Luis Palad executed a will leaving several parcels of land to his wife Dorothea Lopez for her lifetime, after which the lands would be donated to establish a secondary school in Tayabas. After Dorothea remarried, Palad's collateral heirs claimed the lands. The court ruled that Palad intended to create a valid trust with the Municipality of Tayabas as trustee and the future secondary school as beneficiary. The lands remained with the municipality as trustee until the school is established. However, Dorothea had gained ownership of one lot through prescription by holding it adverse to all claims for so long.
Luis Palad executed a will leaving several parcels of land to his wife Dorothea Lopez for her lifetime, after which the lands would be donated to establish a secondary school in Tayabas. After Dorothea remarried, Palad's collateral heirs claimed the lands. The court ruled that Palad intended to create a valid trust with the Municipality of Tayabas as trustee and the future secondary school as beneficiary. The lands remained with the municipality as trustee until the school is established. However, Dorothea had gained ownership of one lot through prescription by holding it adverse to all claims for so long.
Luis Palad executed a will leaving several parcels of land to his wife Dorothea Lopez for her lifetime, after which the lands would be donated to establish a secondary school in Tayabas. After Dorothea remarried, Palad's collateral heirs claimed the lands. The court ruled that Palad intended to create a valid trust with the Municipality of Tayabas as trustee and the future secondary school as beneficiary. The lands remained with the municipality as trustee until the school is established. However, Dorothea had gained ownership of one lot through prescription by holding it adverse to all claims for so long.
Luis Palad executed a will leaving several parcels of land to his wife Dorothea Lopez for her lifetime, after which the lands would be donated to establish a secondary school in Tayabas. After Dorothea remarried, Palad's collateral heirs claimed the lands. The court ruled that Palad intended to create a valid trust with the Municipality of Tayabas as trustee and the future secondary school as beneficiary. The lands remained with the municipality as trustee until the school is established. However, Dorothea had gained ownership of one lot through prescription by holding it adverse to all claims for so long.
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TRUST
Case # 9 Government v. Abadilla, 46 Phil, 642
DOCTRINE: Article 1440 states that a person who establishes a trust is called the trustor; one in whom confidence is reposed as regards property for the benefit of another person is known as the trustee; and the person for whose benefit the trust has been created is referred to as the beneficiary.
In order that a trust may become effective there must, of course, be a trustee and a cestui que trust,
FACTS:
TRUSTOR – Luis Palad
TRUSTEE – Municipality of Tayabas BENEFICIARY – Secondary school to be established in the town of Tayabas
Several lots are claimed by the municipality of Tayabas and the governor of the province on one side, and Palad’s collateral heirs on the other and one lot is also claimed by Lopez. The CFI ordered the registration of the 3 lots in the name of the governor of the Province of Tayabas in trust for a secondary school to be established in the municipality of Tayabas, however, the claimants Palad and Lopez appealed. The lands in question were originally owned by one Luis Palad, a school teacher, who obtained titled to the land by composicion gratuita in 1894. On 1982, Palad executed a holographic will partly in Spanish and partly in Tagalog granting his wife, Dorothea Lopez, the right of exclusive use and possession of several parcels of lands in the Province of Tayabas during her lifetime or until she remarries and the lands shall be donated to the secondary school in Tayabas upon death or second marriage. Palad died and Dorothea married Calixto Dolendo which lead Palad’s collateral heirs to bring an action for the partition of the lands on the ground that Dorothea lost her right over the lands by reason of her second marriage. During the pendency of the action, the parties arrived at an agreement delivering the lands with Lots Nos. 3464 and 3469 to the Municipality of Tayabas as trustee while Lot No. 3470 was left in the possession of Dorothea.
Respondent’s Argument: They filed a claim over the lands contending that the trust instituted in the will was ineffective.
CA – dismissed the action upon motion and reserved the collateral heirs the right to bring another action.
ISSUE/S: Whether or not trust instituted in the will was effective.
RULING: YES. A liberal interpretation of the will revealed that the testator intended to create a trust for the benefit of the secondary school, naming the ayunamiento of the town or Civil Governor of the Province as trustee. It is a well-known rule that testamentary dispositions must be liberally construed so as to give effect to the intention of the testator as revealed by the will itself. In order that a trust may become effective there must, of course, be a trustee and a cestui que trust, and counsel for the appellants Palad argues that they have neither; that there is no ayuntamiento, no Gobernador Civil of the province, and no secondary school in the town of Tayabas.
As the law of trusts has been much more frequently applied in England and in the United Stated than it has in Spain, we may draw freely upon American precedents in determining the effect of the testamentary trust here under consideration, especially so as the trusts known to American and English equity jurisprudence are derived from the fidei commissa of the Roman law and are based entirely upon Civil Law principles.
If the trustee holds the legal title and the devise is valid, the natural heirs of the deceased have no remaining interest in the land except their right to the reversion in the event the devise for some reason should fail, an event which has not as yet taken place. The intention of the testator was to have the income of the property accumulate for the benefit of the proposed school until the same should be established.
The lands with Lots Nos. 3464 and 3469 shall remain in the possession of the Municipality of Tayabas as trustee until the secondary school is erected. However, the ownership of the lot No. 3470 has lawfully passed to Dorothea by prescription, having held possession of the land, adverse to all claimants.
C. Property Rights of A Partner 1. G.R. No. L-45662 April 26, 1939 ENRIQUE CLEMENTE, Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. DIONISIO GALVAN, Defendant-Appellee. JOSE ECHEVARRIA, Intervenor-Appellant
