Case Digest (G.R. No. L-22036)
Facts:
Testate Estate of the Late Reverend Father Pascual Rigor, G.R. No. L-22036, April 30, 1979, Supreme Court Second Division, Aquino, J., writing for the Court. The petitioner-appellant is the parish priest of the Roman Catholic Church of Victoria, Tarlac; the respondents-appellees are Belina Rigor, Nestora Rigor, Francisca Escobar de Rigor and Jovita Escobar de Fausto (the testator’s legal heirs).Father Pascual Rigor died on August 9, 1935, leaving a will executed October 29, 1933, probated by the Court of First Instance of Tarlac on December 5, 1935. The will devised four parcels of riceland in Guimba, Nueva Ecija (total ≈ 44.1163 has.) “to any nearest male relative of mine who shall study the ecclesiastical career until ordained priest,” with conditions: prohibition on sale, the devisee’s right to administer from the start of sacred theology studies and after ordination until death, forfeiture if he discontinues studies or is excommunicated, obligation to celebrate twenty masses yearly for the testator and parents, and a proviso that during any interval in which there is no qualified legatee the incumbent parish priest of Victoria and his successors shall administer the estate, taking 5% of annual produce for administration and depositing the remainder in a bank as the legacy’s fund.
The administratrix submitted a partition project in 1940 (approved by Judge Roman A. Cruz on August 15, 1940) listing the four titles and directing delivery of shares after payment of obligations; the parish priest was not then given the ricelands and the probate proceeding remained pending. In 1954 the parish priest petitioned for appointment of a new administrator and for delivery of the ricelands to the church as trustee; he filed another petition in 1957 for delivery as trustee. The testator’s intestate heirs opposed and, on March 25, 1957, asked that the bequest be declared inoperative and that they be adjudged entitled to the ricelands, alleging that “no nearest male relative … has ever studied for the priesthood.”
The probate court (Judge Bernabe de Aquino) initially declared the bequest inoperative and adjudicated the ricelands to the heirs (order of June 28, 1957). On reconsideration (December 10, 1957) the probate court found a grandnephew, Edgardo G. Cunanan, then a seminarian, and directed delivery to the parish priest as trustee. The heirs appealed to the Court of Appeals, which reversed (Rigor v. Parish Priest of the Roman Catholic Church of Victoria, Tarlac, CA G.R. No. 24319-R, August 1, 1963), holding that the testamentary trust could n...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Did Father Rigor’s will create a public charitable trust in favor of the parish priest of Victoria such that the parish priest is entitled to the ricelands?
- Was the devise to “any nearest male relative … who shall study the ecclesiastical career” operative at the time of the testator’s death, or did it vest only upon the later occurrence of qualification?
- If the devise was inoperative, do the ricelands pass to the testator’s legal heirs under the Civil Code p...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)