[ G. R. No. L-5826. April 29, 1953 ] 92 Phil. 1032
[ G. R. No. L-5826. April 29, 1953 ]
TESTATE ESTATE OF THE LATE VICENTE CAGRO. JESUSA CAGRO, PETITIONER AND APPELLEE, VS. PELAGIO CAGRO, ET AL., OPPOSITIORS AND APPELLANTS. D E C I S I O N
PARAS, C.J.:
This is an appeal interposed by the oppositiors from a decision of the Court of First Instance of Samar, admitting to probate the will allegedly executed by Vicente Cagro who died in Laoangan, Pambujan, Samar, on February 14, 1949. The main objection insisted upon by the appellants is that the will is fatally defective, because its attestation clause is not signed by the attesting witnesses. There is no question that the signatures of the three witnesses to the will do not appear at the bottom of the attestation clause, although the page containing the same is signed by the witnesses on the left-hand margin. We are of the opinion that the position taken by the appellant is correct. The attestation clause is “a memorandum of the facts attending the execution of the will” required by law to be made by the attesting witnesses, and it must necessarily bear their signatures. An unsigned attestation clause cannot be considered as an act of the witnesses, since the omission of their signatures at the bottom thereof negatives their participation. The petitioner and appellee contends that signatures of the three witnesses on the left-hand margin conform substantially to the law and may be deemed as their signatures to the attestation clause. This is untenable, because said signatures are in compliance with the legal mandate that the will be signed on the left-hand margin of all its pages. If an attestation clause not signed by the three witnesses at the bottom thereof, be admitted as sufficient, it would be easy to add such clause to a will on a subsequent occasion and in the absence of the testator and any or all of the witnesses. Wherefore, the appealed decision is reversed and the probate of the will in question denied. So ordered with costs against the petitioner and appellee. Pablo, Bengzon, Montemayor, Jugo and Labrado, JJ., concur.