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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

EN BANC

[G.R. No. 47895. July 13, 1942. ]

TESTATE ESTATE OF THE DECEASED JUAN DIZON. VICENTE SANTIAGO, executor-appellee, v. SIXTO DE LOS ANGELES, Movant-Appellant.

Sixto de los Angeles, in his own behalf.

Ramon Diokno, for Appellant.

Vicente Santiago, in his own behalf.

SYLLABUS


1. EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS; REINSTATEMENT OF COMMITTEE ON CLAIMS. — The resolution of this Court allowing the claim to be filed with the committee on claims has become final and remains only to be obeyed, not evaded. The resolution could have meant nothing but what its clear language so declares to the effect that the value of the fruits could still be claimed before the committee and that necessarily the committee could still be reopened to that end. The propriety of this procedure would not have been suggested if, appellant’s claim having been barred, obedience thereto was impossible. Had the court deemed the claim to be barred, a clear statement to that effect would have been made to avoid further litigation.

2. DESCENT AND DISTRIBUTION; POWER OF PROBATE COURT TO ENFORCE TESTAMENTARY PROVISION. — Even under the former Code of Civil Procedure, the claim could be presented directly to the probate court prior to the distribution of the property left by the deceased J. D. The right of election accorded the heirs of Y. D. was a testamentary provision contained in the will of J. D., and may thus be enforced directly by the probate court. And, as the accounting of the fruits to be made by the executor, should the heirs reject the legacy, is merely incidental to the enforcement of the will, it also may be ordered by the probate court directly in these testate proceedings.


D E C I S I O N


MORAN, J.:


After the death of Ysmael Dizon, the following persons successively administered his estate: his brother Juan Dizon who in turn died on July 20, 1927; Marta Dizon, one of Ysmael’s heirs, who also died on May 10, 1928; and the present appellant Sixto de los Angeles who, after the death of Marta, was also named executor of her estate. Juan Dizon, prior to his death, failed to deliver to his brother’s heirs the fruits of the property he had administered, and to make payment thereof he bequeathed, in his last will and testament, to said heirs, in the form of legacy, all the outstanding credits he had at the time of his death, expressly providing, however, that, should the heirs choose to reject said legacy, the executor appointed in his will should make an accounting of all the fruits aforementioned.

On May 4, 1929, the committee on claims and appraisals appointed in the testamentary proceedings of the deceased Juan Dizon filed its report. On May 21, of the same year, appellant Sixto de los Angeles, as executor of the estate of Marta and administrator of the estate of Ysmael, filed with the probate court a so-called "Reparos al informe y el inventario presentados por el comité de aval
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