Short answer. Yes. Article 777 of the Civil Code establishes that the rights to the succession are transmitted from the moment of the death of the decedent. The instant your father died, whatever inheritance rights he had were already transferred to his own heirs — no formal acceptance by him was needed for that transmission to occur.
What the law says
The rights to the succession are transmitted from the moment of the death of the decedent.
Civil Code, Article 777 — Succession Opens at the Moment of Death. Read the full provision →
Transmission happens at the exact moment of death
Article 777 of the Civil Code states a foundational rule in one sentence: the rights to the succession are transmitted from the moment of the death of the decedent. There is no gap between death and transmission. The moment your father drew his last breath, his hereditary rights — including whatever he stood to inherit from another estate — became part of his own estate and passed immediately to his heirs. The law does not require the heir to have accepted, or even known about, the inheritance for the transmission to take effect.
Formal acceptance is not needed for transmission
Transmission under Article 777 is automatic and instantaneous. Formal acceptance — a document, a court proceeding, a declaration — is a separate act that confirms or rejects the inheritance. But the transmission itself does not wait for acceptance. Your father's failure to formally accept the inheritance he was entitled to does not defeat the transmission that had already occurred at his death. What he had the right to inherit became part of his estate; what is in his estate belongs to his heirs. The question of whether his heirs in turn wish to accept or renounce those rights is a subsequent and separate matter.
What this means for you as your father's heirs
As heirs of your father, you step into his legal position as it stood at the moment he died — including any pending inheritance rights he had not yet accepted. Those rights were transmitted to your father at the moment the person he was inheriting from died. When your father died, those rights — now part of his estate — were transmitted again to you. You are not merely inheriting from your father's direct assets; you are also inheriting the inheritance rights he had accumulated. The chain of transmission is unbroken even without formal acceptance at any link in the chain.
Practical steps to assert these rights
Asserting rights to an inheritance that passed through two successive deaths requires establishing both transmissions with documentary evidence: the death certificate of the original decedent (the person who left something to your father), documentation showing your father was an heir or legatee in that estate, and your father's own death certificate. Estate proceedings for both estates may be involved. The time that has passed since each death can affect certain procedural steps, and there may be tax implications for both estates. A lawyer can map out the sequence of proceedings needed to formally assert and receive what has been transmitted to you.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Dr. Nixon L. Treyes vs. Antonio Larlar, et al, G.R. No. 232579, September 8, 2020 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Spouses Isidro R. Salitico and Conrada C. Salitico vs. Heirs of Resurreccion Martinez Felix, G.R. No. 240199, April 10, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Vicente Gomez vs. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 120747, September 21, 2000 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Spouses Feliciana and Angel Cesa vs. Spouses Elisa Montano Brucelas and David Brucelas, G.R. No. 255564, March 5, 2025 — read the decision on LawPhil →