G.R. No. L-2015; January 6, 1950
LUISA CRUZ VDA. DE JOSE ET AL., plaintiffs-appellants, vs. EUGENIA DE LA PAZ, defendant-appellee.

FACTS

Vivencio Cruz was first married to Magdalena Domingo, with whom he had children (the plaintiffs). After Magdalena’s death, he married Fidela Lira, with whom he had no children. Upon Vivencio’s death, his will bequeathed a parcel of land to Fidela Lira, on the condition that she renounce her legal usufruct over the portion of the estate inheritable by Vivencio’s children from the first marriage. Fidela complied, received the land, and later remarried. Upon her death, the defendant, as her successor-in-interest, possessed the land. The plaintiffs, children of the first marriage, sued to recover the land, contending it was the reservable property of their deceased mother, Magdalena, and that Fidela was obligated to reserve it for them upon her second marriage.

ISSUE

Whether the property is subject to a reserva troncal under Article 968 of the Civil Code, obliging Fidela Lira to reserve it for the plaintiffs upon her second marriage.

RULING

No. The Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of the complaint. First, the property was conclusively established as conjugal property of Vivencio Cruz and his first wife, Magdalena, not her exclusive paraphernal property. Second, and decisively, Article 968 of the Civil Code on reservable property applies only to a surviving spouse *who has children by the marriage with the deceased spouse*. Since Fidela Lira had no children with Vivencio Cruz, the legal obligation to reserve the property she acquired from him by will did not arise. The condition in the will was a valid contractual exchange, not a creation of a reservable right.

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