ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATE OF DECEASED PERSONS

Administration is the process of determining and realizing the assets of a

deceased person, the payment of the debts of the estate, and the actual
distribution of the residue to the heirs

CONFLICTS RULES ON ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATE OF DECEASED BY

PERSONS

1. Administration is procedural in nature. It is the lex fori that governs not

the law that determines how the estate of the deceased is to be distributed
2. In charge of the administration is the executor or an administrator with a will
annexed or an administrator.
3. The executor is qualified, and the administrator of the estate is
appointed, by the court of the country where the deceased was domiciled at the
time of his death, or if he was a non-domiciliary, the country where his
properties are found
4. The rights, powers, and duties of the executor or administrator are
co-extensive with the territorial jurisdiction of the court that qualified or
appointed him
5. Administration granted in the country of the deceased last domicile is called
principal domiciliary administration; administration in other countries where the
deceased also left properties is called ancillary administration.
6. As held by the Supreme Court in Tayag v. Benguet Consolidated Inc., 26
SCRA 242, the domiciliary administrator of the estate of the deceased American
citizen in the U.S has no power over and is not entitled to the possession of the
stock certificates of shares of stocks owned by the deceased in a Philippine
corporation which certificates must be delivered to the ancillary administrator of
the deceased’s estate in the Philippines, to be administered by the latter in the
nature of assets of the deceased liable for his debts or to be distributed among
his heirs.
CADUCIARY RIGHTS OF STATE IN CONLIFCT OF LAWS

There are two theories adopted by different states so that they may claim the
properties left by a deceased who left no heirs and no will:

1. Some countries adopt the theory that such properties have become ownerless
(bona vacantia) hence they should revert to the State where they are situated
by escheat
 properties pass to the State as an incident of sovereignty, not as an heir
2. In the Philippines and some civil law countries – the theory adopted is that
the State is the last heir of a deceased person. Hence, the State succeeds to the
properties left by said deceased as an heir.