AGUEDA BENEDICTO DE LA RAMA vs.

ESTEBAN DE LA RAMA,
7 PHIL 745 (1907)

FACTS:
Esteban dela Rama claims that upon the dissolution of the conjugal property, he is
entitled to 81,387.76 based on the income of profits earned by the partnership
prior to the dissolution.

ISSUE/S:
Whether income or profits earned by the partnership is used in determining the
total conjugal assets for purposes of dissolution of the conjugal partnership.

HELD:
NO. The civil code provides that upon dissolution of the conjugal partnership an
inventory on all conjugal properties shall at once be made. After deductions
(dowries, debts, etc.) then the remainder is to be divided equally between the
spouses.
The conjugal property which is to be eventually divided is determined not with
reference to the income or profits which may have been received during the
partnership but rather by the amount of the actual property possessed by them at
such dissolution after making the deduction and payments aforesaid.
In liquidating a conjugal partnership, an inventory of the actual property possessed
by the spouses at the time of the dissolution must be made. It is error to determine
the amount to be divided by adding up the profits which had been made in each
year of its continuance and saying that the result is that amount.

Is inventory and liquidation always necessary?

A
NO. When the interested parties have already reached a compromise,
whereby for valuable consideration, the widow renounced in favor of the children all
her interest and rights in the estate of the deceased as well as her participation in
the conjugal partnership, it is no longer necessary to prepare an inventory of the
conjugal properties and make a liquidation. (VDA. DE VILLACORTE vs. MARIANO)