1. (Abangan v. Abangan, G.R. No.

L-13431, November 12,1919)

In re will of Ana Abangan.

GERTRUDIS ABANGAN, executrix-appellee,
vs.
ANASTACIA ABANGAN, ET AL., opponents-appellants.
FACTS:

In 1917, the Court of First Instance of Cebu admitted to probate Ana Abangan's will
executed in July 1916. From this decision the opponent's appealed.

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; and these omissions, according to appellants'
contention, are defects whereby the probate of the will should have been denied. As another
ground for the appeal, it is alleged the records do not show that the testarix knew the dialect in
which the will is written.

ISSUE:
Whether or not the will was duly admitted to probate.

RULING:
Yes.

The Court held that 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.

In requiring that each and every page of a will must be numbered correlatively in letters
placed on the upper part of the sheet, it is likewise clear that the object of Act No. 2645 is to
know whether any sheet of the will has been removed. 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. What has been said is also applicable to
the attestation clause.

The 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.
 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 primordial 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 frustrative of the
testator's last will, must be disregarded.