TOPIC: FORMALITIES OF NOTARIAL OR ORDINARY WILL

#34 Javellana vs. Ledesma

G.R. No. L-7179; June 30, 1955
FACTS:
The Court of First Instance of Iloilo admitted to probate the documents in the Visayan
dialectas the testament and codicil duly executed by the deceased Da. Apolinaria
Ledesma Vda. de Javellana. The contestant, Matea Ledesma, sister and nearest
surviving relative of said deceased, appealed from the decision, insisting that the said
exhibits were not executed in conformity with law.
Ledesma is questioning the validity of the codicil contending that the fact that the notary
did not sign the instrument in the presence of the testator and the witness made the
codicil not executed in conformity with the law.
ISSUE: WON the codicil was validly executed
RULING:
Yes.
Article 806 provides that every will must be acknowledged before a notary public by the
testator and the witnesses. The law does not require that the signing of the testator, the
witnesses and the notary be accomplished in one single act. All that is required is that
every will must be acknowledged before a notary public by the testator and witnesses.
The subsequent signing and sealing is not part of the acknowledgement itself nor of the
testamentary act.
In here, after the codicil had been signed by the testatrix and the witnesses, the same
was signed and sealed by notary public Gimotea, who brought the codicil to his office
and signed and sealed it there. The separate execution out of the presence of the
testator and the witnesses cannot be a violation of the rule that testaments should be
completed without interruption.