MAURICIO SAYSON V.

COURT OF APPEALS AND DELIA SAYSON, 205 SCRA 321

(1992)

FACTS:
Spouses Eleno and Rafaela Sayson had 5 children: Maurico, Rosario, Basilisa,
Remedios and Teodoro. Teodoro (died 1972) married Isabel Bautista (died 1981). Their
properties were left in the possession of Delia, Edmundo and Doribel, all surnamed
Sayson, who claim to be their children
1. Petitioners who are the surviving siblings of Teodoro, and Juana (Isabel‘s mother)
filed a complaint for partition and accounting of the intestate estate of Teodoro and
Isabel.
2. This was resisted by Delia, Edmundo and Doribel, who alleged successional rights to
the disputed estate as the decedent‘s lawful descendants.
3. Delia, Edmundo and Doribel filed their own complaint for accounting and partition of
the intestate estate of Eleno and Rafaela Sayson, against the couple‘s surviving
children. They alleged that Edmundo and Delia were adopted by Teodoro and Doribel
was a legitimate daughter of Teodoro and Isabel. As such, they were entitled to inherit
Teodoro‘s share in his parents‘ estate by right of representation
4. The trial court held that as legitimate descendants of Teodoro and Isabel—Delia and
Edmundo were legally adopted in 1967 and Doribel was a legitimate daughter—they
were entitled to inherit from Eleno and Rafaela by right of representation
5. On appeal, CA disqualified Edmundo and Delia from inheriting from spouses Eleno
and Rafaela but affirmed that Doribel was entitled to inherit from spouses Eleno by right
of representation
6. Petitioners averred that Delia and Edmundo were not legally adopted because
Doribel had already been born on February 27, 1967 when the adoption decree was
issued on march 9, 1967. The birth of Doribel disqualified her parents from adopting
pursuant to Art 335(1) NCC prohibits to adopt those who have legitimate, legitimated,
acknowledged natural children, or natural children by legal fiction
7. Petitioners also contend that Doribel should be disqualified from inheriting since
Doribel herself is not the daughter of Teodoro and Isabel but was in fact born to Editha
Abila, who manifested in a petition for guardianship of the child that she was her natural
daughter
ISSUE: Who is/are entitled to inherit from the estate of spouses Eleno and spouses
Teodoro.
HELD: On the intestate estate of spouses Teodoro: Doribel (as legitimate child), and
Delia and Edmundo (as adopted children). On the estate of spouses Eleno: Doribel (by
right of representation). Petitioners‘ contention is inconsistent. They seek to annul the
adoption of Delia and Edmundo on the ground that Teodoro and Isabel already had a
legitimate daughter at the time but in the same breath, try to demolish this argument by
denying that Doribel was born to the couple. Moreover, it is too late now to challenge
the adoption decree after it had become final and executory. Assuming they were the
proper parties, petitioners should have seasonably appealed the decree of adoption,
which they did not. Doribel‘s legitimacy cannot be question in a complaint for partition
and accounting but in a direct action seasonably filed by the proper party. Therefore,
Doribel, as the legitimate daughter of Teodoro and Isabel, and Delia and Edmundo, as
their adopted children, are the exclusive heirs to the intestate estate of the deceased
couple, pursuant to Art 979. The philosophy behind this article is that a person‘s loves
descends first to his children and grandchildren before it ascends to his parents and
thereafter spreads among his collateral relatives. It is also supposed that one of his
purposes in acquiring properties is to leave them eventually to his children as a token of
his love and as a provision for their continued care even after his death. On the right of
representation, the following provisions of the Civil Code apply: Art. 970. Representation
is a right created by fiction of law, by virtue of which the representative is raised to the
place and the degree of the person represented, and acquires the rights which the latter
would have if he were living or if he could have inherited. Art. 971. The representative is
called to the succession by the law and not by the person represented. The
representative does not succeed the person represented but the one whom the person
represented would have succeeded. Art. 981. Should children of the deceased and
descendants of other children who are dead, survive, the former shall inherit in their
own right, and the latter by right of representation. There is no question that as the
legitimate daughter of Teodoro and thus the granddaughter of Eleno and Rafaela,
Doribel has the right to represent her deceased father in the distribution of the intestate
estate of her grandparents. Under Art 981, she is entitled to the share her father would
have directly inherited had he survived, which shall be equal to the shares of her
grandparents’ children. But it is not so in the case of Delia and Edmundo. While it is true
that the adopted child shall be deemed to be a legitimate child and have the same rights
as the latter, these rights do not include the right of representation. The relationship
created by adoption is between only the adopting parents and the adopted child, and
does not extend to the blood relatives of either party.