GR 44602; (November, 1938) (Digest)
G.R. No. 44602 ; November 28, 1938
MARIA CALMA, as administratrix of the testamentary proceedings of Fausta Macasaquit, plaintiff-appellant, vs. ESPERANZA TAÑEDO, assisted by her husband Felipe Mamaual, and BARTOLOME QUIZON, Deputy Sheriff of Tarlac, defendants-appellees.
FACTS
The spouses Eulalio Calma and Fausta Macasaquit owned conjugal property. They were indebted to Esperanza Tañedo, a debt chargeable against the conjugal property. Fausta Macasaquit died, and testamentary proceedings were instituted with her daughter Maria Calma appointed as judicial administratrix. While these proceedings were pending, Tañedo filed an ordinary action against the surviving husband, Eulalio Calma, to recover the debt. The court rendered judgment against Eulalio Calma, and in execution thereof, the sheriff sold the conjugal property despite a third-party claim. Maria Calma, as administratrix, filed an action to annul the sheriff’s sale and to have the property declared part of Fausta’s estate. The lower court absolved the defendants.
ISSUE
Whether the ordinary action for the recovery of a conjugal debt filed against the surviving husband, and the subsequent execution sale of the conjugal property, are valid despite the pendency of testamentary proceedings for the deceased wife’s estate under Act No. 3176 .
RULING
No. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s judgment. Under Act No. 3176 (amending the Code of Civil Procedure), upon the death of a spouse, the conjugal property must be inventoried, administered, and liquidated in the testamentary or intestate proceedings of the deceased spouse. The legal power of management of the surviving husband ceases, and administration passes to the court-appointed administrator in the testamentary proceedings. Consequently, a claim for a conjugal debt must be filed in those testamentary proceedings (initially with the committee on claims) and not through an ordinary action against the surviving husband. Since the debt was chargeable against the conjugal property and the testamentary proceedings were pending, the action against Eulalio Calma was improper. Therefore, the judgment against him and the sheriff’s sale of the conjugal property in execution thereof were void. The property remains subject to the testamentary proceedings of Fausta Macasaquit.
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