Notes in Succession
By: Charisse Louie L. Amosco
Art. 15 of the New Civil Code:
 Laws relating to family rights and duties, or to the status,
condition, and legal capacity of persons are binding
upon citizens even though living abroad.
Art. 16 of the New Civil Code:
 General Rule: Real property as well as personal
property is subject to the law of the country where it is
situated. (Lex Rei Sitae)
Exception: However, intestate and testamentary
successions, both with respect to the order of succession
and to the amount of successional rights and to the
intrinsic validity of testamentary provisions, shall be
regulated by the national law of the person whose
succession is under consideration (decedent),
whatever may be the nature of the property and
regardless of the country wherein said property may be
found.
Art. 17 of the New Civil Code:
 General Rule: The forms and solemnities of contracts,
wills and other public instruments shall be governed by
the laws of the country in which they are executed.
(lex loci contractus) (Contract of marriage: lex loci
celebrationis)
Exception: Where the acts referred to are executed
before the diplomatic or consular officials of the
Republic of the Philippines in a foreign country, the
solemnities established by Philippine laws shall be
observed in their execution.
Exception to the exception: Prohibitive laws
concerning persons, their acts or property, and those
which have for their object public order, public policy
and good customs shall not be rendered ineffective by
laws or judgments promulgated, or by determinations or
conventions agreed upon in a foreign country.
Art. 774. Succession – is a mode of acquisition by
virtue of which the property, rights and obligations to the
extent of the value of the inheritance of a person, are
transmitted through his death to another or others by his
will or by operation of law.
Art. 775. Decedent – is the general term applied to the
person whose property is transmitted through
succession, whether or not he left a will. If he left a will,
he is also called as “testator”.
Note: If no will, intestate.
Art. 776. Inheritance includes all the (1) property,
rights, and (3) obligations of a person which is not
extinguished by his death.
 Inheritance & Succession Distinguished:
Inheritance is the property or right acquired;
while succession is the manner by virtue of which
property or right is acquired.
 Administration & Succession Distinguished:
Administration refers to the dealing with the
deceased person’s property according to law; while
succession means the transferring to it beneficially.
Art. 777. The rights to the succession are transmitted
from the moment of the death of the decedent.
 Requisites for Succession Mortis Causa:
(1) that indeed there has been death (of the decedent
either actual or presumed);
(2) that the rights or properties are indeed transmissible
or descendible;
(3) that the transferee is still alive, willing and
capacitated to inherit.
 Two Kinds of Presumed Death:
(1) Ordinary Presumption of Death –
(ordinary absence)
Absentee, who disappears under normal
conditions, there being no danger or idea of death, shall
be presumed dead for the purpose of opening his
succession – at the end of TEN (10) YEARS or at the
end of FIVE (5) YEARS in case he disappeared after
the age of SEVENTY- FIVE (75).
(2) Extraordinary Presumption of Death –
(extraordinary or qualified absence)
Art. 391 of the Civil Code, states that for all purposes
including the division of the estate among the heirs, the
following shall be presumed dead:
1. Person on board a vessel lost during a sea voyage, or
an aeroplane which is missing, who has not been heard
of for four (4) years since the loss of the vessel or the
aeroplane;
2. A person in the armed forces who has taken part in
war, and has been missing for four (4) years; and
3. A person who has been in danger of death under other
circumstances and his existence has not been known for
four (4) years.
Notes in Succession
By: Charisse Louie L. Amosco

DEFINITION OF TERMS:

3. Donation inter vivos -

Art. 839 GROUNDS FOR DISALLOWANCE OF
WILL: 4. Donation mortis causa

(1) If the formalities required by law have not been 7. Production of Will
complied with; 8. Allowance of a Will
(2) If the testator was insane, or otherwise mentally
incapable of making a will, at the time of its 17. Doctrine of processual presumption
execution;
(3) If it was executed through force or under duress, 17. Renvoi doctrine
or the influence of fear, or threats;
18. Doctrine of supervening capacity
(4) If it was procured by undue or improper pressure
and influence on the part of the beneficiary or 19. Probate
some other person;
(5) If the signature of the testator was procured by 21. Revocation
fraud; and
22. Republication
(6) If the testator acted by mistake or did not intend
that the instrument he signed should be his will 23. Doctrine of absolute revocation
at the time of affixing his signature thereto.
24.
Notes in Succession
By: Charisse Louie L. Amosco
25. Principle of Instanter

26. Post mortem probate

27. Freedom of disposition

28. Principle of equality

29. Principle of individuality

30. Principle of simultaneity

31. Representation

33. Fideicommissary substitution

34. Brief substitution

35. Compendious substitution

36. Reciprocal substitution

38. Rule on proximity

Ambulatory
Movable; revocable; subject  to  change;  capable of alte
ration.
An ambulatory  court was the former name of the Court o
f King's Bench in England. It would convene wherever th
e king who presided over it could be found, moving its lo
cation as the king moved.
An ambulatory  disposition is a judgment, decree, or sent
ence that is subject to change, amendment, or revocatio
n.
A will is considered ambulatory because as long as the p
erson who made it lives, it can always be changed or rev
oked.