TOMAS CORPUS, plaintiff-appellant, vs. ADMINISTRATOR and/or EXECUTOR of the Estate of Teodoro R. Yangco, defendants-appellee.
G.R. No. L-22469 October 23, 1978
FACTS:
Teodoro R. Yangco died in Manila on April 20, 1939. Yangco had no forced heirs. At the time of his death, his nearest relatives were: (1) his half brother, Luis R. Yangco, (2) his half sister, Paz Yangco, the wife of Miguel Ossorio, (3) Amelia Corpus, Jose A. V. Corpus and Ramon L. Corpus, the children of his half brother, Pablo Corpus and (4) Juana (Juanita) Corpus, the daughter of his half brother Jose Corpus. Juanita died in October, 1944. Teodoro R. Yangco was the son of Luis Rafael Yangco and Ramona Arguelles, the widow of Tomas Corpus. Before her union with Luis Rafael Yangco, Ramona had begotten five (5) children with Tomas Corpus, two (2) of whom were the aforementioned Pablo Corpus and Jose Corpus. On October 5, 1951, Tomas Corpus, as the sole heir of Juanita Corpus, filed an action in the Court of First Instance of Manila to recover the supposed share in Yangco’ intestate estate. He alleged in his complaint that the dispositions in Yangco’s will imposing perpetual prohibitions upon alienation rendered it void and that the 1949 partition is invalid and, therefore, the decedent’s estate should be distributed according to the rules on intestacy.
ISSUE:
Whether or not Tomas Corpus has a cause of action for recovery of the supposed hereditary share of his mother, Juanita Corpus, as legal heir in Yangco’s estate.
RULING:
It is disputably presumed that a man and a woman deporting themselves as husband and wife have entered into a lawful contract of marriage and that a child born in a lawful wedlock, there being no divorce, absolute or from bed and board, is legitimate. Since Teodoro R. Yangco was an acknowledged natural child or was illegitimate and since Juanita Corpus was the legitimate child of Jose Corpus, himself a legitimate child, the Supreme Court held that appellant Tomas Corpus has no cause of action for the recovery of the supposed hereditary share of his mother, Juanita Corpus, as a legal heir, in Yangco’s estate.
