GARCIA-FULE VS CA

FACTS: Amado Garcia died intestate in the City of Manila, leaving real estate and personal properties in
Calamba, Laguna, and in other places. Virginia Fule, filed with the Court of First Instance of Laguna a
petition for letters of administration and moved ex parte for her appointment as special administratrix
over the estate of Garcia. The court granted her petition.

Preciosa Garcia, the surviving spouse of Amado, filed a motion for reconsideration arguing that the
order appointing Fule as special administratrix was issued without jurisdiction.

During the hearing of the various incidents of this case Sp. Proc. No. 270-C before Judge Malvar, Fule
presented the death certificate of Amado G. Garcia showing that his residence at the time of his death
was Quezon City, she also testified that Amado Garcia was residing in Calamba, Laguna at the time of his
death, and that he was a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention for the first district of Laguna.
On her part, Preciosa B. Garcia presented the residence certificate of the decedent for 1973 showing
that three months before his death his residence was in Quezon City.

The motion was denied by the Court of First Instance of Laguna.

Preciosa B. Garcia and Agustina B. Garcia commenced a special action for certiorari and/or prohibition
and preliminary injunction before the Court of Appeals, docketed as CA-G.R. No. 03221-SP. primarily to
annul the proceedings before Judge Malvar in Sp. Proc. No. 27-C of the Court of First Instance of Laguna.

The Court of Appeals rendered judgment annulling the proceedings before Judge Malvar, for lack of
jurisdiction and appointed Preciosa Garcia as Administratix.

Virginia Fule elevated the matter to the Supreme Court on appeal by certiorari.

ISSUE: Whether or not the Court of Appeals erred in annulling the proceedings rendered by the Court of
First Instance of Laguna for lack of Jurisdiction.

HELD: No.

Section 1, Rule 73 of the Revised Rules of Court provides: "If the decedent is an inhabitant of the
Philippines at the time of his death, whether a citizen or an alien, his will shall be proved, or letters of
administration granted, and his estate settled, in the Court of First Instance in the province in which he
resides at the time of his death, and if he is an inhabitant of a foreign country, the Court of First Instance
of any province in which he had estate.

The word “Resides” should be viewed or understood in its popular sense, meaning, the personal, actual
or physical habitation of a person, actual residence or place of abode. It signifies physical presence in a
place and actual stay thereat. It merely means the personal residence, not legal residence or domicile.
Residence simply requires bodily presence as an inhabitant in a given place, while domicile requires
bodily presence in that place and also an intention to make it one’s domicile. No particular length of
time of residence is required; however, the residence must be more than temporary.

In this case, the last place of residence of the deceased should be the venue of the court. Amado Garcia
was in Quezon City, and not at Calamba, Laguna based on his death certificate. And a death certificate is
admissible to prove the residence of the decedent at the time of his death. Thus, the Court of First
Instance of Calamba, Laguna does not have the jurisdiction to grant the petition for letters of
administration over the estate of Amado Garcia.