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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

EN BANC

[G.R. No. 45904. September 30, 1938. ]

Intestate estate of the deceased Luz Garcia. PABLO G. UTULO, applicant-appellee, v. LEONA PASION VIUDA DE GARCIA, Oppositor-Appellant.

Feliciano B. Gardiner, for Appellant.

Gerardo S. Limliñgan, for Appellee.

SYLLABUS


1. EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS; JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATE OF DECEASED PERSON; EXCEPTIONS. — Section 642 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides in part that "if no executor is named in the will, or if a person dies intestate, administration shall be granted" etc. This provision enunciates the general rule that when a person dies leaving property in the Philippines Islands, his property should be judicially administered and the competent court should appoint a qualified administrator, in the order established in the section, in case the deceased left no will, or in case he had left one should he fail to name an executor therein. This rule, however, is subject to the exceptions established by sections 596 and 597 of the same Code, as finally amended. According to the first, when all the heirs are of lawful age and there are no debts due from the estate, they may agree in writing to partition the property without instituting the judicial administration or applying for the appointment of an administrator. According to the second, if the property left does not exceed six thousand pesos,, the heirs may apply to the competent court, after the required publications, to proceed with the summary partition and, after paying all the known obligations, to partition all the property constituting the inheritance among themselves pursuant to law, without instituting the judicial administration and the appointment of an administrator.

2. ID.; ID.; ID. — When a person dies without leaving pending obligations to be paid, his heirs, whether of age or not, are not bound to submit the property to a judicial administration, which is always long and costly, or to apply for the appointment of an administrator by the court. It has been uniformly held that in such case the judicial administration and the appointment of an administrator are superfluous and unnecessary proceedings (Ilustre v. Alaras Frondosa, 17 Phil., 321; Malahacan v. Ignacio, 19 Phil., 434; Bondad v. Bondad, 34 Phil., 232; Baldemor v. Malangyaon, 34 Phil., 367; Fule v. Fule, 46 Phil., 317).

3. ID.; ID.; ID.; CASE AT BAR. — There is no weight in the argument adduced by the appellee to the effect that his appointment as judicial administrator is necessary so that he may have legal capacity to appear in the intestate of the deceased J. G. S. As he would appear in the said intestate by the right of representation, it would suffice for him to allege in proof of his interest that he is a usufructuary forced heir of his deceased wife who, in turn, would be a forced heir and an interested and necessary party if she were living. In order to intervene in said intestate and to take part in the distribution of the property it is not necessary that the administration of the property of his deceased wife be instituted — an administration which will take up time and occasion inconveniences and unnecessary expenses.


D E C I S I O N


IMPERIAL, J.:


This is an appeal taken by the oppositor from the order of the Court of First Instance of the Province of Tarlac appointing the applicant as judicial administrator of the property left by the deceased Luz Garcia.

Juan Garcia Sanchez died intestate, and in the proceedings instituted in the Court of First Instance of Tarlac for the administration of his property (special proceedings No. 3475), Leona Pasion Vda. de Garcia, the surviving spouse and the herein oppositor, was appointed judicial administratrix. The said deceased left legitimate children, named Juan Garcia, jr., Patrocinio Garcia and Luz Garcia who, with the widow, are the presumptive forced heirs. Luz Garcia married the applicant Pablo G. Utulo and during the pendency of the administration proceedings of the said deceased, she died in the said province without any legitimate descendants, her only forced heirs being her mother and her husband. The latter commenced in the same court the judicial administration of the property of his deceased wife (special proceedings NO. 4188), stating in his petition that her only heirs were he himself and his mother-in-law, the oppositor, and that the only property, left by the deceased consisted in the share due her from the intestate of her father, Juan Garcia Sanchez, and asking that he be named administrator of the property of said deceased. The oppositor objected to the petition, opposing the judicial administration of the property of her daughter and the appointment of the applicant as administrator. She alleged that inasmuch as the said deceased left no indebtedness, there was no occasion for the said judicial administration; but she stated that should the court grant the administration of the property, she should be appointed the administratrix thereof inasmuch as she had a better right than the applicant. After the required publications, trial was had and the court, on August 28, 1936, finally issued the appealed order to which the oppositor excepted and thereafter filed the record on appeal which was certified and approved.

The oppositor-appellant assigns five errors allegedly committed by the trial court, but these assigned errors raised only two questions for resolution, namely: whether upon the admitted facts the judicial administration of the property left by the deceased Luz Garcia lies, with the consequent appointment of an administrator, and whether the appellant has a better right to the said office than the appellee.

1. As to the first question, we have section 642 of the Code of Civil Procedure providing in part that "if no executor is named in the will, or if a person dies intestate, administration shall be granted" etc. This provision enunciates the general rule that when a person dies leaving property in the Philippine Islands, his property should be judicially administered and the competent court should appoint a qualified administrator, in the order established in the section, in case the deceased left no will, or in case he had left one should he fail to name an executor therein. This rule, however, is subject to the exceptions established by sections 596 and 597 of the same Code, as finally amended. According to the first, when all the heirs are of lawful age and there are no debts due from the estate, they may agree in writing to partition the property without instituting the judicial administration or applying for the appointment of an administrator. According to the second, if the property left does not exceed six thousand pesos, the heirs may apply to the competent court, after the required publications, to proceed with the summary partition and, after paying all the known obligations, to partition all the property constituting the inheritance among themselves pursuant to law, without instituting the judicial administration and the appointment of an administrator.

Construing the scope of section 596, this court repeatedly held that when a person dies without leaving pending obligations to be paid, his heirs, whether of age or not, are not bound to submit the property to a judicial administration, which is always long and costly, or to apply for the appointment of an administrator by the court. It has been uniformly held that in such case the judicial administration and the appointment of an administrator are superfluous and unnecessary proceedings (Ilustre v. Alaras Frondosa, 17 Phil., 321; Malahacan v. Ignacio, 19 Phil., 434; Bondad v. Bondad, 32 Phil., 232; Baldemor v. Malangyaon, 32 Phil., 367; Fule v. Fule, 46 Phil., 317).

In enunciating the aforesaid doctrine, this court relied on the provisions of articles 657, 659 and 661 of the Civil Code under which the heirs succeed to all the property left by the deceased from the time of his death. In the case of Ilustre v. Alaras Frondosa, supra, it was said:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"Under the provisions of the Civil Code (arts. 657 to 661), the rights to the succession of a person are transmitted from the moment of his death; in other words, the heirs succeeded immediately to all of the property of the deceased ancestor. The property belongs to the heirs as the moment of the death of the ancestor as completely as if the ancestor had executed and delivered to them a deed for the same before his death. In the absence of debts existing against the estate, the heirs may enter upon the administration of the said property immediately. If they desire to administer it jointly, they may do so. If they desire to partition it among themselves and can do this by mutual agreement, they also have that privilege. The Code of Procedure in Civil Actions provides how an estate may be divided by a petition for partition in case they can not mutually agree in the division. When there are no debts existing against the estate, is certainly no occasion for the intervention of an administrator in the settlement and partition of the estate among the heirs. When the heirs are all of lawful age and there are no debts, there is no reason why the estate should be burdened with the costs and expenses of an administrator. The property belonging absolutely to the heirs, in the absence of existing debts against the estate, the administrator has no right to intervene in any way whatever in the division of the estate among the heirs. They are co
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