Short answer. The court appoints an administrator. Article 881 hands who is appointed, how the estate is managed, and the administrator's powers and duties to the Rules of Court rather than the Civil Code. So while the condition on the inheritance remains pending, a court-appointed administrator manages the property under procedural rules made for this situation.
What the law says
The appointment of the administrator of the estate mentioned in the preceding article, as well as the manner of the administration and the rights and obligations of the administrator shall be governed by the Rules of Court.
Civil Code, Article 881 — Appointing the Administrator. Read the full provision →
No executor named, no self-executing rule
Article 881 governs the estate mentioned in the article before it — property left to an heir under a condition that has not yet happened. When a will creates this kind of conditional inheritance but names no executor to carry it out, the estate still needs someone accountable for it while the condition remains uncertain. The Civil Code does not leave that gap open; it expressly hands the question of who fills it to a different body of law entirely, so a missing executor is not, by itself, a problem the family has to solve on its own.
Administration is Rules of Court territory
The appointment of the administrator of the estate mentioned in the preceding article, as well as the manner of the administration and the rights and obligations of the administrator shall be governed by the Rules of Court. That single sentence covers three separate questions: who gets appointed, how the administration is carried out day to day, and what the administrator may and may not do. None of those answers live in the Civil Code — a family working out who should be named needs the procedural rules that govern settlement of estates, not the substantive provisions on succession.
The administrator's role while the condition is pending
Until the condition attached to the inheritance is fulfilled or definitively fails, the property involved cannot simply sit unmanaged or be treated as belonging outright to anyone. An administrator appointed under this framework preserves the estate, accounts for what it earns and spends, and eventually hands it over according to however the condition resolves. This protects both the conditional heir, who may yet qualify, and whoever else stands to take the property if the condition is never satisfied.
What this means for your family
Because Article 881 defers entirely to the Rules of Court, it cannot tell you the specific filing steps, court fees, or timeline for a petition, and inventing those details here would do more harm than leaving them out. What the article does establish is that an unnamed executor is not a dead end: an administrator can be appointed through the settlement proceedings, and once appointed, that person's authority and duties are defined by procedural law written for this exact situation, not left to guesswork among the heirs.