PFR Finals Flashcards
If there is a prior existing marriage between A and B, but is void, may they immediately remarry?
No. There is a need to have the void marriage declared void. Art. 39 of the Family Code provides that the action or defense for the declaration or absolute nullity of a previous marriage shall not prescribe.
The void marriage can be considered a legal impediment to contract a subsequent marriage.
Void marriages under Art. 35
- Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even with the consent of parents or guardians (Art. 35 [1], FC);
- Those solemnized by any person not legally authorized to perform marriages; Exception: Unless such marriages were contracted with either or both parties believing in good faith that the solemnizing officer had the authority to do so.
- Those solemnized without a license
- Those bigamous or polyamous marriages not under Art. 41
- Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the other
- Those subsequent marriages that are void under Art. 53
Art. 36 of the Family Code
Art. 36. A marriage contracted by any party who, at the time of the celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations of marriage, shall likewise be void even if such incapacity becomes manifest only after its solemnization.
Define Psychological Incapacity
No less than a mental, not physical, incapacity that causes a party to be truly incognitive of the basic marital covenants that concomitantly must be assumed and discharged by the parties to the marriage.
There must be proof of enduring aspects of a person’s personality structure which manifests itself through clear acts of dysfunctionality that undermines the family
Santos Guidelines
Gravity
Juridical Antecedence
Incurability
Status of Children under Art. 36 of the FC?
They are considered legitimate
Voidable marriages NUFFIS
(1) That the party in whose behalf it is sought to have the marriage annulled was eighteen years of age or over but below twenty-one, and the marriage was solemnized without the consent of the parents, guardian or person having substitute parental authority over the party, in that order, unless after attaining the age of twenty-one, such party freely cohabited with the other and both lived together as husband and wife;
(2) That either party was of unsound mind, unless such party after coming to reason, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;
(3) That the consent of either party was obtained by fraud, unless such party afterwards, with full knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;
(4) That the consent of either party was obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence, unless the same having disappeared or ceased, such party thereafter freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;
(5) That either party was physically incapable of consummating the marriage with the other, and such incapacity continues and appears to be incurable; or
(6) That either party was afflicted with a sexually-transmissible disease found to be serious and appears to be incurable. (85a)
Doctrine of Triennial Cohabitation
If the wife still remains a virgin after living together with her husband for three years, the presumption is that the husband is impotent, and he will have to overcome this presumption
Final Judgment in annulment cases shall have the following effects
- Liquidation – all creditors of the spouses, the absolute community of property, or the conjugal partnership shall be notified;
- Partition (conjugal dwelling and the lot on which it is situated, shall be adjudicated with the provision of Articles 102 and 109);
- Distribution of the properties of the spouses
- Custody and support of the common children
- Delivery of presumptive legitimes, unless such matters had been adjudicated in previous judicial proceedings.
Grounds for Legal Separation
1) Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;
(2) Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation;
(3) Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement;
(4) Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years, even if pardoned;
(5) Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent;
(6) Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;
(7) Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad;
(8) Sexual infidelity or perversion;
(9) Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or
(10) Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year.
Art. 56. The petition for legal separation shall be denied on any of the following grounds:
(1) Where the aggrieved party has condoned the offense or act complained of;
(2) Where the aggrieved party has consented to the commission of the offense or act complained of;
(3) Where there is connivance between the parties in the commission of the offense or act constituting the ground for legal separation;
(4) Where both parties have given ground for legal separation;
(5) Where there is collusion between the parties to obtain decree of legal separation; or
(6) Where the action is barred by prescription. (100a)
Rights and obligations between husband and wife
Art. 68. The husband and wife are obliged to live together, observe mutual love, respect and fidelity, and render mutual help and support.
May the courts compel spouses to live with one another?
No, this duty is highly personal. It is not within the province of the courts of this country to attempt to compel one of the spouses to cohabit and render conjugal rights with the other.
Fraud under Art. 46 of the FC to invalidate a marriage
- Previous conviction involving moral turpitude
- Pregnancy of wife by a man other than her husband
- STD regardless of its nature
- Drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, homosexuality or lesbianism
Expert Testimony for Psychological Incapacity
Testimonies of an expert is not a requirement of law or evidence to be mandatorily submitted.
parties in the declaration of nullity of marriage
Any party to the marriage
Bigamous Marriage
As a general rule, a marriage contracted during the lifetime of the first spouse is null and void. A person who marries another knowing that the latter is already married and that his marriage is valid and subsisting can be held liable for bigamy.
Well-founded belief of death
The belief of the present spouse must be the result of proper and honest to goodness inquiries and efforts to ascertain the whereabouts of the absent spouse and whether the absent spouse is still alive or already dead
Spouse must be absent for a period of at least 4 consecutive years prior to the celebration of the subsequent marriage
How to terminate a subsequent marriage in relation to presumptive death
Recording the Affidavit of Reappearance of the absent spouse in the Civil Registry of the residence of the parties