CAPACIDAD DE TESTAR E HIPOACUSIA DEL TESTADOR.

Abstract

One of the physical disabilities, or, to use a better phrase, the physical handicaps a person can have is hypoacusis, or, in more common, better-known terms, deafness. This is a factor to take into account when a person affected by this physical drawback wishes to make a will, to dispose of his or her assets, his or her estate. Is hypoacusis considered grounds for incapacity to make a will? We know that persons who are not in their right mind cannot make a will, according to the Civil Code. But hypoacusis has little or nothing to do with not being in one's right mind. Consequently, we stand before a dilemma, a conflict that must be settled and that, in the author's opinion, shall be settled always with a view to the person's mental state rather than the persons' sensory deficiency. There is little jurisprudence the author has been able to consult, because there are few rulings concerning this matter. And nevertheless it is rather frequent for people, especially the elderly, to lose their hearing and even eventually to lose contact with the world around them, precisely for that reason. That is why it is so important to come to grips with this subject.