Case Digest (G.R. No. 17857)
Case Digest (G.R. No. 17857)
Facts:
In re Will of Josefa Zalamea y Abella, Deceased. Pedro Unson, Petitioner and Appellee, vs. Antonio Abella et al., Opponents and Appellants, G. R. No. 17857. June 12, 1922, the Supreme Court En Banc, Villamor, J., writing for the Court. On July 19, 1918, Dona Josefa Zalamea y Abella executed a handwritten will and an attached inventory (Exhibits A and A‑1) in Pagsanjan, Laguna, signing each page in the presence of three attesting witnesses who likewise signed the pages. The testatrix died on January 6, 1921. The executor named in the will, Pedro Unson, filed an application for probate and for letters of administration in the Court of First Instance of Laguna on January 19, 1921.Opposition to probate was filed by Antonio Abella, Ignacia Abella, Avicencia Abella, and Santiago Vito, who alleged formal defects: the will was not paged correlatively in letters, the inventory lacked a separate attestation clause, and the testatrix and witnesses did not sign in one another’s presence as required by law. After trial the Court of First Instance overruled the opposition and admitted both the will and the inventory to probate.
The opponents appealed to the Supreme Court, assigning errors that challenged (1) the sufficiency of the formalities surrounding execution, (2) the probate despite non‑production of one attesting witness (Pedro de Jesus), and (3) the probate of the inventory despite its lack of a separate attestation clause and paging in Arabic numerals. The case was argued and submitted to this Court for decision.
Issues:
- Did the court below err in finding that the will was executed with the formalities required by law?
- Was probate proper despite the proponent’s failure to produce one of the attesting witnesses at trial?
- Could the inventory (Exhibit A‑1) be probated although it lacked a separate attestation clause and was paged in Arabic numerals rather than letters?
Ruling:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Ratio:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Doctrine:
- (Subscriber-Only)