A daughter who discovered that shortly before her demise her mother made a notarial will in which she completely disinherited the daughter and transferred her share to the grandmother, sought to oppose the will inter alia on the grounds that it was made by her dying mother without the medical certificate attesting to her mental competence being provided, as required for a notarial will under the circumstance of its making.
The Court accepted the daughter's factual contentions but found that the will shall, nevertheless, be probated as it reflects the wishes of the deceased. A notarial will of a person confined to his bed will be considered "defective" if it is not accompanied by a medical certificate of the date of notarization attesting to the mental competence of the deceased. However, the fact that there were defects in the drafting of the will (including substantial defects) does not necessarily lead to the invalidity of the will, but rather that in order to cure the defect, the burden of proving the will authenticity is placed on the one who seeks to probate it. Here, it is a case where the condition of the mother required a medical certificate to confirm her fitness and the absence of said certificate was a fundamental flaw in the will as a notarial will. However, the mother of the deceased showed that the deceased was of mental capacity at the time of making the will as well as the fact that she intended to disinherit her daughter and thus the defect was rectified and the will probated.