Case Digest (G.R. No. 16763)
Facts:
Pascual Coso v. Fermina Fernandez Deza et al., G.R. No. 16763, December 22, 1921, the Supreme Court, Ostrand, J., writing for the Court.
Petitioner and appellant was Pascual Coso; respondents/objectors were Fermina Fernandez Deza et al. The principal factual conflict concerned whether a will of a married testator was invalidated by undue influence allegedly exerted by Rosario Lopez, a woman with whom the testator had long had illicit relations.
The Court of First Instance of Manila set aside the will on the ground that Rosario Lopez had exercised undue influence over the testator. The contested will gave the tercio de libre disposición (one-third free disposal) to an illegitimate son the testator had with Rosario Lopez and provided for payment to Rosario of nineteen hundred Spanish duros as reimbursement for expenses incurred in caring for the testator in Barcelona during 1909–1916, when he had suffered severe illness.
The record showed that the testator, a married man and resident of the Philippine Islands, had first met Rosario Lopez in Spain in 1898 and maintained illicit relations with her for many years thereafter. After returning to the Philippines he was followed to Manila by Rosario, who arrived in February 1918 and remained in close communication with him until his death in February 1919. The evidence established that Rosario exercised some influence over the testator, but the nature and effect of that influence—whether it destroyed his free agency in making testamentary dispositions—was contested.
The objectors who prevailed in the trial court ap...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Did the objectors prove that undue influence vitiated the testator’s will such that the trial court correctly set it aside?
- Is influence arising from a close or adulterous relation (and mere affection) sufficient, by itself, to constitute undue influence that ...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)