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  • Gan v. Yap

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    The Court ruled that a lost or destroyed holographic will cannot be probated based solely on the testimony of witnesses who claim to have seen and read the will. The will itself is the only acceptable proof of its contents and validity. In this case, the petitioner sought to probate an alleged holographic will of the deceased, but could not produce the actual will document. The Court found the witness testimony to be inconsistent and improbable. It noted the risk of fraud is higher for holographic wills since one person could potentially fabricate a forged will and then arrange for witnesses to testify to its authenticity without the actual will being available to examine. Therefore, the loss of the original holog

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    The Court ruled that a lost or destroyed holographic will cannot be probated based solely on the testimony of witnesses who claim to have seen and read the will. The will itself is the only acceptable proof of its contents and validity. In this case, the petitioner sought to probate an alleged holographic will of the deceased, but could not produce the actual will document. The Court found the witness testimony to be inconsistent and improbable. It noted the risk of fraud is higher for holographic wills since one person could potentially fabricate a forged will and then arrange for witnesses to testify to its authenticity without the actual will being available to examine. Therefore, the loss of the original holog

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    793 views1 page

    Gan v. Yap

    Uploaded by

    Anj
    The Court ruled that a lost or destroyed holographic will cannot be probated based solely on the testimony of witnesses who claim to have seen and read the will. The will itself is the only acceptable proof of its contents and validity. In this case, the petitioner sought to probate an alleged holographic will of the deceased, but could not produce the actual will document. The Court found the witness testimony to be inconsistent and improbable. It noted the risk of fraud is higher for holographic wills since one person could potentially fabricate a forged will and then arrange for witnesses to testify to its authenticity without the actual will being available to examine. Therefore, the loss of the original holog

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    of 1

    Gan v.

    Yap
    G.R. No. L-12190 August 30, 1958

    Doctrine: The loss of the holographic will entails the loss of the only medium of proof.

    FACTS: On November 20, 1951, Felicidad Esguerra Alto Yap died of heart failure in the University of Santo Tomas Hospital,
    leaving properties in Pulilan, Bulacan, and in the City of Manila.

    On March 17, 1952, Fausto E. Gan (nephew of the deceased who was preparing during 1950 for the bar examination) initiated these
    proceedings in the Manila court of first instance with a petition for the probate of a holographic will allegedly executed by the
    deceased.

    Opposing the petition, her surviving husband Ildefonso Yap asserted that the deceased had not left any will, nor executed any
    testament during her lifetime.

    The will itself was not presented. Petitioner tried to establish its contents and due execution by the statements in open court of Felina
    Esguerra, Primitivo Reyes, Socorro Olarte and Rosario Gan Jimenez

    After hearing the parties and considering their evidence, the Hon. Ramon R. San Jose, Judge, refused to probate the alleged will. A
    seventy-page motion for reconsideration failed. Hence this appeal.

    ISSUE: Whether or not a holographic will be probated upon the testimony of witnesses who have allegedly seen it and who declare
    that it was in the handwriting of the testator?

    RULING: NO. The court ruled that the execution and the contents of a lost or destroyed holographic will may not be proved by the
    bare testimony of witnesses who have seen and/or read such will. The loss of the holographic will entails the loss of the only medium
    of proof. Even if oral testimony were admissible to establish and probate a lost holographic will, we think the evidence submitted by
    herein petitioner is so tainted with improbabilities and inconsistencies that it fails to measure up to that “clear and distinct” proof
    required by Rule 77, sec. 6. 11.

    The Court made a comparison between an ordinary will and holographic will. In the case of ordinary wills, it is quite hard to convince
    three witnesses (four with the notary) deliberately to lie. And then their lies could be checked and exposed, their whereabouts and acts
    on the particular day, the likelihood that they would be called by the testator, their intimacy with the testator, etc. And if they were
    intimates or trusted friends of the testator they are not likely to end themselves to any fraudulent scheme to distort his wishes. Last but
    not least, they can not receive anything on account of the will.

    Whereas in the case of holographic wills, if oral testimony were admissible only one man could engineer the fraud this way: after
    making a clever or passable imitation of the handwriting and signature of the deceased, he may contrive to let three honest and
    credible witnesses see and read the forgery; and the latter, having no interest, could easily fall for it, and in court they would in all
    good faith affirm its genuineness and authenticity. The will having been lost — the forger may have purposely destroyed it in an
    "accident" — the oppositors have no way to expose the trick and the error, because the document itself is not at hand. And considering
    that the holographic will may consist of two or three pages, and only one of them need be signed, the substitution of the unsigned
    pages, which may be the most important ones, may go undetected

    To conclude, the loss of the holographic will entails the loss of the only medium proof; if the ordinary will is lost, the subscribing
    witnesses are available to authenticate. Thus, the loss of the holographic will is fatal.

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