Text of the provision
Art. 1025. In order to be capacitated to inherit, the heir, devisee or legatee must be living at the moment the succession opens, except in case of representation, when it is proper. A child already conceived at the time of the death of the decedent is capable of succeeding provided it be born later under the conditions prescribed in article 41.
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Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings.
What this article means
To be capacitated to inherit, the heir, devisee or legatee must be living at the moment the succession opens — except in cases of representation. A conceived child may inherit if later born under the conditions of Article 41.
The moment succession 'opens' is the instant of the decedent's death, and the heir, devisee, or legatee's capacity to inherit is fixed at that exact point — not earlier and not later. Representation, the exception the article allows for, lets the descendants of an heir who predeceased the decedent step into that heir's place. The rule on a conceived child reflects the same logic in reverse: the law provisionally recognizes an unborn child's capacity to inherit at the moment of death, but that capacity only becomes definite once the child is later born alive under Article 41.
Questions about this provision
- Can a child who was conceived but not yet born when the decedent died still inherit?
- My parents died together in the same accident and no one can tell who died first — how does that affect who inherits from whom?
- My daughter-in-law is pregnant and my son just died — does the unborn grandchild still in the womb have any right to inherit?
Related provisions
- Article 1024 — Who May Succeed.
- Article 1026 — Dispositions to Institutions.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.