"No person who shall be finally adjudged guilty, either as principal or accessory, of murder of the first or second degree, shall be entitled to take any part of the real or personal estate of the person killed, as devisee or legatee, or otherwise, under the will of such person.-Section 22.

"Section 23 deals with the right of a surviving spouse to elect to take under the will or that portion of the estate of the one dying to which the survivor may be entitled. The manner and time within which such election must be manifested are set forth in detail. The section is too lengthy to set forth in full.-Section 23.

"Nothing in this act contained shall be construed to apply to the disposition of personal estate by a testator whose domicile at the time of his death was out of this Commonwealth.-Section 24.

"This act shall be known and may be cited as the Wills Act of 1917.-Section 25.

"This act shall take effect on the thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, and shall apply to the wills of all persons dying on or after said day. As to the wills of all persons dying before that day, the existing laws shall remain in full force and effect.-Section 26."

Former acts are repealed.-Section 27.

No. 41-Philippine Islands,

[CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE, 1914.]

Every person, including married women, of the age of eighteen years and of sound mind, may dispose by will of real and personal estate, but no person can deprive a husband, or wife, or heir, of such interest in his or

her estate as the law provides shall appertain to such husband, wife or heir.-Section 614.

Realty acquired after the execution of the will passes thereunder if such is the testator's intention.-Section 615.

A devise of land passes all the testator's estate therein unless a contrary intention appear.-Section 616.

No will shall be valid unless it be written in the language or dialect known by the testator and signed by him, or by the testator's name written by some other person in his presence and by his express direction, and attested and subscribed by three or more credible witnesses in the presence of the testator and of each other. The testator or the person requested by him to write his name and the instrumental witnesses of the will, shall also sign, as aforesaid, each and every page thereof, on the left margin, and said pages shall be numbered correlatively in letters placed on the upper part of each sheet. The attestation shall state the number of sheets or pages used, upon which the will is written, and the fact that the testator signed the will and every page thereof, or caused some other person to write his name, under his express direction, in the presence of three witnesses, and the latter witnessed and signed the will and all the pages thereof in the presence of the testator and of each other.-Section 618, as amended 1916.

Any person of sound mind and of the age of eighteen years or more, and not blind, deaf, or dumb, and able to read and write, may be a witness.-Section 620.

Subsequent incompetency of a witness does not invalidate a will.-Section 621.

A gift to a subscribing witness or to his or her wife, husband, parent or child, is void unless there be three other

competent witnesses to such will; but such subscribing witness shall be admitted to prove the will. A creditor is a competent witness.-Section 622.

A will may be revoked by another will, codicil, or other writing executed as required of wills, or by burning, tearing, cancelling, or obliterating.-Section 623.

A will made out of the Philippine Islands which might be proved and allowed by the laws of the state or country in which it was made, may be proved, allowed and recorded in the Philippine Islands, and have the same effect as if executed according to the laws of these islands.Section 635.

A will executed within the Philippine Islands by an alien, according to the laws of his country and which might be proved and allowed therein, may be proved, allowed and recorded in the Philippine Islands.-Section 636.

Wills proved and allowed in the United States, or any state or territory thereof, or in a foreign state or country according to the laws of such place, may be allowed, filed and recorded in the Court of First Instance of the province in which the testator has real or personal estate on which such will may operate.-Section 637.

No. 42-Porto Rico.

[REVISED STATUTES AND CODES, 1914-CIVIL CODE.]

All persons not expressly prohibited by law may make a will. Persons of either sex under fourteen years of age, or permanently or temporarily of unsound mind, are disqualified to make wills.-Sections 3748, 3749.

Whenever a lunatic desires to make a will during a lucid interval, the Notary shall appoint two physicians to examine him previously, and he shall not execute it

unless the latter answer for the capacity of the testator, including their opinion in the will, which shall be subscribed by the physicians besides the witnesses.-Section 3751.

Two or more persons can not make a will conjointly, or in the same instrument, either for their reciprocal benefit or for the benefit of a third person.-Section 3755.

Wills may be ordinary or special. Ordinary wills may be holographic, open or closed. Military and maritime wills, and those executed in foreign countries, are considered special.-Sections 3762, 3763.

A will is open whenever the testator expresses his last will in the presence of persons who must authenticate his act, they being informed of its provisions.-Section 3765.

A will is closed when the testator, without revealing his last will, declares that it is contained in the instrument which he presents to the persons who are to authenticate the act.-Section 3766.

The following can not be witnesses to wills: Persons under age; persons not residents or domiciled in the place of execution, with the exception of the cases excepted by law; blind persons and those totally deaf and dumb; those who do not understand the language of the testator; those of unsound mind; those condemned for the crimes of forgery or perjury, or suffering from the penalty of civil interdiction; and clerks, amanuenses, servants, or relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of affinity of the notary who authenticates the will.-Section 3767.

Neither can the heirs and legatees named in an open will, nor the relatives of the same within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of affinity, be witnesses thereto.-Section 3768.

For executing a will except in Spanish or English, the presence of two interpreters shall be necessary, who shall be selected by the testator and shall translate his provision into Spanish or English. The will shall be written in the language of the testator and also in either English or Spanish. The same shall be understood when the will written in English is to be effective in whole or in part in Porto Rico and in cases when the will written in Spanish is to be effective in whole or in part in the United States.-Section 3770.

The notary and two of the witnesses must be acquainted with the testator or the testator shall be identified by two witnesses who are acquainted with him and are known to the notary and the attesting witnesses. The notary and witnesses shall also assure themselves that in their opinion the testator has the legal capacity required to make a will.-Section 3771.

Holographic Wills. A holographic will can be executed only by a person of full age, and must be written entirely and signed by the testator who shall state the year, month and day in which it is executed. If it contains words erased, corrected or interlined, the testator shall make a note thereof under his signature. It may be executed at any place within or without Porto Rico. Foreigners may execute holographic wills in their own language.-Sections 3774, 3775.

Holographic wills shall be placed in a protocol being presented for this purpose to the district court of the last domicile of the testator, or the court of the district in which said testator dies, if his death occurred in Porto Rico, within five years from the date of his death. Without this requisite being complied with, it shall not be valid.-Section 3776.