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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

EN BANC

[G.R. No. L-6395. June 30, 1954. ]

JOSE YNZA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HUGO P. RODRIGUEZ, ET AL,., Defendants-Appellees.

Mariano A. Aguilar for Appellant.

Benjamin H. Tirol and Hugo P. Rodriguez for Appellees.


SYLLABUS


1. TESTAMENTARY SUCCESSION; ACCRETION; WHERE PERSONS CALLED TO INHERITANCE SURVIVED TESTATORS, CONDITION IMPOSED REGARDED AS CHARGE OR TRUST; CONDITION MAY NOT BE ENFORCED AT THE INSTANCES OF STATE BUT BY INTERESTED LEGATEES; LEGATEE WHO HAD VIOLATED CONDITION AND RENOUNCED RIGHT UNDER IT, BARRED. — D left a will Exh. "A" naming his three adulterous children, J.Y. and M. as legatees. The properties involved were situated in Iloilo City and the Province of Negros Occidental. This will provided, among others, that "so alguno de mis legatarios arriba nombrados, falleciere sin sucesion entonces la parte a la legada accrecera a la porcion o porciones correspondienteds a los demas legatarios que le sobrevivan." M sold her whole share to her co-legatees, leaving J and Y as sole co-owners. After the project of partition was approved, Y sold to his co-legatee and co-owner J his one-half share of the estate situated in Iloilo City. J died without issue, leaving a will, whereby she bequeathed all her properties in Iloilo City to the Staub sisters and her properties in Negros Occidental, one-forth to Y and the remaining three-fourths to other legatees. With the conformity of all the legatees, including Y, a project of partition was submitted and approved by the court, and the properties were distributed among the legatees. Y now insists that by virtue of the condition imposed in their father’s will Exhibit "A" he became the absolute owner of all the properties left by D. Held: Under Article 982 of the old Civil Code, there is right of accretion in testamentary succession when two or more persons are called to the same inheritance or to the same portion thereof without special designation of parts, and one of the persons so called dies before the testator or renounces the inheritance or to be incapable of receiving it. In the present case, the three persons called to the inheritance survived the testator. However, the condition imposed in the will of D might possibly be regarded as a charge or trust limiting the ownership and disposition of the one-third allotted to each of the legatees. The intention of the testator might have been to prevent the property from going into the hands of strangers and at the same time giving a right to surviving legatee the right to receive intact the one-third portion of the legatee who dies without issue. This right may naturally be renounced or waived by any of the legatees who stands to benefit by it; and as to the condition that none of the properties or estate of D should go into the hands of strangers, since it is a condition not entirely unselfish, and it is not affected with the public interest but on the contrary, is rather against public policy in that it limits the right of ownership and free disposal of private property, said condition may not be enforced at the instance of the State. It may be enforced only by the legatees who have an interest in its enforcement; but surely not by the legatee who from the very beginning not only had violated the condition but had renounced his right to it.


D E C I S I O N


MONTEMAYOR, J.:


Dionisio Ynza, of Spanish descent, single, and a resident of Iloilo City, died on September 3, 1932, leaving a will (Exhibit A) which was probated on October 6, 1932, in Special Proceedings No. 2025. He left extensive properties, real and personal, in the City of Iloilo and in the Province of Negros Occidental. The paragraphs of his will pertinent to and involved in the present case are the following:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"CUATRO. Ordeno que todos mis bienes arriba relacionados y los que posea en el dia de mi muerte, asi como todo el dinero efectivo que encuentre en caja, en los Bancos depositados en mi nombre los az
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