C. Legal or Intestate Succession

Causes of Intestacy

Instances when Legal or Intestate Succession Operates (Art. 960)

• If a person dies without a will, or with a void will, or one which has subsequently lost its validity;
• When the will does not institute an heir to, or dispose of all the property belonging to the testator. In such case, legal succession shall take place only with respect to the property of which the testator has not disposed;
• If the suspensive condition attached to the institution of heir does not happen or is not fulfilled, or if the heir dies before the testator, or repudiates the inheritance, there being no substitution, and no right of accretion takes place;
• When the heir instituted is incapable of succeeding, except in cases provided in the Civil Code.

Other Causes of Intestacy (Tolentino, supra)

• Happening of a resolutory condition;
• Expiration of a resolutory term;
• Preterition (Balane, supra)

NOTE: Intestacy operates on the same principles as succession to the legitime. They are both governed by the rules on exclusion and concurrence.

Effectivity of judicial declaration of absence (NCC, Art. 386)

Judicial declaration of absence takes effect six (6) months after its publication in a newspaper of general circulation.

NOTE: A judicial declaration of absence is necessary for interested persons to be able to protect their rights, interests and benefits in connection with the person who has disappeared. It is also necessary to protect the interest of the absentee. (Sta. Maria, Jr., 2010)

Administration of the Property of the Absentee

Administration of the property of the absentee ceases when (NCC, Art. 389)

• Absentee appears personally or by means of an agent.
• Death of the absentee is proved, and his testate or intestate heirs appear.
• A third person appears, showing by a proper document that he has acquired the absentee's property by purchase or other title.

Presumption of Death

Presumption of death for all purposes

The following are presumed dead for all purposes including the division of estate among heirs in case of extraordinary presumption of death (NCC, Art. 391): when there is peril of death

• Person on board a vessel lost during a sea voyage, or an airplane which is missing, who has not been heard of for four (4) years since the loss of the vessel or airplane;
• Person in the armed forces who has taken part in war, and has been missing for four (4) years;
• Person who has been in danger of death under other circumstances and his existence has not been known for four (4) years.

Rules on Succession

In legal and intestate succession, the adopters and the adoptee shall have reciprocal rights of succession without distinction from legitimate filiation. However, if the adoptee and his/her biological parents had left a will, the law on testamentary succession shall govern.

In the case of Treyes v. Larlar

“Unless there is a pending special proceeding for the settlement of the decedent’s estate or for the determination of heirship, the compulsory or intestate heirs may commence an ordinary civil action to declare the nullity of a deed or instrument [in this case the Affidavit of Self-Adjudication by the husband], and for recovery of property, or any other action in the enforcement of their ownership rights acquired by virtue of succession, without the necessity of a prior and separate judicial declaration of their status as such.” (Treyes v. Larlar, G.R. No. 232579, 2020)

“Even assuming arguendo that the Rules (of Court) strictly provide that a separate judicial determination of heirship in a special proceeding is a precondition in an ordinary civil action wherein heirship is already established by compulsory succession or intestacy and is only sought to be enforced, which, as already discussed at length, is not the case, the Rules must still yield to the specific provisions of the Civil Code that certain relatives of the decedent [such as the siblings in this case] attain their status as either compulsory or intestate heirs and that their successional rights are transmitted and enforceable at the very moment of death [the SC cited Article 777 of the Civil Code] without the need of such separate judicial determination.” (Treyes v. Larlar, G.R. No. 232579, 2020)

“Given the clear dictates of the Civil Code that the rights of the heirs to the inheritance vest immediately at the precise moment of the decedent’s death [Art. 777 of the Civil Code] even without judicial declaration of heirship, and the various Court En Banc and Division decisions holding that no prior judicial declaration of heirship is necessary before an heir can file an ordinary civil action to enforce ownership rights acquired by virtue of succession through the nullification of deeds divesting property or properties forming part of the estate and reconveyance thereof to the estate or for the common benefit of the heirs of the decedent”, the Supreme Court clarified that the rule laid down in Ypon, Yaptinchay, Portugal,…and other similar cases, which requires prior determination of heirship in a separate special proceeding as a prerequisite before one can file an ordinary civil action to enforce ownership rights acquired by virtue of succession, is abandoned. (Treyes v. Larlar, G.R. No. 232579, 2020)

A will shall be valid even though it does not contain an institution of an heir, or such institution does not comprise the entire estate, or even though the person so instituted should not accept the inheritance or should be incapacitated to succeed. In such case, the testamentary dispositions made in accordance with law shall be complied with, and the remainder of the estate shall pass to the legal heirs. (Art. 841)

Intestacy Follows If Entire Free Portion Not Disposed of by Will

If the testator has instituted one or several heirs, and the institution of each is limited to an aliquot part of the inheritance, intestate succession takes place with respect to the remainder of the estate. (Art. 851)