25/12/2020
Another great win for The Firm..... Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year ahead....
Bah! Humbug!
Madrigal widower fails
to disinherit daughter
Madrigal widower Daniel Vasquez has lost in his petition to disinherit daughter Maria Victoria amid their ongoing litigation over the estate left by her billionaire mother, Maria Luisa Madrigal-Vasquez.
In a pre-Christmas decision, the Makati Regional Trial Court ruled that Marivic as a compulsory heir is entitled to her legitime, or her legal share, to her parents' wealth and therefore can not be disinherited without valid cause.
Vasquez, 92, nevertheless obtained court approval to his last will and testament, bequeathing 62.5% of his estate to Maria Pacita Gaboro, popularly known as "Baby Cruz," the local franchisee of the Franck Provost hair salon chain whom he married five months after his wife passed away in 2016.
"The institution of the heirs in the last will and testament is likewise declared null and void insofar as it prejudices" Marivic, said Judge Betlee-Ian Barraquias in his decision.
"The devises and legatees and other testamentary dispositions" -- meaning the gifts, bequeaths and transfers done by Vasquez to other parties -- "shall be valid only to the extent that it will not impair the legitime" of Marivic, the judge added.
Vasquez has named his other daughter, Bea, and his new wife to be the co-executors of his will, declaring that in the event of his death, the Madrigal assets that his late wife had left shall be inherited by Bea, who shall be entitled to 70%, with the remaining 30% divided equally by his two grandchildren, Rossana and Jose.
Vasquez's last will also prohibited his new wife Baby from inheriting any Madrigal assets.
"However, should Baby not receive her full legitime" from the Vasquez estate, "sufficient amounts shall be taken from share of the other heirs from the Vasquez assets as needed to complete her legitime," the will specifically stipulated.
In the will, Vasquez said his estate together with his expected inheritance from his late wife were altogether worth P310 million, a valuation that Marivic said in her opposition was "manifestly unsubstantiated and apparently insufficient."
Among the known assets of Vasquez are the Everest Hills Memorial Park in Muntinlupa and the Molito Lifestyle Center mall in Ayala Alabang.
Together with his late wife, Vasquez owned three units in Urdaneta Apartments, an unknown number of residential units at the Wack Wack Twin Towers which the family developed, an unspecified floor area within the Madrigal Building along Ayala Avenue, three hectares of undeveloped property in Payatas, Quezon City, and a house in San Mateo, California, among others.
By the way, that San Mateo house, on 943 Shoal Drive, was sold only last June for $1.26 million, according to US real estate records, with the sale yet to be reported to the probate court.
Though it may be painful for Vasquez, Marivic's judicial opposition does not fall within the definition of "maltreatment" as ground for disinheritance since, the Makati judge said, the daughter is simply pursuing her legal right to inheritance.
"The acts complained of...are in the exercise of her rights as an heir," the judge said, adding that Vasquez had failed to cite any particular occasion or point to any letter or document where Marivic allegedly called her father "a liar, a crooked dollar hoarder, a declarer of false inventories" as he had claimed.
In her opposition, Marivic cited that her mother made partial inventory of her jewelry in 2007, valuing her collection at $4.3 million (P172 million at current exchange rate), much more than the P10.2 million valuation submitted in the estate case by her father and sister Bea.
Vasquez in his will in turn described Marivic as "the black sheep of the family" and proceeded in excruciating details to chronicle past events that the father claimed constituted "maltreatments" that he allegedly had received from his daughter.
It also did not help that Marivic has made known her dislike of her father's new wife.
But the Makati judge said the instances that Vasquez cited as maltreatments from Marivic, like her expulsion from Assumption College and her alleged work lapses in the family corporation, are outside the purview of the eight specific causes enumerated in the Civil Code that would trigger disinheritance.
Vasquez is represented in the probate case by Divina Law.
Marivic, on the other hand, is being assisted by Villaraza & Angangco, with lead counsels Alejandro Alfonso Navarro and Thea Daep having also represented Marivic's first cousin, Susana Bayot in her nasty separation case with Francisco Ortigas III.
Incidentally, they may be antagonists, but the two law firms agree on one thing. They do have the ideal clients: rich, famous and litigious.
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