Page 711-771
SUCCESSION It is not the heirs who directly pay for money
Arts. 774-780
Succession is mode of acquisition by virtue of
which the property, rights and obligations to
the extent of the value of the inheritance of a
person are transmitted through his death to
another or other either by his will or by
operation of law.
Decedent is a person whose property is
transmitted through succession whether or not
he left a will. If he left a will, he is also called a
“testator”.
Inheritance of a person consist of the property
and transmissible rights and obligation existing
at the time of his death.
Rules on Transmissibility of Rights and
Obligations:
Purely personal rights are extinguished by death.
Hence, these are not transmissible to the heirs.
Patrimonial rights are generally transmissible to
the heirs unless provided by law or by will of
the testator.
Rights and obligations arising from contracts:
GR: Heirs are bound by contracts entered
into by their predecessors-in interest.
EXC: Those from (1) their nature, (2)
stipulation, or (3) provision of law are NOT
transmissible.
Rule on Transmissibility of Pecuniary
Obligations:
debts left by the deceased but the estate of the
deceased.
Obligations arising from contracts, while
transmissible to the heirs, the latter’s liability
shall be limited only up to the value of the
property they received from the decedent.
The inheritance vests immediately upon the
decedent’s death without a moment of
interruption.
The capacity of the heir is determined as of the
time of the decedent’s death (Art. 1034). The
legitime is to be computed at the same moment
(Art. 908), and so is the inofficiousness of the
donation inter vivos (Art. 771). Similarly, the
legacies of credit and remission are valid only
in the amount due and outstanding at the
death of the testator (Art. 935), and the fruits
accruing after that instant are deemed to
pertain to the legatee (Art. 948).
At the precise moment of death, the heirs
become owners of the estate pro-indiviso. They
become absolute owners of their undivided
aliquot share but with respect to the individual
properties of the estate, they become co-
owners.
The right of the State to collect the inheritance
tax (or estate tax) accrues at the moment of
death, notwithstanding the postponement of
the actual possession and enjoyment of the
estate by the heir, and the tax is based on the
value of the property at that time, regardless of
any subsequent appreciation or depreciation.
A contract may be classified as a contract
upon future inheritance, prohibited under the
second paragraph of Article 1347, where the
following requisites concur:
(1) The succession has not yet opened;
(2) The object of the contract forms part of
the inheritance; and
(3) The promissor has, with respect to the
object, an expectancy of a right which is purely
hereditary in nature.
If the transferees held definite and uncontested
titles to a specific number of shares of the
corporation, the registration of the transfer
may not be required before considering the
transferee a stockholder of the corporation.
Kinds of Death Contemplated:
(1) Natural or physical demise; or
(2) Presumptive death.
Death has been defined as cessation of life.
Required Periods of Absence (Presumptive
Death):
Ordinary Absence:
10 years – If a person has been absent, it being
unknown whether or not he still lives.
5 years – If he disappeared after the age of 75.
 If there has been no news about the
absentee, the period must be computed
from the date of such disappearance.
 If there has been news from or about
him, from the time referred by the news,
or the time when the news was sent.
Qualified Absence:
4 years:
(1) A person on board a vessel lost during a
sea voyage, or an aeroplane which is missing,
who has not been heard of for 4 years.
(2) A person in the armed forces who has
taken part in war, and has been missing for 4
years.
(3) A person who has been in danger of
death under other circumstances and his
existence has not been known for 4 years.
Kinds of Succession
(1) Testamentary Succession;
(2) Legal or Intestate Succession;
(3) Mixed Succession; and
(4) Compulsory Succession.
Heir – A person called to the succession either
by provision of a will or by operation of law.
Devisee – A person to whom gifts of real
property is given by will.
Legatee – A person to whom gifts of personal
property is given by will.
Kinds of Heirs
(1) Voluntary Heirs: Instituted by the
testator in his will, to succeed to the inheritance
or to the portion thereof of which the testator
can freely dispose.
(2) Legal or Intestate Heirs: Those who
succeed to the estate of the decedent who dies
without a valid will, or to the portion of such
estate not disposed of by will.
(3) Compulsory Heirs: Those who succeed
by force of law to some portion of the
inheritance known as the “legitime”, in an
amount predetermined by law, of which they
cannot be deprived by the testator, except by a
valid disinheritance.
Will – an act whereby a person is permitted,
with the formalities prescribed by law, to
control to a certain degree the disposition of
this estate, to take effect after his death.
The making of a will is a strictly personal act. It
is the making of the disposition or the exercise
of the disposing power that is not subject to
delegation. The mere mechanical act of
drafting the will may be done by a third
person.
GR: The following may not be delegated:
 The designation of heirs, devisees, or
legatees;
 The duration or efficacy of such
designation; and
 The determination of the portions they
are to receive when referred to by name.
EXC:
 The manner of distribution of specific
property or sums of money that the
testator may leave in general to
specified classed or causes, provided
that the testator has already determined
the property or amount of money to be
given.
 The designation of the persons,
institutions or establishments to which
such property or sums are to be given or
applied, provided that the testator has
already determined the class or cause to
be benefited.
Rules in Interpretation of Wills
 Rule in favor of testacy
 The court had the occasion to uphold
the doctrine of precedence of probate
proceedings over intestate proceedings.
 An interpretation that will render a
testamentary disposition operative takes
precedence over a construction that will
nullify a provision of the will.
 Doubts are resolved in favor of testacy
specially where the will evinces an
intention on the part of the testator to
dispose of practically his whole estate.
Rules in Case of Ambiguities
Two kinds of ambiguities:
(1) Latent/Intrinsic Ambiguity: An
ambiguity not apparent on the face of the will.
It may exist when there is an imperfect
description, or when no person or property
exactly answers the description.
(2) Patent/Extrinsic Ambiguity: An
ambiguity which appears upon the face of the
instrument. It may exist when an uncertainty
arises upon the face of the will, as to the
application of any of its provisions.
How to Address Ambiguities:
(1) By determining the intention of the testator, such as when the will covers or speaks
testator by examining the words of the will; of the “whole estate” or the “entire inheritance.
and/or

(2) Resorting to parol or extrinsic evidence.

Extrinsic evidence CANNOT include orals
declarations of the testator as his intention. By
implication, written declarations made by the
testator outside of the will are admissible.
Laws governing the validity of wills:
(1) As to formal or extrinsic validity – lex
loci celebrationis.
If the will is executed in the Philippines, the
law in force at the time of making of the will.

(2) As to intrinsic validity – national law of

Rule that the intent of the testator is supreme
the person whose succession is under
law in succession
consideration.
On non-technical words:

GR: Words of a will are to be taken in their

Arts. 796-803
ordinary and grammatical sense.
GR: All natural persons re qualified to make
EXC: When the clear intention to use them in
a will.
another sense can be gathered and that other
sense can be ascertained. EXC:

On technical words:  He is expressly prohibited by law;

 He is below 18 years of age; or
GR: They are to be taken in their technical
 He is of unsound mind at the time of its
sense.
execution.
EXC: When the context clearly indicates a
*The will of an incapable is not validated by
contrary intention; or When it satisfactorily
the supervening capacity. Supervening
appears that the will was drawn solely by the
incapacity does not invalidate an effective will.
testator who was unacquainted with such
technical sense.

Test/Requisites of Soundness of Mind

Rule on properties acquired after execution of Testator must have the ability to know:
wills
(1) The nature of the estate to be dispose of;
GR: Properties acquired during the interval
between the execution of the will and the death (2) The proper objects of the testator’s
of the testator are not, as a rule, included bounty; and
among the properties disposed of.
(3) The character of the testamentary act.
EXC: Unless it should expressly appear in the
will itself that such was the intention of the
A weak of feebleminded person may make a
valid will, provided he has understanding and
memory sufficient to enable him to know what
he is about to do and how or to whom he is
disposing of his property.
GR: There is presumption in favor of sanity.
EXC:
 When the testator, one month or less,
before the execution of the will was
publicly known to be insane; or
 He executed the will after being placed
under guardianship or ordered
committed, in either case, for insanity
and before said order has been lifted.
Nuncupative wills – oral wills declared or
dictated by the testator and dependent merely
on oral testimony.
Special Formalities in Notarial/Attested Wills
(1) It must be subscribed at the end thereof,
in two ways:
(a) by the testator himself; or
(b) by the testator’s name written by
some other person in his presence, and by his
express direction.
(2) It must be attested and subscribed by
atleast 3 credible witnesses in the presence of
the testator and of one another.
(3) The testator or the person requested by
him to write his name must also sign every
page, except the last, on the left upper margin
in the presence of the witnesses.
(4) The witnesses must sign every page on
the left margin in the presence of the testator
and of one another.
(5) All pages must be numbered
correlatively in letters on the upper part of
each page.
(6) It must contain an attestation clause
which expressly states the following:
(a) the number of pages used upon
which the will is written;
(b) the fact that the testator signed
the will and every page thereof, or caused
some other to write his name, under his
express direction, in the presence of the
instrumental witnesses;
(c) the fact that the witnesses
witnessed and signed the will and all pages
thereof in the presence of the testator and of
one another.
(7) It must be acknowledged before a
notary public by the testator and the witnesses.
In the case of an ordinary or attested will, its
attestation clause need not be written in a
language or dialect known to the testator since
it does not form part of the testamentary
disposition. Furthermore, the language used in
the attestation clause likewise need not be
known to the attesting witnesses. The last
paragraph of Article 805 merely requires that,
in such case, the attestation clause shall be
interpreted to said witnesses.
The testator may personally subscribe by
thumb mark or thumbprint.
The fact that the testator affixes his thumbprint
or thumb mark to the instrument instead of
signing his name is not required to be stated in
the attestation clause.
The court, however, explained that the mere
sign of the cross could not be likened to a
thumb mark as it does not have the trust
worthiness of the latter.
The true test of presence of the testator and the
witnesses in the execution of a will is not
whether they actually saw each other sigh, but
whether they might have been seen each other
sign, had they chosen to do so, considering
their mental and physical condition and
position with relation to each other at the
moment of inscription of each signature.
In case the testator caused another person to
write his(testator’s) name, the following
requisites must be complied with:
(1) The testator’s name is written by some
other person in his presence and his express
direction;
(2) Such person signed the will and every
page thereof in the presence of the
instrumental witnesses;
(3) The person requested by the testator
signs the testator’s name, not his; and
(4) The fact that the testator cause some
other peson to write his name in his presence
and by his express direction and also in the
presence of the instrumental witnesses is stated
in the attestation clause.
There is no necessity whatever, so far as the
validity of the instrument is concerned, for the
person who writes the name of the principal in
the document to sign his own name also.
Even one of the subscribing or attesting
witnesses may sign for the testator.
The purpose of requiring that the will be
subscribed “at the end thereof” is to prevent
fraud or interpolations between the
testamentary dispositions and the signature.
An instrument in the form of a will cannot be
probated, if it is not signed at the end.
End of will – refers to the point where the last
testamentary disposition ends (or its logical
end). If signed at this portion, the will is valid
because non-dispositive portions are not
“essential” parts of the will.
Where the signature is followed by dispositive
provisions, even the portion of the instrument
preceding the signature CANNOT be
probated, because the instument must be
considered as a whole.
Article 805 requires that the witness should
both attest and subscribe to the will in the
presence of the testator and of one another.
Attestation Subscription
Act of senses Act of the hand
Mental Mechanical
Consists in witnessing the The signinf of the
testators’s execution of the witnesses’ names upon the
will in order to see and same paper for the
take note mentally that purpose of identification of
those things are done such paper as the will
which the statutes requires which was executed by the
for the execution of the testator.
will and that the signature
of the testator exist as a
fact.
If the page containing the attestation clause is
signed by the witnesses on the left-han margin
but their signature do not appear at the bottom
of the attestation clause, the will is fatally
defective because the same cannot be
considered to have validly attested to by the
instrumental witnesses, as they failed to sign
the attestation.
If the witness, or his/her spouse, parent or
child, has been made a devisee or a legatee in
the will to which he/she acts as a witness,
he/she does not thereby become disqualified
as a witness but the legacy or devise is void,
unless there are three other witnesses to such
will.
The requirement that the signature be placed
on the left margin is merely directory.
In Avera v. Garcia,the validity of the will was
sustained and, consequently, it was allowed to
probate even if the signatures appear in the
right margin instead of the left because the
instrument, after all, contains the necessary
signatures on every page.
The law provides that the numbering of the
pages should be in letters placed on the upper
part of the sheet, but if the paging should be
placed in the lower part, the testament is NOT
void for this sole reason.
The requirements of the law is sufficiently
complied with if the folios were paged with
letters “A”, “B”, “C”, etc., or in Arabic
numerals, or in any form of identification.
Attestation Clause – part of an ordinary will
whereby the attesting witnesses certify that the
instrument has been executed before them and
to the manner of the execution of the same. It is
a separate memorandum of execution and once
signed by the witnesses, it gives affirmation to
the fact that compliance with the essential
formalities required by law has been observed.
It is made for the purpose of preserving in a
permanent form a record of the fact that
attended the execution of a particular will, so
that in case of failure of the memory of the
attesting witnesses, or other casualty, such
facts may still be proved.

In Icasiano v. Icasiano, the Court rule that the

inadvertent failure of one witness to affix his
signature to one page of a testament, due to
simultaneous lifting of two pages in the course
of signing, is not per se sufficient to justify
denial of probate. The Court explained that the
law should not be strictly and literally
interpreted as to penalize the testatrix on
account of the the inadvertence of one of the
witnesses over whose conduct she has no
control, where the purpose of the law to
guarantee the identity of the testament and its
component pages is sufficiently attained, no
intentional or deliberate diviated existed, and
the evidence on record attest to the full
observance of the statutory requisites.