Property

Anything that may be “owned” by a person/entity and may be classified in terms of:
Mobility: movable or immovable
Ownership: public or private
Alienability: Within the commerce of man (or which may be the objects of contracts or judicial
transactions) or outside the commerce of man
Materiality: Tangible/corporeal or Intangible/incorporeal
Existence: Present or future (Both present and future property may be the
subject of sale but generally not the subject of donation).
Capability of substitution: Fungible or infungible
Nature: Generic or specific

Rights
A right is a claim or title to an interest in anything whatsoever that is enforceable by law
(example: rights as to ownership/possession of goods, etc.). Rights may be acquired in virtue
of an obligation. Only transmissible rights not extinguished by death are objects of
succession; if a right is personal to the decedent, the same is not vested to the heirs.

Example:
Rights of ownership (Right to possess, use, and enjoy; right to the fruits; right to consume,
dispose, vindicate/recover, accessories)

Article 1178. Subject to the laws, all rights acquired in virtue of an obligation are transmissible,
if there has been no stipulation to the contrary.

By their nature, property rights are transferable.

Example: rights from a lease contract over a land is transferrable as the right is over or
pertains to the property, and not to the doing of any act that is personal to another.

Inheritance rights under Article 781 – e.g. decedents may transfer their rights to a property to
their heirs.

However, it may become intransmissible:

1) By stipulation or;
2) By law.

Example: In a contract of lease, sublease is allowed – but may be prohibited by stipulation of

the parties. Some business licenses, authority, or permit cannot be transferred due to a
prohibition provided for by a law and/or a regulation.

Examples of Intransmissible Rights:

1) Those in partnership relations;
2) Those in agency relations;
3) Those that require or depend on personal qualifications or skills of the obligor; and
4) Those for the payment of money or debts as against heirs of deceased-debtor, as such
monetary obligation is chargeable against the estate of the deceased and not of the latter’s
 heirs.

Obligation
An obligation is a juridical necessity to give, to do or not to do.
Only transmissible obligations not extinguished by death are objects of succession; if an
obligation (example: pecuniary obligation such as payment of debt) is personal to the
decedent, the same is not vested to the heirs.

Rule regarding pecuniary obligations (Rule 88-90 of RoC)

Pecuniary obligations must be paid first before distributing the residue of the estate to
heirs.

Sources of Obligations (exclusive list):

Obligations arise from
1. Law;
2. Contracts;
3. Quasi-contracts;
4. Acts or omissions punished by law; and
5. Quasi-delicts (CIVIL CODE, art. 1157)

Essential Elements an Obligation (Arts. 1156 – 1162):

1. Passive Subject (obligor/debtor) – the person who has the duty of giving, doing or not
doing; person bound to the fulfillment
2. Active Subject (obligee/creditor) – the person in whose favor the obligation is constituted;
person entitled to make a demand
3. Vinculum Juris/ Legal Tie – the efficient cause or the juridical tie between two subjects by
reason of which the debtor is bound in favor of the creditor to perform the obligation. It can be
established by various sources of obligations (law, contract, quasi-contracts, delicts, and
quasi-delicts) and may arise either from bilateral or unilateral acts of persons.
4. Object/ Subject Matter – the prestation or conduct which has to be observed by the
debtor/obligor; to be valid, it must be: Licit, Real or Possible, Determinate/ Determinable, Must
be within the commerce of men (i.e. susceptible of appropriation and transmissible from one
person to another)

3 exceptions on binding effect of contracts fixed by Art. 1311: heirs are bound by
contracts entered into by their predecessors-in-interest except when the rights and obligations
arising therefrom are not transmissible by

1) By their nature or purely personal - Where acts stipulated in a contract require the exercise
of special knowledge, genius, skill, taste, ability, experience, judgment, discretion, integrity, or
other personal qualification of one or both parties, the agreement is of a personal nature, and
terminates on the death of the party who is required to render such service.

2) By stipulation - By virtue of a contract, a transmissible right may be converted to an

intransmissible right by stipulating that a right is intransmissible, such as by providing a clause
prohibiting rights from being transferred.

3) By law - Rights may also be intransmissible if provided for by law. Otherwise stated, a legal
provision prohibiting the transfer of rights from one to another will result in such right being
 intransmissible.

The concept of legitimate, illegitimate and legitimated Child

Legitimate Children are those conceived or born during a valid marriage. (Art. 164).
This also includes children who are:
a. Conceived as a result of artificial insemination
b. Conceived or born of a voidable marriage before decree of annulment;
c. Conceived or born before judgment of absolute nullity under Art. 36 (psychological
incapacity) becomes final and executory;
d. Conceived or born of a subsequent marriage under Art. 53 (failure to record the judgment,
partition and distribution of properties, and delivery of children’s presumptive legitime);
e. Legally adopted; and
f. Legitimated, conceived and born outside of wedlock of parents without impediment at the
time of conception and who subsequently married

Illegitimate Children are those conceived AND born outside a valid marriage. (Art. 165)
These include those who are:
a. Born of marriages which are void ab initio such as bigamous and incestuous marriages and
void marriages by reason of public policy
b. Conceived and born of voidable marriages after the decree of annulment
c. Conceived and born out of wedlock

A child may be legitimated.

Requisites for Legitimation: (Art. 177-178)
1. The child was conceived and born out of wedlock;
2. The parents, at the time of child’s conception, were not disqualified by any impediment to
marry each other or were disqualified only because either or both of them were below 18; and
3. There is a valid marriage subsequent to the child’s birth.

NOTE: Legitimation takes place by the subsequent marriage of the child’s parents. Annulment
of a voidable marriage shall not affect the legitimation.

Effect of Legitimation (Art. 179 – 181)

a. Confers on the child the rights of legitimate children
b. Retroacts to the time of the child’s birth
c. The legitimation of children who died before the celebration of the marriage shall benefit
their descendants.

Know what marriages are void and what void marriages produce legitimate children
Void Marriages:
Marriages Void from the Beginning (Void Ab Initio):
I. Void under Article 35:
a. Contracted by any party below 18 years old;
b. Solemnized by an unauthorized solemnizing officer
c. Solemnized without a valid marriage license
d. Bigamous or polygamous marriages
e. Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the other;
 f. Those subsequent marriages that are void under Article 53.
II. Psychological Incapacity (Art. 36)
III. Incestuous Marriage (Art. 37)
IV. By Reasons of Public Policy (Art. 38)

Children conceived or born before judgment of absolute nullity under Art. 36 (psychological
incapacity) becomes final and executory; and those conceived or born of a subsequent
marriage under Art. 53 (failure to record the judgment, partition and distribution of properties,
and delivery of children’s presumptive legitime) are LEGITIMATE CHILDREN.

Estate
Estate, more appropriately the Net Hereditary Estate, is what is being transmitted in
succession. Under Art. 908, the net hereditary estate contains all the decedent’s existing
assets, deducting the unpaid debts and charges, and adding the value of donations inter vivos
at the moment of death of his/her death (when succession takes place).

Intestate
Intestate —
Not defined codally (only defined in the Draft Code);
opposite of testate/testamentary (succession by will);
also called legal succession which is succession by operation of law;
occurs in default/absence of a valid will.

ARTICLE 960. Legal or intestate succession takes place:

(1) If a person dies without a will, or with a void will, or one which has subsequently lost its
validity;
(2) When the will does not institute an heir to, or dispose of all the property belonging to the
testator. In such case, legal succession shall take place only with respect to the property of
which the testator has not disposed;
(3) If the suspensive condition attached to the institution of heir does not happen or is not
fulfilled, or if the heir dies before the testator, or repudiates the inheritance, there being no
substitution, and no right of accretion takes place;
(4) When the heir instituted is incapable of succeeding, except in cases provided in this Code.
(912a)

Other causes of intestacy:

(5) happening of resolutory condition;
(6) expiration of resolutory term;
(7) preterition.

Basis of Intestate Succession—presumed will of the decedent, which would distribute the
estate in accordance with the love/affection he has for his family and close relatives, and in
default of these persons, the presumed desire of the decedent to promote charitable and
humanitarian activities.

Manresa: “The law of intestacy is founded on the presumed will of the deceased. Love, it is
said, first descends, then ascends, and, finally, spreads sideways. Thus, the law first calls the
 descendants, then the ascendants, and finally the collaterals, always preferring those closer in
degree to those of remoter degrees, on the assumption that the deceased would have done
so had he manifested his last will. Lastly, in default of anyone called to succession or bound to
the decedent by ties of blood or affection, it is in accordance with his presumed will that his
property be given to charitable or educational institutions, and thus contribute to the welfare of
humanity."

“Order of Intestate Succession” - some relatives (hereby called “intestate/legal heirs) are
preferred over others in receiving intestate share. See Rule of preference of lines, Rule of
proximity of degree, Rule of equality among relatives of the same degree

Art. 978 onward discuss the combinations in Intestate Succession (25 combinations)

Heirs
Successors/Heirs – those who are called to succession to the whole or to an aliquot portion of
the inheritance either by will or by operation on law.

ARTICLE 782. An heir is a person called to the succession either by the provision of a will or
by operation of law.

Testamentary/Voluntary Heir - virtually anyone capacitated to inherit (except the witnesses of

the attested will and their spouse, parent, children) and named in a valid will

Legal/Intestate Heir - heir called to succession when there is no valid will pursuant to rules of
intestate succession like Legitimate & Illegitimate Children/Descendants, Legitimate
Ascendants & Illegitimate Parents, Surviving spouse, Brother/sister/nephew/niece, other
relatives to the 5th degree, and the State.

Compulsory Heir - certain individuals entitled to legitimes/portion of the estate which the
decedent cannot dispose of by will like Legitimate & Illegitimate Children/Descendants,
Legitimate Ascendants & Illegitimate Parents, and Surviving spouse.