separate action to resolve title.
 
The Order sought to be executed by the assailed Order of execution is the Probate Order allegedly resolved the question of ownership of the disputed mining properties. However, nowhere in the dispositive portion is there a declaration of ownership of specific properties. On the contrary, it is manifested therein that ownership was not resolved. For it confined itself to the question of extrinsic validity of the will, and the need for and propriety of appointing a special administrator. Thus it allowed and approved the holographic will ―with respect to its extrinsic validity, the same having been duly authenticated pursuant to the requisites or solemnities prescribed by law.‖ It declared that the intestate estate administration aspect must proceed subject to the outcome of the suit for reconveyance of ownership and possession of real and personal properties.
 
The Probate Court did not resolve the question of ownership of the properties listed in the estate inventory, considering that the issue of ownership was the very subject of controversy in the reconveyance suit that was still pending. It was, therefore, error for the assailed implementing Orders to conclude that the Probate Order adjudged with finality the question of ownership of the mining properties and royalties, and that, premised on this conclusion, the dispositive portion of the said Probate Order directed special administrator to pay the legacy in dispute.

click to view full text of the case

Maninang v. CA [G.R. No. L-57848 June 19, 1982]

 - CASE DIGEST -

 Maninang v. CA

G.R. No. L-57848 June 19, 1982

 

 SUBJECT: LAW ON WILLS AND SUCCESSION

Topic: Preterition

 

FACTS: Clemencia Aseneta, single, died and left a holographic will saying that all her real properties located in Manila, Makati, Quezon City, Albay and Legaspi City and all her personal properties shall be inherited by Dra. Soledad L. Maninang with whose family she have lived with. Soledad Maninang filed a Petition for probate of the Will of the decedent with the CFI. Bernardo Aseneta, who, as the adopted son, claims to be the sole heir of decedent Clemencia Aseneta, instituted intestate proceedings.

 

Bernardo contends that the holographic will was null and void because he, as the only compulsory heir, was preterited and, therefore, intestacy should ensue. The lower Court ordered the dismissal of the Testate Case.

 

ISSUE: WON the Courta quoa quo acted in excess of its jurisdiction when it dismissed the Testate Case.

 

HELD: YES. Generally, the probate of a Will is mandatory. Normally, the probate of a Will does not look into its intrinsic validity.- The Nuguid and the Balanay cases provide the exception rather than the rule. The intrinsic validity of the Wills in those cases was passed upon even before probate because "practical considerations" so demanded. Moreover, for the parties in the Nuguid case, the "meat of the controversy" was the intrinsic validity of the Will; in fact, the parties in that case "shunted aside the question of whether or not the Will should be allowed probate."

 

Not so in the case before us now where the probate of the Will is insisted on by petitioners and a resolution on the extrinsic validity of the Will demanded. Moreover, in the Nuguid case, this Court ruled that the Will was intrinsically invalid as it completely preterited the parents of the testator.

 

In the instant case, a crucial issue that calls for resolution is whether under the terms of the decedent's Will, private respondent had been preterited or disinherited, and if the latter, whether it was a valid disinheritance. Preterition and disinheritance are two diverse concepts.

 

Preterition consists in the omission in the testator's will of the forced heirs or anyone of them, either because they are not mentioned therein, or, though mentioned, they are neither instituted as heirs nor are expressly disinherited.  Disinheritance is a testamentary disposition depriving any compulsory heirs of his share in the legitime for a cause authorized by law.

 

By virtue of the dismissal of the testate case, the determination of that controversial issue has not been thoroughly considered. The conclusion of the trial court was that Bernardo has been preterited. The SC is of opinion, however, that from the face of the will, that conclusion is not indubitable.  Such preterition is still questionable.  The Special Proceeding is REMANDED to the lower court.

 

CLICK TO VIEW FULL TEXT OF THE CASE

De la Cerna v. Potot [G.R. No. L-20234, December 23, 1964]

 - CASE DIGEST -

De la Cerna v. Potot

G.R. No. L-20234, December 23, 1964

SUBJECT: LAW ON WILLS AND SUCCESSION

Topic: Probate of Joint Wills

 

FACTS: Spouses Bernabe de la Serna and Gervasia Rebaca, executed a joint last will and testament whereby they willed that their two parcels of land acquired during their marriage together with all improvements thereon shall be given to Manuela Rebaca, their niece. Bernabe died and the will was probated in 1939 after due publication as required by law and there being no opposition. By order of Oct. 31, 1939, the Court admitted for probate the said will but only for the part of Bernabe.

 

Upon the death of Gervasia Rebaca, another petition for the probate of the same will insofar as Gervasia was concerned was filed by Manuela but the court dismissed it for failure of Manuela to appear.

  

Paula de la Cerna questioned for the nullity of the joint will of Bernabe being prohibited in the Philippine law. The Court of First Instance ordered the petition heard and declared the testament null and void, for being executed contrary to the prohibition of joint wills in the Civil Code but on appeal by the testamentary heir, the Court of Appeals reversed, on the ground that the decree of probate in 1939 was issued by a court of probate jurisdiction and conclusive on the due execution of the testament. Hence, this appeal.

  

ISSUE: Whether or not the joint will is valid as to the share of Gervasia who died later than Bernabe.

 

RULING: NO.

 

The appealed decision correctly held that the final decree of probate, entered in 1939 by the Court of First Instance of Cebu (when the testator, Bernabe de la Cerna, died), has conclusive effect as to his last will and testament despite the fact that even then the Civil Code already decreed the invalidity of joint wills, whether in favor of the joint testators, reciprocally, or in favor of a third party (Art. 669, old Civil Code). A final judgment rendered on a petition for the probate of a will is binding upon the whole world. However, this is only with respect to the estate of the husband but cannot affect the estate of the wife; considering that a joint will is a separate will of each testator.The probate decree in 1989 could only affect the share of the deceased husband, Bernabe de la Cerna. It could not include the disposition of the share of the wife, Gervasia Rebaca, who was then still alive, and over whose interest in the conjugal properties the probate court acquired no jurisdiction, precisely because her estate could not then be in issue.

 

Be it remembered that prior to the new Civil Code, a will could not be probated during the testator's lifetime. It follows that the validity of the joint will, in so far as the estate of the wife was concerned, must be, on her death, reexamined and adjudicated de novo, since a joint will is considered a separate will of each testator. Therefore, the undivided interest of Gervasia Rebaca should pass upon her death to her heirs’ intestate, and not to the testamentary heir, unless some other valid will in her favor is shown to exist.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FULL TEXT OF THE CASE

Gallanosa v. Arcangel [G.R. No. L-29300; June 21, 1978]

 - CASE DIGEST -

Gallanosa v. Arcangel

G.R. No. L-29300; June 21, 1978

 

 SUBJECT: Law on Wills and Succession

Topic/Doctrine: Allowance and Disallowance of Wills

 

FACTS:

Florentino Hitosis executed a will in 1938 when he was eighty years old wherein he instituted as his only heirs his stepson Pedro Gallanosa and the latter’s wife Corazon Grecia. He died in 1939, survived by his brother Leon Hitosis and several nephews and nieces.

 

A petition for probate was duly filed by the testamentary heirs. Opposition to the probate was registered by the legal heirs. After hearing, the probate court admitted the will to probate and appointed Gallanosa as executor. In 1943, a project of partition of sixty-one (61) parcels of land constituting the bulk of the testator’s estate was finally approved. There was no appeal from the decree of probate and from the order of partition and distribution.

 

In 1952, the testator’s legal heirs instituted an action for the recovery of the 61 parcels of land on the ground of acquisitive prescription. The action was dismissed. Again, there was no appeal from the order of dismissal. In 1967, said legal heirs instituted another action in the same court against the testamentary heirs for the “annulment” of the will and the recovery of the 61 parcels of land, alleging that the Gallanosa spouses caused the execution of the will through fraud and deceit. Upon motion of defendants, the court dismissed the action. Plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration. Respondent Judge granted it and set aside the order of dismissal. From this order of dismissal, defendants went up to the Supreme Court by certiorari.

 

Petitioners (defendants) contend that private respondents (plaintiffs) do not have a cause of action for the “annulment” of the will and for the recovery of the 61 parcels of landby reason of res judicata and of prescription. On the other hand, private respondents contend that the will is void, and therefore their right of action is imprescriptible.

 

ISSUE: Whether or not the private respondents have a cause of action for the annulment of the will of Florention Hitosis and for the recovery of the parcels of land.

  

HELD: No.

 

The lower court committed a grave abuse of discretion in reconsidering its order of dismissal and in ignoring the testamentary case. It is evident from the allegations of the complaint that the action is barred by res judicata. The decree of probate is conclusive as to the due execution or formal validity of the will. The decree of adjudication rendered by the trial court in the testate proceeding for the settlement of the estate of Florentino Hitosis having been rendered in a proceeding in rem, is binding upon the whole world.

 

Speaking through Justice Aquino, the Supreme Court held:

“It is evident from the allegations of the complaint and from defendants’ motion to dismiss that plaintiffs’ 1967 action is barred by res judicata, a double-barrelled defense, and by prescription, acquisitive and extinctive, or by what are known in the jus civile and the jus gentium as usucapio, longitemporispossesio and praescriptio" (See Ramos vs. Ramos, L-19872, December 3, 1974, 61 SCRA 284).

 

Our procedural law does not sanction an action for the “annulment” of a will. In order that a will may take effect, it has to be probated, legalized or allowed in the proper testamentary proceeding. The probate of the will is mandatory

 

The 1939 decree of probate is conclusive as to the due execution or formal validity of the will.That means that the testator was of sound and disposing mind at the time when he executed the will and was not acting under duress, menace, fraud, or undue influence; that the will was signed by him in the presence of the required number of witnesses, and that the will is genuine and is not a forgery. Accordingly, these facts cannot again be questioned in a subsequent proceeding, not even in a criminal action for the forgery of the will.

click to view full text of the case

Union Bank of the Phil. vs. Santibanez [G.R. No. 149926, February 23, 2005]

 - CASE DIGEST -

Union Bank of the Phil. vs. Santibanez

G.R. No. 149926,  February 23, 2005

452 SCRA 228

 

SUBJECT: LAW ON WILLS AND SUCCESSION

Topic: Probate of Wills

FACTS: Efraim Santibanez obtained a loan First Countryside Credit Corporation (FCCC; Unionbank is its successor) in two instances. This is for the payment of [2] tractors that he purchased. He executed loan agreements and promissory notes (PNs). Edmund, his son, was co-maker in the PNs. Efraim eventually died without having these obligation being fully paid. He left a holographic will which was then probated before the court. Subsequently, Edmund and his sister Florence (heirs of Efraim) executed a Joint Agreement whereby they distributed to themselves certain properties, including the tractors that were financed by the subject loans. The Agreement also provides that the heirs agree to assume the indebtedness pertaining to the properties allotted to them.

 

Unionbank then sent demand letters to Edmund and Florence for the payment of the balance of the obligations but these remained unpaid.

 

In defense, Florence argued that:

• Unionbank should have filed its claim before the probate court in accordance with the provisions of the Rules of Court; and
• The Joint Agreement executed by her and her brother were null and void since there can be no distribution of the estate of the deceased until the will was probated first, and that at the time of the execution of the agreement, the proceedings for the probate of her father’s will is still pending.

ISSUE: May a creditor of a deceased for a money claim collect directly from the heir on the ground that obligations of the deceased transmit to said heirs from the moment of death of the decedent?

 

 RULING: NO. The filing of a money claim against the decedent’s estate in the probate court is mandatory.

 

The Court notes that the loan was contracted by the decedent. The petitioner, purportedly a creditor of the late Efraim Santibañez, should have thus filed its money claim with the probate court in accordance with Section 5, Rule 86 of the Revised Rules of Court.

 

At the outset, well-settled is the rule that a probate court has the jurisdiction to determine all the properties of the deceased, to determine whether they should or should not be included in the inventory or list of properties to be administered. The said court is primarily concerned with the administration, liquidation and distribution of the estate.

 

Moreover, the joint agreement is invalid. The partition is nullity absent the mandatory probate of the will. It provides that the heirs as parties thereto “have agreed to divide between themselves and take possession and use the above-described chattel and each of them to assume the indebtedness corresponding to the chattel taken as herein after stated which is in favor of First Countryside Credit Corp.” The assumption of liability was conditioned upon the happening of an event, that is, that each heir shall take possession and use of their respective share under the agreement. It was made dependent on the validity of the partition, and that they were to assume the indebtedness corresponding to the chattel that they were each to receive. The partition being invalid, the heirs in effect did not receive any such tractor. It follows then that the assumption of liability cannot be given any force and effect.

 

click to view full text of the case

Lipana v. CFI of Cavite [G.R. No. 47174, June 28, 1940]

 - CASE DIGEST -

Lipana v. CFI of Cavite

G.R. No. 47174, June 28, 1940

 

SUBJECT: LAW ON WILLS AND SUCCESSION

Topic: Probate of a destroyed or lost Will

 

FACTS: One Eliodora Lipana filed in the respondent court an application for the probate of a will supposedly executed by the deceased, Manuela Lipana, a carbon copy of which was attached to the application. Natividad Lipana filed an opposition, she claimed that evidence was unnecessary upon the facts alleged in the application, the copy of the will attached thereto showing, in itself, that the will had not been executed in accordance with law. The respondent court, after inspecting the copy of the will but without a hearing, dismissed the application on the ground that such copy could not be admitted to probate, it not having been signed by the testatrix and the attesting witnesses at the end thereof and on the left margin of each page. It is against this order of dismissal that the petition for certiorari has been filed with this court.

 

 

ISSUE: WON the respondent court acted in excess of its jurisdiction?

 

HELD: Yes. There can be no doubt that the respondent court acted in excess of its jurisdiction in rendering a judgment upon the merits of the case without a previous hearing. The pronouncement made by the respondent court that the will had not been executed in accordance with law, is founded undoubtedly on the erroneous assumption that the probate of the carbon copy of the will was being applied for.

 

It is apparent from the application that what is sought to be admitted to probate is the original of the will. It is alleged therein that the original was in the possession of a third person or that it was either lost or destroyed by some person other than the testatrix. Such copy was attached to the application merely to corroborate the allegation as to the existence of its original and not to establish a full compliance with the requirements of the law as to the execution of the will.

 

Under section 623 of Act No. 190, if a will is shown to have been torn by some other person without the express direction of the testator, it may be admitted to probate, if its contents, due execution and its unauthorized destruction are established by satisfactory evidence. The applicant, therefore, was entitled to hearing to prove the due execution of the original will and its loss or destruction, and the respondent court had no statutory authority to dismiss the application without such hearing.

Click to view Full Text of the Case

Gago v. Mamuyac [G.R. No. 23317 Jan 29, 1927]

 - CASE DIGEST -

Gago v. Mamuyac

G.R. No. 23317 Jan 29, 1927

 

SUBJECT: LAW ON WILLS AND SUCCESSION

Topic: Revocation of a Will

 

Facts: Previously, Francisco Gago filed a petition for the probate of a will of Miguel Mamuyac executed on July 27, 1918. The oppositors alleged that the said will was already annulled and revoked. It appeared that on April 16, 1919, the deceased executed another will. The lower court denied the probate of the first will on the ground of the existence of the second will.

 

Another petition was filed to seek the probate of the second will. The oppositors alleged that the second will presented was merely a copy. According to the witnesses, the said will was allegedly revoked as per the testimony of Jose Tenoy, one of the witnesses who typed the document. Another witness testified that on December 1920 the original will was actually cancelled by the testator. The lower court denied the probate and held that the same has been annulled and revoked.

 

 ISSUE: Whether or not there was a valid revocation of the will.

  

HELD: Yes. The will was already cancelled in 1920. This was inferred when after due search, the original will cannot be found. When the will which cannot be found in shown to be in the possession of the testator when last seen, the presumption is that in the absence of other competent evidence, the same was deemed cancelled or destroyed. The same presumption applies when it is shown that the testator has ready access to the will and it can no longer be found after his death.