G.R. No.

L- 18979
In the Matter of the testate estate of Josefa Villaforte Celso

FACTS:
Celso Icasiano, filed a petition for the probate of the will of Josefa Villacorte and
for his appointment as executor thereof. It appears from the evidence that the testatrix
died on September 12, 1958. She executed a will in Tagalog, and through the help of
her lawyer, it was prepared in duplicates, an original and a carbon copy.

On the day that it was subscribed and attested, the lawyer only brought the
original copy of the will while the carbon duplicate (unsigned) was left in Bulacan. One
of the witnesses failed to sign one of the pages in the original copy but admitted he may
have lifted 2 pages simultaneously instead when he signed the will. Nevertheless, he
affirmed that the will was signed by the testator and other witnesses in his presence.

ISSUE:
Whether or not the failure of one of the subscribing witnesses to affix his
signature to a page is sufficient to deny probate of the will.

RULING:
No, the failure to sign was entirely through pure oversight or mere inadvertence.
Since the duplicated bore the required signatures, this proves that the omission was not
intentional. Even if the original is in existence, a duplicate may still be admitted to
probate since the original is deemed to be defective, then in law, there is no other will
but the duly signed carbon duplicate and the same can be probated.

The law should not be strictly and literally interpreted as to penalize the testatrix
on account of the inadvertence of a single witness over whose conduct she has no
control of. Where the purpose of the law is to guarantee the identity of the testament
and its component pages, and there is no intentional or deliberate deviation existed.

Note that this ruling should not be taken as a departure from the rules that the
will should be signed by the witnesses on every page. The carbon copy duplicate was
regular in all respects.