Bar Q and A #38

1. No, Article 147 cannot apply to Bert and Joe because the law only applies to a man and a woman who are capacitated to marry each other who live together as husband and wife without the benefit of marriage or under a void marriage. In the case of Bert and Joe, they are both men, so the law does not apply.

2. Neither of the two will inherit from Bert. Joe cannot inherit because the law does not recognize the right of a stranger to inherit from the decedent in the absence of a will. Their cohabitation will not vest Joe with the right to inherit from Bert. The child will likewise not inherit from Bert because of the lack of formal adoption of the child. A mere ward or “ampon” has no right to inherit from the adopting parents. (Manuel v. Ferrer, 247 SCRA 476)

3. No, Bert and Joe could not have jointly adopted the boy. Under the Domestic Adoption Act, joint adoption is permitted, and in certain cases mandated, for spouses. Here, Bert and Joe are not spouses.

The mother and twin sons are entitled to inherit from Ernesto. If legitimate ascendants are left, the twin sons shall divide the inheritance with them taking one-half of the estate. (Art. 991) Thus, the widowed mother gets P50,000.00 while the twin sons shall receive P25,000.00 each. The common-law wife cannot inherit from him because when the law speaks “widow or widower” as a compulsory heir, the law refers to a legitimate spouse. (Art. 887, par 3)

1. The legal heirs of Peter are his children by the first and second marriages and his surviving second wife.

Their shares in the estate of Peter will depend, however, on the cause of the nullity of the first marriage. If the nullity of the first marriage was psychological incapacity of one or both spouses, the three children of that void marriage are legitimate and all of the legal heirs shall share the estate of Peter in equal shares. If the judgment of nullity was for other causes, the three children are illegitimate and the estate shall be distributed such that an illegitimate child of the first marriage shall receive half of the share of a legitimate child of the second marriage, and the second wife will inherit a share equal to that of a legitimate child. In no case may the two legitimate children of the second marriage receive a share less than one- half of the estate which is their legitime. When the estate is not sufficient to pay all the legitimes of the compulsory heirs, the legitime of the spouse is preferred and the illegitimate children suffer the reduction.

Computation:

(A) If the ground of nullity is psychological incapacity:
3 children by first marriage 1/6 of the estate for each
2 children by second marriage 1/6 of the estate for each
Surviving second spouse 1/6 of the estate

(B) If the ground of nullity is not psychological capacity:
2 legitimate children 1/4 of the estate for each
of second marriage
Surviving second spouse 1/4 of the estate
3 illegitimate children 1/12 of estate for each of first marriage

NOTE: The legitime of an illegitimate child is supposed to be 1/2 the legitime of a legitimate child or 1/8 of the estate. But the estate will not be sufficient to pay the said legitime of the 3 illegitimate children, because only 1/4 of the estate is left after paying the legitime of the surviving spouse which is preferred.

Hence, the remaining 1/4 of the estate shall be divided among the 3 illegitimate children.

2. In the distribution of Peter’s estate, 1/2 of the presumptive legitime received by the 3 children of the first marriage shall be collated to Peter’s estate and shall be imputed as an advance of their respective inheritance from Peter. Only half of the presumptive legitime is collated to the estate of Peter because the other half shall be collated to the estate of his first wife.

1. Having died intestate, the estate of Ramon shall be inherited by his wife and his full and half-blood siblings or their respective representatives. In intestacy, if the wife concurs with no one but the siblings of the husband, all of them are the intestate heirs of the deceased husband. The wife will receive half of the intestate estate, while the siblings or their respective representatives, will inherit the other half to be divided among them equally. If some siblings are of the full- blood and the other of the half blood, a half blood sibling will receive half the share of a full-blood sibling.

a) The wife of Ramon will, therefore, receive one half (1/2) of the estate or the amount of P5,000,000.00.
b) The three (3) full-blood brothers, will, therefore, receive P1,000,000.00 each.
c) The nephew will receive P1,000,000.00 by right of representation.
d) The two (2) half-brothers will receive P500,000.00 each.

2. The wife will receive one half (1/2) of the estate or P5,000,000.00. The other half shall be inherited by (1) the full-blood brother, represented by his three children, and (2) the half-sister. They will divide the other half between them such that the share of the half- sister is just half the share of the full-blood brother. The share of the full-blood brother shall in turn be inherited by the three nephews in equal shares by right of representation.

Therefore, the three (3) nephews will receive P1,111,111.10 each the half- sister will receive the sum of P1,666,666.60.

Under the Civil Code, the widow or widower is a legal and compulsory heir of the deceased spouse. If the widow is the only surviving heir, there being no legitimate ascendants, descendants, brothers, and sisters, nephews and nieces, she gets the entire estate.

a.) No, the claim of both parents is not valid. When Mr. Cruz died, he was succeeded by his wife and his parents as his intestate heirs who will share his estate equally. His estate was 0.5 Million pesos which is his half share in the absolute community amounting to 1 Million Pesos. His wife, will, therefore, inherit O.25 Million Pesos and his parents will inherit 0.25 Million Pesos.

When Mrs. Cruz died, she was succeeded by her parents as her intestate heirs. They will inherit all of her estate consisting of her 0.5 Million half share in the absolute community and her 0.25 Million inheritance from her husband, or a total of 0.750 Million Pesos.

In sum, the parents of Mr. Cruz will inherit 250,000 Pesos while the parents of Mrs.  Cruz will inherit 750,000 Pesos.

b.) This being a case of succession, in the absence of proof as to the time of death of each of the spouses, it is presumed they died at the same time and no transmission of rights from one to the other is deemed to have taken place. Therefore, each of them is deemed to have an estate valued at P500,000,00, or one-half of their conjugal property of P1 million. Their respective parents will thus inherit the entire P1 Million in equal shares, of P500,000.00 per set of parents.

No, the contention is not valid. The property adjudicated to Jun from the estate of his parents which he in turn left to Anita and Cesar is not subject to reservation in favor of Edith and Philip. In Mendoza et. al. v. Policarpio, et. al. (G.R. No. 176422, March 20 2013), the court ruled that lineal character of the reservable property is reckoned from the ascendant from whom the propositus received the property by gratuitous title. The ownership should be reckoned only from Jun, as he is the ascendant from where the first transmission occurred or from whom Cesar inherited the properties. Moreover, Art. 891 provides that the person obliged to reserve the property should be an ascendant. Peachy is not Cesar’s ascendant but a mere collateral relative. On the assumption that the property is reservable, Edith and Philip being first cousins of Cesar who is the propositus are disqualified to be reservatarios as they are not third-degree relatives of Cesar.

No, the contention of Carlito is not tenable. To qualify as beneficiary of the family home, the person must be among those mentioned in Art. 154, he/she must be actually living in the family home and must be dependent for legal support upon the head of the family. (Patricio v. Dario, G.R. No. 170829, November 20, 2006) While Lucas, the son of Carlito satisfies the first and second requisites, he cannot however, directly claim legal support from his grandmother, Leonora because the person primarily obliged to give support to Lucas is his father, Carlito. Thus, partition may be successfully claimed by Leonora and Danilo.

Irma succeeded to the estate of Isidro as his surviving spouse to the estate of her legitimate child. When Isidro died, he was succeeded by his surviving wife Irma, and his legitimate unborn child. They divided the estate equally between them, the child excluding the parents of Isidro. An unborn child is considered born for all purposes favorable to it provided it is born later. The child was considered born because, having an intra-uterine life of more than seven months, it lived for a few minutes after its complete delivery. It was legitimate because it was born within the valid marriage of the parents. Succession is favorable to it. When the child died, Irma inherited the share of the child. However, the share of the child in the hands of Irma is subject to reserva troncal for the benefit of the relatives of the child within the third degree of consanguinity and who belong to the line of Isidro.

Half of the estate of Mr. Luna will go to the parents of Mrs. Luna as their inheritance from Mrs. Luna, while the other half will be inherited by the parents of Mr. Luna as the reservatarios of the reserved property inherited by Mrs. Luna from her child.

When Mr. Luna died, his heirs were his wife and the unborn child. The unborn child inherited because the inheritance was favorable to it and it was born alive later though it lived only for five hours. Mrs. Luna inherited half of the 10 Million estate while the unborn child inherited the other half. When the child died, it was survived by its mother, Mrs. Luna. As the only heir, Mrs. Luna inherited, by operation of law, the estate of the child consisting of its 5 Million inheritance from Mr. Luna. In the hands of Mrs. Luna, what she inherited from her child was subject to reserva troncal for the benefit of the relatives of the child within the third degree of consanguinity and who belong to the family of Mr. Luna, the line where the property came from.

When Mrs. Luna died, she was survived by her parents as her only heirs. Her parents will inherit her estate consisting of the 5 Million she inherited from Mr. Luna. The other 5 Million she inherited from her child will be delivered to the parents of Mr. Luna as beneficiaries of the reserved property.

In sum, 5 Million Pesos of Mr. Luna's estate will go to the parents of Mrs. Luna, while the other 5 Million Pesos will go to the parents of Mr. Luna as reservatarios.