Republic of the Philippines

SUPREME COURT
Manila

EN BANC

G.R. No. L-23445 June 23, 1966

REMEDIOS NUGUID, petitioner and appellant,

vs.
FELIX NUGUID and PAZ SALONGA NUGUID, oppositors and appellees.

Custodio O. Partade for petitioner and appellant.

Beltran, Beltran and Beltran for oppositors and appellees.

Facts: Rosario died without descendants, legitimate or illegitimate. Surviving her were her legitimate parents
Felix and Paz, and 6 brothers and sisters.

Remedios, one of the sister filed in court a holographic will allegedly executed by Rosario instituting the
former as the sole, universal heir of all her properties. She prayed that said will be admitted to probate and
that letter of administration be issued to her.

Felix and Paz opposed to the probate of the will on the ground that by the institution of Remedios as universal
heir of the deceased, oppositors who are compulsory heirs in the direct ascending line were illegally
preterited and that in consequence, the institution is void.

Article 854 provides that preterition 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.

Petitioners contention is that the present is a case of ineffective disinheritance rather than one of preterition
drawing the conclusion that Article 854 does not apply in the case at bar.

Issue: WON the institution of one of the sister of the deceased as the sole, universal heir preterited the
compulsory heirs.

Held: Yes. Where the deceased left no descendants, legitimate or illegitimate, but she left forced heirs in the
direct ascending line her parents, and her holographic will does not explicitly disinherit them but simply
omits their names altogether, the case is one of preterition of the parents, not a case of ineffective
disinheritance.

Preterition consists in the omission in the testators will of the forced heirs or anyone of them, either because
they are not mentioned therein, or, through mentioned, they are neither instituted as heirs nor are expressly
disinherited. Disinheritance, in turn, is a testamentary disposition depriving any compulsory heir of his
share in the legitime for a cause authorized by law.

Where the one sentence will institutes the petitioner as the sole, universal heir and preterits the parents of
the testatrix, and it contains no specific legacies or bequests, such universal institution of petitioner, by itself,
is void. And intestate succession ensues.

1 Nuguid vs. Nuguid

Succession