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[No. L­1787. August 27, 1948]

Testacy of Sixto Lopez. JOSE S. LOPEZ,

petitioner and appellee, vs. AGUSTIN
LIBORO, oppositor and appellant

1. WILLS; PAGING; PURPOSE; OMISSION

OF PAGE NUMBER SUPPLIED BY OTHER
MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION.—The
purpose of the law in prescribing the paging
of wills is to guard against fraud, and to
afford means of preventing the substitution
or of detecting the loss of any of its pages.
(Abangan vs. Abangan, 40 Phil., 476.) The
omission to put a page number on a sheet, if
that be necessary, may be supplied by other
forms of identification more trustworthy
than the conventional numeral words or
characters.

2. ID.; EVIDENCE; WITNESSES,

CREDIBILITY OF; CONTRADICTIONS ON
INCIDENTS.—Such contradictions in the
testimony of the instrumental witnesses as
are set out in the appellant’s brief are

430

430 PHILIPPINE REPORTS ANNOTATED

Lopez vs. Liboro

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incidents, not all of which every one of the

witnesses can be supposed to have perceived,
or to recall in the same order in which they
occurred. Far from being an evidence of
falsehood, the contradictions constitute an
evidence of good faith.

3. ID.; SIGNATURE BY MARK.—A statute

requiring a will to be “signed” is satisfied if
the signature is made by the testator’s mark.

4. ID.; EVIDENCE; ADMISSION OF

FURTHER EVIDENCE AFTER PARTY HAS
RESTED; DISCRETION OF COURT.—It is
within the discretion of the court whether or
not to admit further evidence after the party
offering the evidence has rested, and this
discretion will not be reviewed except where
it has clearly been abused.

5. ID.; ID.; ADMISSION OF FURTHER

EVIDENCE AFTER MOTION FOR
NONSUIT OR DEMURRER TO EVIDENCE;
DISCRETION OF COURT.—It is within the
sound discretion of the court whether or not
it will allow the case to be reopened for the
further introduction of evidence after a
motion or request for a nonsuit, or a
demurrer to the evidence, and the case may
be reopened after the court has announced
its intention as to its ruling on the request,
motion, or demurrer, or has granted it or has
denied the same, or after the motion has
been granted, if the order has not been
written, or entered upon the minutes or
signed.

6. ID.; ID.; EVIDENCE ALLOWABLE AFTER

DIRECT PROOFS.—After the parties have

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produced their respective direct proofs, they

are allowed to offer rebutting evidence only,
but the court, for good reasons, in the
furtherance of justice, may permit them to
offer evidence upon their original case, and
its ruling will not be disturbed in the
appellate court where no abuse of discretion
appears. (Siuliong “i Co.. vs. Ylagan, 43 Phil.,
393; U.S. vs. Alviar, 36 Phil., 804.) So,
generally, additional evidence is allowed
when it is newly discovered, or where it has
been omitted through inadvertence or
mistake, or where the purpose of the
evidence is to correct evidence previously
offered.

7. ID.; LANGUAGE; KNOWLEDGE OF

TESTATOR NEED NOT BE EXPRESSED
IN WILL; PROOF “ALIUNDE."—There is no
statutory requirement that the testator’s
understanding of the language used in the
will be expressed therein. It is a matter that
may be established by proof aliunde.

APPEAL from an order of the Court of First

Instance of Batangas. Angeles, J.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.
Tirona, Gutierrez & Adorable for appellant.
Ramon Diokno for appellee.
431

VOL. 81, AUGUST 27, 1948 431

Lopez vs. Liboro

TUASON, J.:

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In the Court of First Instance of Batangas the

appellant opposed unsuccessfully the probate of
what purports to be the last will and testament
(Exhibit A) of Don Sixto Lopez, who died at
the age of 83 in Balayan, Batangas, on March
3, 1947, almost six months after the document
in question was executed. In the court below,
the present appellant specified five grounds for
his opposition, to wit: (1) that the deceased
never executed the alleged will; (2) that his
signature appearing in said will was a forgery;
(3) that at the time of the execution of the will,
he was wanting in testamentary as well as
mental capacity due to advanced age; (4) that,
if he did ever execute said will, it was not
executed and attested as required by law, and
one of the alleged instrumental witnesses was
incapacitated to act as such; and it was
procured by duress, influence of fear and
threats and undue and improper pressure and
influence on the part of the beneficiaries
instituted therein, principally the testator’s
sister, Clemencia Lopez, and the herein
proponent, Jose S. Lopez; and (5) that the
signature of the testator was procured by fraud
or trick.
In this instance only one of these objections
is reiterated, formulated in these words: “That
the court a, quo erred in holding that the
document Exhibit “A" was executed in all
particulars as required by law.” To this
objection is added the alleged error of the court
“in allowing the petitioner to introduce
evidence that Exhibit “A“was written in a
language known to the decedent after
petitioner rested his case and over the vigorous
objection of the oppositor.”
The will in question comprises two pages,
each of which is written on one side of a
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separate sheet. The first sheet is not paged

either in letters or in Arabic numerals. This,
the appellant believes, is a fatal defect.
The purpose of the law in prescribing the
paging of wills is to guard against fraud, and to
afford means of

432

432 PHILIPPINE REPORTS ANNOTATED

Lopez vs. Liboro

preventing the substitution or of detecting the

loss of any of its pages. (Abangan vs. Abangan,
40 Phil., 476.) In the present case, the omission
to put a page number on the first sheet, if that
be necessary, is supplied by other forms of
identification more trustworthy than the
conventional numeral words or characters. The
unnumbered page is clearly identified as the
first page by the internal sense of its contents
considered in relation to the contents of the
second page. By their meaning and coherence,
the first and second lines on the second page
are undeniably a continuation of the last
sentence of the testament, before the
attestation clause, which starts at the bottom
of the preceding page. Furthermore, the
unnumbered page contains the caption
“TESTAMENTO," the invocation of the
Almighty, and a recital that the testator was in
full use of his testamentary faculty,—all of
which, in the logical order of sequence, precede
the direction for the disposition of the maker’s
property. Again, as page two contains only the
two lines above mentioned, the attestation
clause, the mark of the testator and the
signatures of the witnesses, the other sheet can
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not by any possibility be taken for other than

page one. Abangan vs. Abangan, supra, and
Fernandez vs. Vergel de Dios, 46 Phil., 922 are
decisive of this issue.
Although not falling within the purview and
scope of the first assignment of error, the
matter of the credibility of the witnesses is
assailed under this heading. On the merits we
do not believe that the appellant’s contention
deserves serious consideration. Such
contradictions in the testimony of the
instrumental witnesses as are set out in the
appellant’s brief are incidents not all of which
every one of the witnesses can be supposed to
have perceived, or to recall in the same order in
which they occurred.

“Everyday life and the result of investigations made

in the field of experimental psychology show that the
contradictions of witnesses generally occur in the
details of a certain incident, after a long series of
questionings, and far from being an evidence of

433

VOL. 81, AUGUST 27, 1948 433

Lopez vs. Liboro

falsehood constitute a demonstration of good faith.

Inasmuch as not all those who witness an incident
are impressed in like manner, it is but natural that
in relating their impressions they should not agree
in the minor details; hence, the contradictions in
their testimony.” (People vs. Limbo, 49 Phil., 99.)

The testator affixed his thumbmark to the

instrument instead of signing his name. The
reason for this was that the testator was
suffering from “partial paralysis.” While
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another in testator’s place might have directed

someone else to sign for him, as appellant
contends should have been done, there is
nothing curious or suspicious in the fact act
that the testator chose the use of mark as the
means of authenticating his will. It was a
matter of taste or preference. Both ways are
good. A statute requiring a will to be “signed” is
satisfied if the signature is made by the
testator’s mark. (De Gala vs. Gonzales and
Ona, 53 Phil., 108; 28 R.C. L., 117.)
With reference to the second assignment of
error, we do not share the opinion that the trial
court committed an abuse of discretion in
allowing the appellant to offer evidence to
prove knowledge of Spanish by the testator, the
language in which the will is drawn, after the
petitioner had rested his case and after the
opponent had moved for dismissal of the
petition on the ground of insufficiency of
evidence. It is within the discretion of the court
whether or not to admit further evidence after
the party offering the evidence has rested, and
this discretion will not be reviewed except
where it has clearly been abused. (64 C.J., 160.)
More, it is within the sound discretion of the
court whether or not it will allow the case to be
reopened for the further introduction of
evidence after a motion or request for a
nonsuit, or a demurrer to the evidence, and the
case may be reopened after the court has
announced its intention as to its ruling on the
request, motion, or demurrer, or has granted it
or has denied the same, or after the motion has
been granted, if the order has not been written,
or entered upon the minutes or signed. (64 C.J.,
164.)
434

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434 PHILIPPINE REPORTS ANNOTATED

Lopez vs. Liboro

In this jurisdiction this rule has been followed.

After the parties have produced their
respective direct proofs, they are allowed to
offer rebutting evidence only, but, it has been
held, the court, for good reasons, in the
furtherance of justice, may permit them to offer
evidence upon their original case, and its ruling
will not be disturbed in the appellate court
where no abuse of discretion appears. (Siuliong
& Co. vs. Ylagan, 43 Phil., 393; U.S. vs. Alviar,
36 Phil., 804.) So, generally, additional
evidence is allowed when it is newly discovered,
or where it has been omitted through
inadvertence or mistake, or where the purpose
of the evidence is to correct evidence previously
offered. (I Moran’s Comments on the Rules of
Court, 2d ed., 545; 64 C.J., 160–163.) The
omission to present evidence on the testator’s
knowledge of Spanish had not been deliberate.
It was due to a misapprehension or oversight.
Although alien to the second assignment of
error, the appellant impugns the will for its
silence on the testator’s understanding of the
language used in the testament. There is no
statutory requirement that such knowledge be
expressly stated in the will itself. It is a matter
that may be established by proof aliunde. This
Court so impliedly ruled in Gonzales vs. Laurel,
46 Phil., 781, in which the probate of a will
written in Tagalog was ordered although it did
not say that the testator knew that idiom. In
fact, there was not even extraneous proof on
the subject other than the fact that the testator
resided in a Tagalog region, from which the

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court said “a presumption arises that said

Maria Tapia knew the Tagalog dialect.”
The order of the lower court ordering the
probate of the last will and testament of Don
Sixto Lopez is affirmed, with costs.

Parás, Actg. C.J., Pablo, Perfecto, Bengzon,

Briones, and Padilla, JJ., concur.

Order affirmed.

435

VOL. 81, AUGUST 27, 1948 435

Kookooritchkin vs. Solicitor General

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