Section 2.

Order of Intestate Succession

Order of Intestate Succession in General. In enumerating the order of
succession to the estate of the decedent, we must distinguish between the
normal or regular order of intestate succession and the abnormal or irregular
one. The first refers to the order of succession if the decedent is a legitimate
person, while the second refers to the order of succession if the decedent is
an illegitimate person.

The regular order of intestate succession is as follows:

(1) Legitimate children or descendants;
(2) Legitimate parents of ascendants;
(3) Illegitimate children or descendants;
(4) Surviving spouse;
(5) Brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces;
(6) Other collateral relatives within the fifth degree; and
(7) The State.

The irregular order of intestate succession is as follows:

(1) Legitimate children or descendants;
(2) Illegitimate children or descendants;
(3) Illegitimate parents;
(4) Surviving spouse;
(5) Brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces; and
(6) The State.

Art. 970. Representation is a right created by fiction of law, by virtue of which

the representative is raised to the place and the degree of the person
represented, and acquires the rights which the latter would have if he were
living or if he could have inherited.

Art. 971. The representative is called to the succession by the law and not by
the person represented. The representative does not succeed the person
represented but the one whom the person represented would have
succeeded.

Concept of Representation. In every inheritance, the relative nearest in

degree excludes the more remote ones. This is known as the rule of
proximity which is one of the guiding principles of our system of compulsory
succession in both testamentary and intestate succession. It is primarily a
rule of exclusion. Thus, the son excludes the grandson, the father excludes
the grandfather, the brother excludes the uncle or nephew. As a matter of
fact, in legal or intestate succession, it is one of the bases of the order of
succession. However, it is not absolute in character. There is one very
important exception. This exception is what is known as the right of
representation. By virtue of this right, the relative nearest in degree does not
always exclude the more remote ones, because, by fiction of law, more
distant relatives belonging to the same class as the person represented, are
raised to the place and degree of such person, and acquire the rights which
the latter would have acquired if he were living or if he could have inherited.