ABANGAN V. ABANGAN

 G.R. No. 13431, November 12, 1919


RATIONALE: 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.

FACTS: On September 19, 1917, the CFI of Cebu admitted to probate Ana Abangan’s will duly executed sometime in July, 1916. Appellants however contend that such will had defects which would necessarily prevent the will from being probated. Specifically, appellants contend that the two sheets consisting of the will were neither signed on the left margin by the testatrix and the three witnesses nor numbered by letters. 

ISSUE: Whether or not the omissions are defects whereby the probate of the will should have been denied. 

RULING: No. The omission of the signature as well as the failure to number each page was not fatal to the validity of the will. Under R.A. 2645, the object of the solemnities surrounding the execution of wills is to close the door against bad faith and fraud, thereby: 1) avoiding substitution of wills and testaments; and 2) guarantee their truth and authenticity. Thus, when an interpretation of the law already assures such ends, any other interpretation whatsoever that adds nothing but demands more requisites entirely unnecessary, useless, and frustrates the exercise of the right to make a will, such an interpretation must be discarded. 

The Court noted that the law, in requiring the signature on the margin, took into consideration 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. Further, the object of the law in requiring that each and every page of the will must be numbered correlatively in letters was to know whether any sheet of the will has been removed. 

Applying the foregoing to the will in question, where the latter consists entirely of two sheets, the first containing all of the disposition of the testatrix duly signed at the bottom by a certain Martin Montalban, in the name and under the direction of the testatrix, and by three witnesses, and the second containing only the attestation clause duly signed at the bottom by the three instrumental witnesses, the Court concluded that: 

1) The signature of the testatrix and the instrumental witnesses need not appear on the margins since the signature found in the first page already guarantees its authenticity; 

2) The numbering of the pages may be dispensed with since all the dispositive parts of the will are found on one sheet only, the objective of the numbering therefore disappears since the removal of that singular sheet, although unnumbered, cannot be hidden. 

The Court therefore sustained the decision of the CFI of Cebu in favor of the appellee.