Case Digest: GONZALES v. LEGARDA

Gonzales vs. Legarda
G.R. No. L-34395, May 19, 1981

FACTS:

Benito Legarda y De la Paz, the son of Benito Legarda y Tuason, died in Manila on June 17, 1933. He was survived by his widow Filomena and their seven children: four daughters and three sons.

The real properties left by Benito Legarda y Tuason were partitioned in three equal portions by his daughters, Consuelo and Rita, and the heirs of his deceased son Benito Legarda y De la Paz who were represented by Benito F. Legarda. Filomena Legarda died intestate and without issue on March 19, 1943. Her sole heiress was her mother, Filomena Roces Vda. de Legarda. Mrs. Legarda executed on May 12, 1947 an affidavit adjudicating to herself the properties, which she inherited from her deceased daughter, Filomena Legarda, which were the properties in litigation in this case. As a result of the affidavit of adjudication, Filomena Roces Legarda succeeded her deceased daughter as co-owner of the properties held pro indiviso by her other six children.

Mrs. Legarda executed two handwritten identical documents wherein she disposed of the properties, which she inherited from her daughter in favor of her son’s children, a total of 16 grandchildren all in all. Mrs. Legarda and her six surviving children partitioned all the properties consisting of the 1/3 share in the estate of Benito Legarda y Tuason, which the children inherited, in representation of their father, Benito Legarda y De la Paz.

Mrs. Legarda died and her will was admitted to probate as a holographic will. In the testate proceeding, Beatriz Legarda, a daughter of the testatrix filed a motion to exclude from the inventory of her mother’s estate the properties, which she inherited from her deceased daughter on the ground that said properties are reservable properties, which should be inherited by FilomenaLegarda.

Without awaiting the resolution on the motion, Beatriz filed an ordinary civil action against her brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces and her mother’s estate for the purpose of serving a declaration that said properties are reservable properties which Mrs. Legarda could not bequeath in her will to her grandchildren to the exclusion of her sons and daughters.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the subject properties are subject to ReservaTroncal

RULING:

In reservatroncal:

1. A descendant inherited or acquired by gratuitous title property from an ascendant or from a brother or sister;
2. The same property is inherited by another ascendant or is acquired by him by operation of law from said descendant, and
3. The said ascendant should reserve the said property for the benefit of relatives who are within the third degree from the deceased descendants (prepositus) and who belong to the line from which the said properties came.

So three transmissions are involved:

1. A first transmission by lucrative title (inheritance or donation) from an ascendant or brother or sister to the deceased descendant;
2. A posterior transmission, by operation of law (intestate succession or legitime) from the deceased descendant (causante de la reserva) in favor of another ascendant, the reservor or reservista, which two transmissions precede the reservation; and,
3. A third transmissions of the property (in consequence of the reservation) from the reservor to the reserves (reservatarios) or the relatives within the third degree from the deceased descendant belonging to the line of the first ascendant, brother or sister of the deceased descendant.

THUS, if there is only two transmission there is no reserva.

The persons involved in reservatroncal are:

1. The ascendant or brother or sister from whom the property was received by the descendant by lucrative or gratuitous title;
2. The descendant or prepositus who received the property;
3. The reservor (reservista), the other ascendant who obtained the property from the prepositus by operation of law; and,
4. The reservee who is within the third degree from the prepositus and who belongs to the line (linea or tronco) from which the property came and for whom the property should be reserved by the reservor.

The person from whom the degree should be reckoned is the descendant, or the one at the end of the line from which the property came and upon whom the property last revolved by descent. He is called the propositus.

The reserva creates two resolutory conditions, namely:

1. The death of the ascendant obliged to reserve; and,
2. The survival, at the time of his death, of relatives within the third degree belonging to the line from which the property came.

The reservor has the legal title and dominion to the reservable property but subject to the resolutory condition that such title is extinguished if the reservor predeceased the reservee. The reservor is a usufructuary of the reservable property. He may alienate it subject to the reservation. The transferee gets the revocable and conditional ownership of the reservor. The transferee’s rights are revoked upon the survival of the reservees at the time of the death of the reservor but become indefeasible when the reservees predecease the reservor.

The reservor’s alienation of the reservable property is subject to a resolutory condition, meaning that if at the time of the reservor’s death, there are reservees, the transferee of the property should deliver it to the reservees. If there are no reservees at the time of the reservor’s death, the transferee’s title would become absolute. On the other hand, the reservee has only an inchoate, expectant or contingent right. His expectant right would disappear if he predeceased the reservor. It would become absolute should the reservor predecease the reservee.

Even during the reservista’s lifetime, the reservatarios, who are the ultimate acquirers of the property, can already assert the right to prevent the reservista from doing anything that might frustrate their reversionary right, and, for this purpose, they can compel the annotation of their right in the registry of property even while the reservista is alive.

The reservable property is not part of the estate of the reservista who may not dispose of them by will, so long as there are reservatarios existing. The reservatarios, therefore, do not inherit from the reservista but frm the descendant prepositus, of whom the reservatarios are the heirs mortis causa, subject to the condition that they must survive the reservista.

Hence, upon the reservista’s death, thereservatario nearest to the propositus becomes automatically and by operation of law, the owner of the reservable property. The reservee CANNOT impugn any conveyance made by the reservor BUT he can require that the reservable character of the property be recognized by the purchaser. In this case, the properties in question were indubitably reservable property in the hands of Mrs. Legarda. Undoubtedly, she was a reservor. The reservaton became a certainty when at the time of her death the reservees or relatives within the third degree of the prepositus Filomena Legarda were living or they survived Mrs. Legarda.