C2021
the statute requires that this sheet, already signed at
Abangan vs Abangan
G.R. No. L-13431
Ponente: J. AVANCEÑA
11/12/1919
Digester: Belenzo
FACTS
 September 19, 1917  Court of First Instance of Cebu admitted to
probate Ana Abangan's will executed July, 1916.
 Said document, duly probated as Ana Abangan's will, consists of two
sheets, the first of which contains all of the disposition of the testatrix,
duly signed at the bottom by Martin Montalban (in the name and
under the direction of the testatrix) and by three witnesses.
 The following sheet contains only the attestation clause duly signed
at the bottom by the three instrumental witnesses.
 Neither of these sheets is signed on the left margin by the testatrix
and the three witnesses, nor numbered by letters;
o These omissions, according to appellants' contention, are
defects whereby the probate of the will should have been
denied
ISSUE: W/N the will was duly admitted to probate? YES
RULING: For the foregoing considerations, the judgment appealed from is
hereby affirmed with costs against the appellants.
RATIO:
 SC  will was duly admitted to probate.
 Act No. 2645
o required that each and every sheet of the will should also be
signed on the left margin by the testator and three witnesses
in the presence of each other
 PURPOSE: Avoid the substitution of any of said
sheets, thereby changing the testator's dispositions.
 Took into consideration the case of a will written on
several sheets and must have referred to the sheets
which the testator and the witnesses do not have to
sign at the bottom.
 SC  But when these dispositions are wholly written
on only one sheet signed at the bottom by the
testator and three witnesses (as the instant case),
their signatures on the left margin of said sheet
would be completely purposeless.
 SC  A different interpretation would assume that
the bottom, be signed twice.
 SC  cannot attribute to the statute such an
intention.
 SC  if the signatures at the bottom of the sheet
guaranties its authenticity, another signature on its
left margin would be unneccessary;
 And if they do not guaranty, same signatures, affixed
on another part of same sheet, would add nothing.
o Required that each and every page of a will must be
numbered correlatively in letters placed on the upper part of
the sheet
 PURPOSE: to know whether any sheet of the will
has been removed.
 SC  But, when all the dispositive parts of a will are
written on one sheet only, the object of the statute
disappears because the removal of this single sheet,
although unnumbered, cannot be hidden.
 PRESENT CASE:
o SC  held that in the one accompanying the will in question,
the signatures of the testatrix and of the three witnesses on
the margin and the numbering of the pages of the sheet are
formalities not required by the statute.
o Moreover, referring specially to the signature of the testatrix,
we can add that same is not necessary in the attestation
clause because this, as its name implies, appertains only to
the witnesses and not to the testator since the latter does not
attest, but executes, the will.
 SC  In a will consisting of two sheets the first of which contains all
the testamentary dispositions and is signed at the bottom by the
testator and three witnesses and the second contains only the
attestation clause and is signed also at the bottom by the three
witnesses, it is not necessary that both sheets be further signed on
their margins by the testator and the witnesses, or be paged.
 The object of the solemnities surrounding the execution of wills is to
close the door against bad faith and fraud, to avoid substitution of
wills and testaments and to guaranty their truth and authenticity.
 Therefore the laws on this subject should be interpreted in such a
way as to attain these primordal ends.
 But, on the other hand, also one must not lose sight of the fact that it
is not the object of the law to restrain and curtail the exercise of the
right to make a will.
 So when an interpretation already given assures such ends, any
other interpretation whatsoever, that adds nothing but demands more
 requisites entirely unnecessary, useless and frustative of the
testator's last will, must be disregarded. lawphil.net
 RE: allegation that the records do not show that the testarix knew the
dialect in which the will is written.
o SC  Circumstance appearing in the will itself that same
was executed in the city of Cebu and in the dialect of this
locality where the testatrix was a neighbor is enough, in the
absence of any proof to the contrary, to presume that she
knew this dialect in which this will is written.