Facts:
Clemente Alviar (
plaintiff-appellee) and Belen Alviar were legitimate children of Florentino Alviar and Bibiana Carillo. After Bibiana’s death on
January 30, 1901, Florentino Alviar married Flora Erasga, who bore him five children—
Cesareo, Fabiana, Luisa, Zenaida, and Castor, all surnamed Alviar. Belen Alviar died intestate on
September 6, 1951, single, leaving as survivors her brother Clemente, and her five half brothers and sisters: Cesareo, Fabiana, Luisa, Zenaida, and Castor. Belen’s estate consisted of two agricultural parcels in Calamba, Laguna (Lots 2 and 3 of subdivision plan Psu-3720), and a residential lot in Pasay City (Lot No. 223-D of subdivision plan Psd-18972). On
June 28, 1955, the six brothers and sisters executed an
extrajudicial partition deed adjudicating to Clemente the two Laguna parcels and to the five half siblings the Pasay residential lot. The parties took possession accordingly, and titles were issued: Clemente obtained
TCT Nos. 15307 and 15308 for the Laguna lots, while the Pasay lot was subdivided into
TCT Nos. 8495 (in the names of Luisa and Zenaida) and
TCT No. 8496 (in the name of Cesareo, after Fabiana’s renunciation); Castor also waived his share. More than five years later, on
September 4, 1962, Clemente filed an action to
annul the extrajudicial partition deed and the Pasay titles, and to recover possession and title, alleging bad faith and conspiracy, and that defendants had misled him into signing because he was allegedly uneducated and illiterate and because they knew the half siblings had no rights in the estate. Clemente later died; his widow, Paulina Pamulaklakin, and their children, Ramon and Norma Alviar, substituted him. The defendants denied the allegations. After the parties stipulated their relationships, Belen’s civil status, the properties, and the steps taken in executing and implementing the partition, the case proceeded on a single legal question:
who were entitled to participate in Belen’s inheritance and in what proportion. The trial court held that both the substituted plaintiffs and the defendants were entitled to inherit from Belen, giving plaintiffs
two-sevenths (2/7) of the Pasay residential lot, and each defendant
one-seventh (1/7), and it denied defendants’ motion for reconsideration which sought redistribution including the Laguna parcels. Defendants appealed to the Court of Appeals, which certified the case to the Supreme Court on the ground that only questions of law were involved.
Issues:
Whether the
full brother of Belen Alviar, Clemente Alviar, being nearer in degree of relationship, excluded Belen’s
half brothers and half sisters and entitled Clemente to succeed to the
entire estate.
Ruling:
Ratio:
Doctrine: