This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2011-01-24 |
CARPIO, J. |
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| It will not do, therefore, for petitioner to cherry-pick stipulations from the Deed tending to serve his cause (e.g. "the ownership shall be vested on [Rodriguez] upon my demise" and "devise"). Dispositions bearing contradictory stipulations are interpreted wholistically, to give effect to the donor's intent. In no less than seven cases featuring deeds of donations styled as "mortis causa" dispositions, the Court, after going over the deeds, eventually considered the transfers inter vivos,[22] consistent with the principle that "the designation of the donation as mortis causa, or a provision in the deed to the effect that the donation is `to take effect at the death of the donor' are not controlling criteria [but] x x x are to be construed together with the rest of the instrument, in order to give effect to the real intent of the transferor."[23] Indeed, doubts on the nature of dispositions are resolved to favor inter vivos transfers "to avoid uncertainty as to the ownership of the property subject of the deed."[24] | |||||