CA nullifies RTC order on estate case

The Court of Appeals has nullified an order issued by a Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge, whom the CA said committed grave abuse of discretion, which favored one of the heirs in an inheritance case dispute.

In a decision promulgated last June 30, the CA’s Ninth Division said RTC Judge Alexander S. Balut “acted with grave abuse of discretion or in excess of his jurisdiction” when he issued a writ of execution favoring Jose T. Marcelo Jr., a heir of the Jose Marcelo Sr. estate case being heard in Balut’s Branch 76 of the QC RTC.

CA Justices Fernanda Lampas Peralta, Myra V. Garcia-Fernandez and Francisco P. Acosta upheld a petition filed by Anna Melinda Marcelo-Revilla and John Steven J. Marcelo, children of Edward T. Marcelo, the elder brother of Jose Marcelo Jr.

The heirs of Edward Marcelo sought relief from the CA after Judge Balut in Sept. 20 last year issued a writ of execution to compel Anna and John Marcelo to submit shares of stock certificates and real estate titles on a list of assets that Jose Marcelo Jr. claimed is part of the estate of his father Jose Marcelo Sr.

The writ of execution in favor of Jose Marcelo Jr. was to enforce Balut’s order last June 28, 2010, that approved his petition for the surrender to him of stock certificates and land titles, in his capacity as administrator of Jose Marcelo Sr.’s estate.

However, the CA said Judge Balut failed to comply with his own 2010 order for hearings to be conducted to check if the assets being claimed by Jose Marcelo Jr. were indeed part of Jose Marcelo Sr.’s estate. The CA also noted that the disputed assets were not in the name of the Jose Marcelo Sr.