Sunday, October 26, 2014

Enjoying the sem break

No posting this weekend.

Am enjoying the sem break which means reading other books that have been set aside. I am not half way yet with Pinker's The Better Angels of our Nature. I am only into a few pages of Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. That's why I want to live to a hundred in order to finish the books on my list. But law books will be my main fare for the next two years or so.

Jason Capocao, our Regional Accountant, has given me two books. One I've read already in its e-book version, Gladwell's Outliers. The other one is Justice by Sandel whose online course at edX I finished last year. Jason has given away his Chicken Soup books too. They are too soupy for my taste.

Jason will be moving soon to our Ozamis Branch to become its Administrative Officer. This guy's going some places in the organization.

There are plenty of leftover typos from my first and second reading of my first semester books. I'll deal with them and new ones in the next semester.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

No posting

No posting this weekend due to the upcoming finals.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Collation equals math confusion

From the Civil Code of the Philippines, Annotated, Vol. III, 2013 Edition by Paras:

Page 603; P100K plus P900K equals P100K divided by 2 equals P500K minus P100K equals P40K -


Page 620 -

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Saturday typos, 11 Oct 2014

We've just finished Wills and Succession with our highly esteemed Professor, Teodoro Almase. It was a profitable semester learning from a master of the craft.

Here's a finishing roundup (until next reading) of typos from the Civil Code of the Philippines, Annotated, Vol. III, 2013 Edition by Paras.

Page 291; there are 2 sentence fragments here-

Page 539 -

Page 663 -

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Preterition from what?

Article 854 of the New Civil Code of the Philippines states:
     The preterition or omission of one, some, or all of the compulsory heirs in the direct line, whether living at the time of the execution of the will or born after the death of the testator, shall annul the institution of heir; but the devises and legacies shall be valid insofar as they are not inofficious.
      If the omitted compulsory heirs should die before the testator, the institution shall be effectual, without prejudice to the right of representation.
What would consist an omission? Textbook authors citing jurisprudence, and the usual suspects like Manresa and Castan, narrow the answer down to:

  1. The heir is not mentioned or instituted in the will.
  2. If mentioned, the heir is not given any share.

The authors are conflicted whether donation inter vivos should prevent preterition. There seems to be no jurisprudence as yet.

Ruben Balane has a thorough exposition on preterition in the Philippine Law Journal entitled Preterition - Provenance, Problems, and Proposals which can be accessed here.

Prof. Balane summarized his thoughts in his book Jottings and Jurisprudence in Civil Law (Succession), 2010 Edition on page 274:


In short, as long as there is enough left over for the legitime of the unmentioned heir then there is no preterition. I lean towards Prof. Balane on this matter.

Even Paras thinks so too in the Civil Code of the Philippines Annotated, Vol. 3, 2013 Edition, page 224:


But Balane seems to buttress his contention with a Court decision that is not very direct on the matter. In the question on preterition in Seangio v. Reyes, GR 140371-72, Nov. 27, 2006 the Supreme Court says:
With regard to the issue on preterition, the Court believes that the compulsory heirs in the direct line were not preterited in the will. It was, in the Court’s opinion, Segundo’s last expression to bequeath his estate to all his compulsory heirs, with the sole exception of Alfredo. Also, Segundo did not institute an heir to the exclusion of his other compulsory heirs. The mere mention of the name of one of the petitioners, Virginia, in the document did not operate to institute her as the universal heir. Her name was included plainly as a witness to the altercation between Segundo and his son, Alfredo.
 I think we will still await a decision that will answer the question frontally.

Ok, here's a few typos which cannot wait for next Saturday. From the article of Balane mentioned above:


Saturday, October 4, 2014

Saturday typos, 4 October 2014

OK, PLDT's back on line. I hope I'll get a rebate for the four days I did not have internet connection.

So, back to posting. From Jottings and Jurisprudence in Civil Law (Succession) by Ruben Balane:

Page 68 -

Page 88 -

Page 549 -