G.R. No.

L-35694         December 23, 1933

ALLISON G. GIBBS vs. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, THE

REGISTER OF DEEDS OF THE CITY OF MANILA

FACTS: This is an appeal from a final order of the Court of First Instance of Manila, requiring
the register of deeds of the City of Manila to cancel certificates of title of lands located in the
City of Manila, and issue in lieu thereof new certificates of transfer of title in favor of Allison D.
Gibbs without requiring him to present any document showing that the succession tax due under
Article XI of Chapter 40 of the Administrative Code has been paid. The subject parcels of land
formerly belonged to the conjugal partnership of Allison D. Gibbs and Eva Johnson Gibbs; that
the latter died intestate in Palo Alto, California, on November 28, 1929; that at the time of her
death she and her husband were citizens of the State of California and domiciled therein.
However, because of Section 1547 of Article XI of Chapter 40 of the Administrative Code, the
register of deeds of the City of Manila, declined to accept as binding said decree of court of
September 22,1930, and refused to register the transfer of title of the said conjugal property to
Allison D. Gibbs, on the ground that the corresponding inheritance tax had not been paid.
The appellee contends that the law of California should determine the nature and extent of the
title, if any that vested in Eva Johnson Gibbs citing article 9 of the Civil Code. But that, even if
the nature and extent of her title under said certificates be governed by the law of the Philippine
Islands, the laws of California govern the succession to such title, citing the second paragraph of
article 10 of the Civil Code
Article 9 of the Civil Code:
“The laws relating to family rights and duties, or to the status, condition, and legal capacity of
persons, are binding upon Spaniards even though they reside in a foreign country.”  -- It is
argued that the conjugal right of the California wife in community real estate in the Philippine
Islands is a personal right and must, therefore, be settled by the law governing her personal
status, that is, the law of California.
Article 10 of the Civil Code:
“Nevertheless, legal and testamentary successions, in respect to the order of succession as well as
to the amount of the successional rights and the intrinsic validity of their provisions, shall be
regulated by the national law of the person whose succession is in question, whatever may be the
nature of the property or the country in which it may be situated.”
The trial court found that under the law of California, upon the death of the wife, the entire
community property without administration belongs to the surviving husband.

ISSUE: Whether or not the transfer of title in favor of Allison Gibbs from the conjugal
ownership with Eva Gibbs, his wife, be subject to succession or inheritance tax by the
government of the Philippines?
RULING:
Upon the death of the wife, under California law, the husband is the absolute owner of all the
community property from the moment of the death of his wife, not by virtue of succession or by
virtue of her death, but by virtue of the fact that when the death of the wife precedes that of the
husband he acquires the community property, not as an heir or as the beneficiary of his deceased
wife, but because she never had more than an inchoate interest or expentancy which is
extinguished upon her death.
Following the Californian law, there was no inheritance. So the property in question will now be
a real property instead of personal property. And, in accord with the rule that real property is
subject to the lex rei sitae, the respective rights of husband and wife in such property, in the
absence of an antenuptial contract, are determined by the law of the place where the property is
situated. Thus, the nature and extent of the title which vested in Mrs. Gibbs at the time of the
acquisition of the community lands here in question must be determined in accordance with the
lex rei sitae.
As to payment of Inheritance Tax, Yes. The descendible interest of Eva Johnson Gibbs in the
lands aforesaid was transmitted to her heirs by virtue of inheritance and this transmission plainly
falls within the language of section 1536 of Article XI of Chapter 40 of the Administrative Code
which levies a tax on inheritances.