Spec Pro Class 2020

FACTS:
Julio Magbanua died intestate on August 24, 1917 at Potohan Iloilo.

 

No intestate proceeding had been instituted. On April 1, 1935 a petitionn was filed in the CFI Iloilo by the alleged daughter of the deceased.

The defendant Atty. Akol was the appointed administrator.

Dormal was the appointed co-administrator

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The appointed commissioners on claims and appraisal are Telesforo Gedang and Pedro Flores.

On November 11, 1935, Mariano Magbanua and his wife, Priscila Magbanua, filed with the committee a claim against the deceased Julio Magbanua in the total amount of P2,251.86. After hearing, the committee disallowed this claim, on the ground that, in accordance with section 43 of the Code of Civil Procedure, it had prescribed

By way of appeal the Magbanua spouse filed the corresponding complaint against Manuel Akol and Zacarias B. Doromal, as administrator of the estate of Julio Magbanua, seeking judgment for the sum of P2,251.86.

The Court of First Instance of Iloilo issued an order affirming the resolution of the committee on claims disallowing the claim of the spouses Mariano Magbanua and Priscila Magbanua, on the ground of laches.

Mariano Magbanua and Priscila Magbanua, appealed and now contend that the trial court erred in declaring that their claim has prescribed and in not sentencing the judicial administrators of the estate of Julio Magbanua to pay the sum of P2,251.86

ISSUE:
Whether or not the right of the spouses to claim from the estate has prescribed?

HELD:
YES.
 

In the instant case there can be no dispute that the appellants were aware of the death of Julie Magbanua, because the latter was a brother of the appellant Priscila Magbanua who alleges to have taken care of him during his last days and to have paid his funeral expenses, the latter being one item of her claim. We cannot too often repeat that the speedy settlement of the estate of deceased persons for the benefit of creditors and those entitled to the residue by way of inheritance or legacy after the debts and expenses of administration have been paid, is the ruling spirit of our probate law.
 

The spouses filed their claims after more than 18 years after the debt of their debtor and before the institution of the latter’s intestate proceeding.