GR 34395; (May, 1981) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-34395 May 19, 1981
BEATRIZ L. GONZALES, petitioner, vs. COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF MANILA (BRANCH V), BENITO F. LEGARDA, ROSARIO L. VALDEZ, ALEJANDRO LEGARDA, TERESA LEGARDA, JOSE LEGARDA, BENITO LEGARDA Y FERNANDEZ, CARMEN LEGARDA Y FERNANDEZ, FILOMENA LEGARDA Y HERNANDEZ, CARMEN LEGARDA Y HERNANDEZ, ALEJANDRO LEGARDA Y HERNANDEZ, RAMON LEGARDA Y HERNANDEZ, FILOMENA LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, JAIME LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, CELSO LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, ALEJANDRO LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, MA. TERESA LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, MA. ANTONIA LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, JOSE LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, ROSARIO LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, BENITO LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, EDUARDO LEGARDA Y LOBREGAT, TRINIDAD F. LEGARDA, and the ESTATE OF DONA FILOMENA ROCES DE LEGARDA, respondents.
FACTS
Benito Legarda y De la Paz died in 1933, survived by his widow, Filomena Roces Vda. de Legarda, and their seven children: Beatriz, Rosario, Teresa, Filomena, Benito, Alejandro, and Jose. Their daughter, Filomena Legarda y Roces, died intestate and without issue in 1943. Her sole heir was her mother, Filomena Roces, who executed an affidavit of adjudication in 1947, inheriting the properties. In 1953, Filomena Roces executed handwritten documents disposing of these properties inherited from her daughter in favor of her sixteen grandchildren (the children of her sons Benito, Alejandro, and Jose). Upon Filomena Roces’s death in 1967, her holographic will was probated.
Petitioner Beatriz Legarda Gonzales, a daughter of Filomena Roces, filed an action seeking a declaration that the properties her mother inherited from the deceased daughter Filomena are reservable properties under Article 891 of the Civil Code (reserva troncal). She argued these properties should pass to all six surviving siblings of the prepositus (Filomena Legarda) and could not be validly bequeathed by their mother to only some grandchildren. The trial court dismissed her complaint, holding the properties were not subject to reserve troncal.
ISSUE
Whether the properties inherited by Filomena Roces from her daughter, Filomena Legarda, are reservable properties under Article 891 of the Civil Code, which the reservor (Filomena Roces) could not freely dispose of by will.
RULING
Yes, the properties are reservable. The Supreme Court reversed the trial court. The legal logic is anchored on the nature of reserva troncal under Article 891. The properties in question, having been inherited by a descendant (Filomena Legarda) from a relative (her father, Benito Legarda y De la Paz) and subsequently passed by operation of law to an ascendant (her mother, Filomena Roces), are subject to reservation. The reservor (Filomena Roces) holds a fiduciary title and must reserve the property for the benefit of relatives within the third degree from the prepositus (Filomena Legarda) who belong to the line from which the property originated.
The Court clarified that the reserv