Arts.

845 - 854

Article 845. Every disposition in favor

of an unknown person shall be void,
unless by some event or circumstance
his identity becomes certain. However,
a disposition in favor of a definite class
or group of persons shall be valid.
(750a)

Unknown Person
one who cannot be identified from
the will; not one who is a stranger to
the testator
Examples of dispositions in favor of an
unknown person:
-X instituted my friend. If A has many
friends, the disposition is void, for lack of
certainty.
-X instituted my 3rd year student who will

Class Institution
This is valid provided all are
capacitated: those incapacitated will
naturally not inherit.
Example:
-All the CJC third year law students
for the school year 2015-2016."

Article 846. Heirs instituted without

designation of shares shall inherit in
equal parts. (765)

Institution Without
Designation of Shares
Example:
X instituted A and B as his heirs. X
has no compulsory heirs. How much
will A and B inherit?
They will inherit equally, that is, 50-50.
*The law merely expresses what it
presumes to have been the testators
intention, for had he desired otherwise,

Exception to Rule
The rule in Art. 846 cannot be
applied absolutely in case one of
those instituted is a compulsory heir,
inasmuch as institution in general
refers merely to the free portion (free
disposal). Hence, the legitime must
first be removed and what remains
will be divided equally.

Article 847. When the testator

institutes some heirs individually and
others collectively as when he says, "I
designate as my heirs A and B, and the
children of C," those collectively
designated shall be considered as
individually instituted, unless it clearly
appears that the intention of the
testator was otherwise. (769a)

Combination of Individual
and Collective Institution
Examples:
- I institute as my heirs A, B, and the threechildren of
C to my estate of P100,000. How much will each of the
three children get?
ANS.: P20,000 each. Although collectively designated,
they shall be considered individually instituted (estate to
be divided into 5), unless it clearly appears that the
testators intention was otherwise.
-If the testator had stated I institute A, B, and my
three children, to an estate of P300,000, how much
would each child get?
ANS.: We apply here the rule of first giving the children

Article 848. If the testator should

institute his brothers and sisters, and
he has some of full blood and others of
half blood, the inheritance shall be
distributed equally unless a different
intention appears. (770a)

Institution of Brothers and

Sisters
Old Code In TESTAMENTARY succession,
the brother of the full blood gets
DOUBLE the share of brother of the half
blood. (The affection for him is presumed
to be double the affection for the latter.)
New Civil Code In TESTAMENTARY
succession, the shares are the SAME,
unless a different intention appears. (If
indeed the affection is double, the testator
should have given expressly a double
share to the full-blood brother.)

Article 849. When the testator calls to

the succession a person and his
children they are all deemed to have
been instituted simultaneously and not
successively. (771)

Institution of a Person and

His Children
His children refers not to the
children of the testator, but to the
children of the person instituted also
as an heir.
Example: X instituted A and As three
children to an estate of P20,000.
Each of the three heirs gets P5,000
all at the sametime

Article 850. The statement of a false

cause for the institution of an heir shall
be considered as not written, unless it
appears from the will that the testator
would not have made such institution
if he had known the falsity of such
cause. (767a)

Example of institution with

false cause
I hereby institute my niece X as my
heir for having topped the bar
examinations of 2017. If X was not the
topnotcher, would she still inherit
ANS.: Yes, because the false cause or
reason is considered as not written.

* What is disregarded is the false cause, not the

institution. The real cause is the testators
liberality, the mention of the bar topping being
merely incidental, for even had X topped the

Article 851. If the testator has

instituted only one heir, and the
institution is limited to an aliquot part
of the inheritance, legal succession
takes place with respect to the
remainder of the estate.
The same rule applies if the testator
has instituted several heirs, each being
limited to an aliquot part, and all the
parts do not cover the whole

Article 852. If it was the intention of

the testator that the instituted heirs
should become sole heirs to the whole
estate, or the whole free portion, as
the case may be, and each of them
has been instituted to an aliquot part
of the inheritance and their aliquot
parts together do not cover the whole
inheritance, or the whole free portion,
each part shall be increased

Article 853. If each of the instituted

heirs has been given an aliquot part of
the inheritance, and the parts together
exceed the whole inheritance, or the
whole free portion, as the case may
be, each part shall be reduced
proportionally. (n)

Article 854. The preterition or

omission of one, some, or all of the
compulsory heirs in the direct line,
whether living at the time of the
execution of the will or born after the
death of the testator, shall annul the
institution of heir; but the devises and
legacies shall be valid insofar as they
are not inofficious.
If the omitted compulsory heirs should
die before the testator, the institution