G.R. No.
L-13431 November 12, 1919 In requiring that each and every page of a will must be numbered correlatively in
In re will of Ana Abangan.
GERTRUDIS ABANGAN, executrix-appellee,
vs.
ANASTACIA ABANGAN, ET AL., opponents-appellants.
On September 19, 1917, the Court of First Instance of Cebu admitted to probate Ana
Abangan's will executed July, 1916. From this decision the opponent's appealed.
Said document, duly probated as Ana Abangan's will, consists of two sheets, the first
of which contains all of the disposition of the testatrix, duly signed at the bottom by
Martin Montalban (in the name and under the direction of the testatrix) and by
three witnesses. The following sheet contains only the attestation clause duly signed
at the bottom by the three instrumental witnesses. Neither of these sheets is signed
on the left margin by the testatrix and the three witnesses, nor numbered by letters;
and these omissions, according to appellants' contention, are defects whereby the
probate of the will should have been denied. We are of the opinion that the will was
duly admitted to probate.
In requiring that each and every sheet of the will should also be signed on the left
margin by the testator and three witnesses in the presence of each other, Act No.
2645 (which is the one applicable in the case) evidently has for its object (referring
to the body of the will itself) to avoid the substitution of any of said sheets, thereby
changing the testator's dispositions. But when these dispositions are wholly written
on only one sheet signed at the bottom by the testator and three witnesses (as the
instant case), their signatures on the left margin of said sheet would be completely
purposeless. In requiring this signature on the margin, the statute took into
consideration, undoubtedly, the case of a will written on several sheets and must
have referred to the sheets which the testator and the witnesses do not have to sign
at the bottom. A different interpretation would assume that the statute requires that
this sheet, already signed at the bottom, be signed twice. We cannot attribute to the
statute such an intention. As these signatures must be written by the testator and
the witnesses in the presence of each other, it appears that, if the signatures at the
bottom of the sheet guaranties its authenticity, another signature on its left margin
would be unneccessary; and if they do not guaranty, same signatures, affixed on
another part of same sheet, would add nothing. We cannot assume that the statute
regards of such importance the place where the testator and the witnesses must
sign on the sheet that it would consider that their signatures written on the bottom
do not guaranty the authenticity of the sheet but, if repeated on the margin, give
sufficient security.
letters placed on the upper part of the sheet, it is likewise clear that the object of Act
No. 2645 is to know whether any sheet of the will has been removed. But, when all
the dispositive parts of a will are written on one sheet only, the object of the statute
disappears because the removal of this single sheet, although unnumbered, cannot
be hidden.
What has been said is also applicable to the attestation clause. Wherefore, without
considering whether or not this clause is an essential part of the will, we hold that in
the one accompanying the will in question, the signatures of the testatrix and of the
three witnesses on the margin and the numbering of the pages of the sheet are
formalities not required by the statute. Moreover, referring specially to the
signature of the testatrix, we can add that same is not necessary in the attestation
clause because this, as its name implies, appertains only to the witnesses and not to
the testator since the latter does not attest, but executes, the will.
Synthesizing our opinion, we hold that in a will consisting of two sheets the first of
which contains all the testamentary dispositions and is signed at the bottom by the
testator and three witnesses and the second contains only the attestation clause and
is signed also at the bottom by the three witnesses, it is not necessary that both
sheets be further signed on their margins by the testator and the witnesses, or be
paged.
The object of the solemnities surrounding the execution of wills is to close the door
against bad faith and fraud, to avoid substitution of wills and testaments and to
guaranty their truth and authenticity. Therefore the laws on this subject should be
interpreted in such a way as to attain these primordal ends. But, on the other hand,
also one must not lose sight of the fact that it is not the object of the law to restrain
and curtail the exercise of the right to make a will. So when an interpretation
already given assures such ends, any other interpretation whatsoever, that adds
nothing but demands more requisites entirely unnecessary, useless and frustative of
the testator's last will, must be disregarded. lawphil.net
As another ground for this appeal, it is alleged the records do not show that the
testarix knew the dialect in which the will is written. But the circumstance
appearing in the will itself that same was executed in the city of Cebu and in the
dialect of this locality where the testatrix was a neighbor is enough, in the absence
of any proof to the contrary, to presume that she knew this dialect in which this will
is written.
For the foregoing considerations, the judgment appealed from is hereby affirmed
with costs against the appellants. So ordered.