JUDGMENT :

Introduction:

1. Mother dies, leaving behind a son and a daughter to inherit the estate. Though both are co-heirs and, thus, co-owners, the brother ostensibly possesses the properties. The sister initiates inventory proceedings over 30 years after the mother's death. The brother opposes the proceedings. He says the period of prescription under the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867, bars the remedy and declares the brother as the owner, too. Is it so?

Facts:

2. Petitioner Ramachandra A. S. Rataboli is the brother; respondent Monica Sinai Rataboli is the sister, represented by her power-of-attorney holder. Their mother died in 1979. By operation of law, the succession opened then.

3. But Monica initiated inventory proceedings in 2015. It was before the Senior Civil Judge of Bardez at Mapusa, in Inventory Proceedings No. 610/2015/C.

Procedural History:

4. The trial Court issued notice to Ramachandra on 15 June 2016, appointing him as Cabeca de Casal. It required him to state on oath about the properties. On 30 August 2017, Ramachandra, however, applied to the trial Court to have the inventory proceeding dismissed. It was on the premise that the proceedings was beyond the prescriptive pe