EUTIQUIA AVERA, petitioner-appellee, vs. MARINO GARCIA, and JUAN RODRIGUEZ, as guardian of the minors Cesar Garcia and Jose Garcia,objectors-appellants.

CASE NUMBER

G.R. No. 15566           September 14, 1921

CASE TITLE

EUTIQUIA AVERA, petitioner-appellee, 
vs.
MARINO GARCIA, and JUAN RODRIGUEZ, as guardian of the minors Cesar Garcia and Jose Garcia,objectors-appellants.

LAWYERS

Dionisio Villanueva for appellants. 
Marcelino Lontok for appellee.

PONENTE

STREET, J.:

FACTS OF THE CASE

In proceedings in the court below, instituted by

·        Eutiquia Avera instituted for probate of the will of one Esteban Garcia,

·        contest was made by Marino Garcia and Juan Rodriguez, the latter in the capacity of guardian for the minors Jose Garcia and Cesar Garcia.

·        Upon the date appointed for the hearing, the proponent of the will introduced one of the three attesting witnesses who testified — with details not necessary to be here specified — that the will was executed with all necessary external formalities, and that the testator was at the time in full possession of disposing faculties.

·        Upon the latter point the witness was corroborated by the person who wrote the will at the request of the testator. Two of the attesting witnesses were not introduced, nor was their absence accounted for by the proponent of the will.

When the proponent rested the attorney for the opposition introduced a single witness whose testimony tended to show in a vague and indecisive manner that at the time the will was made the testator was so debilitated as to be unable to comprehend what he was about.

After the cause had been submitted for determination upon the proof thus presented, the trial judge found that the testator at the time of the making of the will was of sound mind and disposing memory and that the will had been properly executed. He accordingly admitted the will to probate.

From this judgment an appeal was taken in behalf of the persons contesting the will, and the only errors here assigned have reference to the two following points, namely, first,

ISSUE

A.     whether a will can be admitted to probate, where opposition is made, upon the proof of a single attesting witness, without producing or accounting for the absence of the other two; and,

B.     secondly, whether the will in question is rendered invalid by reason of the fact that the signature of the testator and of the three attesting witnesses are written on the right margin of each page of the will instead of the left margin.

HELD

A.     YES, Upon the first point, while it is undoubtedly true that an uncontested will bay be proved by the testimony of only one of the three attesting witnesses, nevertheless in Cabang vs. Delfinado (34 Phil., 291), this court declared after an elaborate examination of the American and English authorities that when a contest is instituted, all of the attesting witnesses must be examined, if alive and within reach of the process of the court.

There are at least two reason why the appellate tribunals are disinclined to permit certain questions to be raised for the first time in the second instance. In the first place it eliminates the judicial criterion of the Court of First Instance upon the point there presented and makes the appellate court in effect a court of first instance with reference to that point, unless the case is remanded for a new trial. In the second place, it permits, if it does not encourage, attorneys to trifle with the administration of justice by concealing from the trial court and from their opponent the actual point upon which reliance is placed, while they are engaged in other discussions more simulated than real. These considerations are, we think, decisive.

B.     YES, The second point involved in this case is whether, under section 618 of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended by Act No. 2645, it is essential to the validity of a will in this jurisdiction that the names of the testator and the instrumental witnesses should be written on the left margin of each page, as required in said Act, and not upon the right margin, as in the will now before us; and upon this we are of the opinion that the will in question is valid. It is true that the statute says that the testator and the instrumental witnesses shall sign their names on the left margin of each and every page; and it is undeniable that the general doctrine is to the effect that all statutory requirements as to the execution of wills must be fully complied with. The same doctrine is also deducible from cases heretofore decided by this court.

Still some details at times creep into legislative enactments which are so trivial it would be absurd to suppose that the Legislature could have attached any decisive importance to them. The provision to the effect that the signatures of the testator and witnesses shall be written on the left margin of each page — rather than on the right margin — seems to be this character. So far as concerns the authentication of the will, and of every part thereof, it can make no possible difference whether the names appear on the left or no the right margin, provided they are on one or the other. In Caraig vs. Tatlonghari (R. G. No. 12558, decided March 23, 1918, not reported), this court declared a will void which was totally lacking in the signatures required to be written on its several pages; and in the case of Re estate of Saguinsin (41 Phil., 875), a will was likewise declared void which contained the necessary signatures on the margin of each leaf ( folio), but not in the margin of each page containing written matter.

The instrument now before us contains the necessary signatures on every page, and the only point of deviation from the requirement of the statute is that these signatures appear in the right margin instead of the left. By the mode of signing adopted every page and provision of the will is authenticated and guarded from possible alteration in exactly the same degree that it would have been protected by being signed in the left margin; and the resources of casuistry could be exhausted without discovering the slightest difference between the consequences of affixing the signatures in one margin or the other.

In the case before us, where ingenuity could not suggest any possible prejudice to any person, as attendant upon the actual deviation from the letter of the law, such deviation must be considered too trivial to invalidate the instrument.

It results that the legal errors assigned are not sustainable, and the judgment appealed from will be affirmed. It is so ordered, with costs against the appellants.