Spec Pro Class 2020

FACTS:

This is an appeal taken by the Government of the Philippine Islands from the judgment of the Court of First Instance of Manila dismissing its complaint and absolving the defendants, without costs.     

  

Florentino Pamintuan, represented by J. V. Ramirez or his attorney-in-fact charged with the administration of his property, filed income-tax return for the year 1919, paying the amount of P 672.99 on the basis of said return, and the additional sum of P151.01 as a result of a subsequent assessment received from the Collector of Internal Revenue.   

  

Florention Pamintuan died  on April 24, 1925, leaving the defendants herein as his heirs. An intestate proceedings were instituted in the Court of First Instance of Manila in civil case No. 27948. The defendants inherited from the deceased Florentino Pamintuan in the following proportions: Tomasa Pamintuan inherited 0.0571 per cent of the decedent's estate and the other defendants 0.0784 per cent each according to the partition approved by the court.

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During the pendency of the intestate proceedings, the administrator filed income tax returns for the estate of the deceased corresponding to the years 1925 and 1926.

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Subsequent to the distribution of the decedent’s to the defendants, the plaintiff discovered that the deceased has not paid the additional income tax and surcharge for the calendar year 1919.

 

 

ISSUE:

Whether or not the defendants are liable to the debts of Florentino Pamintuan.

 

HELD:

          The administration proceedings of the late Florentino Pamintuan having been closed and his estate distributed among his heirs, the defendants herein, the latter are responsible for the payment of the income tax despite here in question in proportion to the share of each in said estate.

 

          Heirs are not required to respond with their own property for the debts of their deceased ancestors. But even after the partition of an estate, the heirs and distributees are liable individually for the payment of all lawful outstanding claims against the estate in proportion to the amount or value of the property they have respectively received from the estate. The hereditary property consists only of that part which remains after the settlement of all lawful claims against the estate, for the settlement of which the entire estate is first liable. The heirs cannot, by any act of their own or by agreement among themselves, reduce the creditors security for the payment of their claims.