Art. 774.

SUCCESSION is a mode of acquisition by virtue of which the property, rights and

obligations to the extent of the value of the inheritance, of a person are transmitted through
his death to another or others either by his will or by operation of law.
MuclusScaevola
SUCCESSION may be defined as a mode of acquisition by virtue of which the inheritance of a
person is transmitted to another or others either according to his express will or in case he has
no will, according to his presumed will as provided by law.
Manresa
SUCCESSION a legal mode by virtue of which the property, rights and obligations which in life
belong to a person are acquired by his heirs.
SUCCESSION comes from two Latin words “sub” and “cedere” signifying to enter under, i.e., to
place one’s self in the place of another.
A. General meaning – the substitution of one person in the transmissible rights of another.
Two elements:
1. the change of the subject
2. the identity of the legal relation which remains the same before and after said
transmission, i.e.,an objective identity of right with a subjective change.

B. Technical meaning -succession mortis causa

- Subrogation of the person by another in the property and
transmissible rights left on his death.
- Although succession in general covers all transfer of rights
including those effectedinter vivosas a consequence of a
juridical act, in its technical meaning, it is limited to that which
takes place on the death of the person.
Atun, et al. v. Nunez, et al 97 Phil 762
Facts:
The question at issue in this case is whether acquisitive prescription will run against the
hereditary successors of a registered owner of land.
Ruling:
The land in question is admittedly covered by a Torrens title in the name of EstefaniaAtun,
deceased aunt of plaintiffs.
Section 46 of Act 496 expressly provides that no title to registered land in derogation
(exemption from; or relaxation of a rule or law) to that of the registered owner to recover
possession of the registered property is equally imprescriptible, since possession is
consequence of ownership.
And if prescription is unavailing (ineffective) against the registered owner, it must equally
unavailing against the latter’s hereditary successors, because they merely step into the shoes of
the decedent by operation of law, the title or right undergoing no change by its transmission
mortis causa.
BASIS OF SUCCESSION
TWO GENERAL THEORIES:
I. NEGATIVE THEORIES – refer to those which deny to succession any rational basis
and which have been formulated by the individualistic and socialistic schools.
- in their opinion there can be no testamentary succession
because these rights are merely the creation of the will of a
person who has no longer any will since he is already dead.

- There can be no intestate succession because the community

property in the family can only be conceived of as long as the
latter exists.
According to this view the properties of the deceased are converted into (rex nullius;
“nobody’s thing”; “can be owned”; “not yet the object of rights of any specific subject”)
Which, to the judgment of some, fall under the ownership of the first occupant who
generally is the relative nearest in degree and to the judgment of others, belong to the
State.

II. POSITIVE THEORIES

a. Those which base succession on the right of property – according to this
view, succession is based on individual ownership and the power of the
owner to dispose the same.
- If an owner can freely dispose of his properties with such
condition as he may deem convenient, then it follows that he
can distribute the same after his death since the will is nothing
more than the instrument of alienation subject to the
condition of his death.
b. Those which base succession on the right of the family – the basis of
succession is a sort of family co-ownership, with the result that legal
succession is the normal procedure and testamentary succession, the
exception or one of limitation.
 c. The eclectic Theories – the basis of testamentary succession is the right of
ownership but the basis of legal or intestate succession is the ties of blood
and the right of family co-ownership.
According to Castan, the problem of the foundation of succession cannot be separated from the
problem of ownership. And this is because hereditary succession is no other than the manner of
continuing and perpetuating individual ownership.
This is why it has been stated that succession is with regard to patrimony, what generation is to
individuals. Just as generation is a remedy for the limitation of human life through the
uninterrupted chain of generations, hereditary succession is the remedy for that same
limitation of human life, representing continuity in the enjoyment of material wealth and of
rights.
SUCCESSION has its foundation therefore in the necessity of perpetuating the patrimonies
beyond the limits of human existence. This necessity, in turn, is based on:
Two necessities:
a. The necessity for giving stability to the family
b. The necessity for giving firmness to the social economy.
Without succession there would be no credit because what maintains trust in human
transactions is that species of immortality with which the juridical person of the debtor is
clothed through hereditary succession.
PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING OUR LAW ON SUCCESSION

 The purification of the system of private ownership of its abuses

 The closing of those channels upon which wealth has flowed in torrents from
generation to generation of a particular family
 The emancipation of innocent persons from the bondage of undue conservatism
which has denied them the right to share in the estate of their parents
 The elimination of distant relatives who may succeed to property to the
accumulation of which they have not contributed anything
 The staying of the dead hand to prevent it from meddling in the affairs of the
living these are among the means which may be advisable for the stability of the
social order.
A powerful factor for the attainment of this stability of the social order is the socialization of
ownership, not in the sense of “socialism”, but in the sense of effectively adapting property
to the needs of society, which constitutes one of the underlying principles of the
SUCCESSION.
JURIDICAL NATURE OF SUCCESSION
It will be seen from the codal definition of the Code considers succession as a mode of acquiring
ownership in line with the provision of Article 712 which includes among the modes of
acquiring ownership and other real rights, testate and intestate succession.
Succession is a real right since it requires for its constitution Mode and Title. Castan
believe that although it may be admitted that succession is a real mode of acquiring ownership
and other real rights, it is also a mode of transmitting rights of credit as well as personal rights
and is likewise a means of creating other rights which are neither real nor personal but which
are family rights, such as recognition of natural children.
Succession, therefore, has a nature all of its own and can not be fitted into the narrow
boundaries of real rights or the modes of acquiring ownership.
The right of succession is in itself an absolute right which creates an action enforceable
against all “erga omnes” but not a real right properly speaking because it falls over a
patrimony and not over determinate things.
Our law, however, only considers as transmissible, through the death of another, either
by will or by operation of law, only those rights not purely personal and only obligations up to
the extent of the value of the inheritance.
This is so because under our concept of succession, the heir is not bound by more than
the value of what he inherits and to that extent all succession under our law is always with
benefit of inventory.