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
No Parental Consent
Persons must between the ages of 18 and 21 do not possess the degree of maturity to be able to comprehend thoroughly the consequences and serious responsibilities of marital relations.
Unsound Mind
There must be such a derangement of the mind to prevent the party from comprehending the nature of the contract and from giving to it his free and intelligent consent.
Intimidation
One of the contracting parties is compelled by a reasonable and well grounded fear of an imminent and grave evil upon his person or property of the P/P of his SAD
Incapacity to Consummate
Incapacity of the party to perform or complete the act of sexual intercourse.
Absolute Community of Property and its Exceptions
A marriage settlement where spouses are considered co-owners of ALL property brought into the marriage which are not otherwise excluded from the community property either by the provisions of the Family Code or by the marriage settlement
Exceptions:
1. Property acquired during the marriage by gratuitous title by either spouse, its fruits and income, unless it is expressly otherwise provided by the donor, testator or grantor.
2. For personal and exclusive use, except jewelry.
3. Acquired before the marriage by either spouse who has legitimate descendants by a former marriage including the fruits and income (Art. 92, FC).
4. Those excluded from the absolute community as in the marriage settlement (Art. 91, FC).
Elements of a bigamous marriage
- The offender has been previously married
- The marriage has not been legally dissolved or the spouse is not presumed dead under the Civil Code
- He contracts a subsequent marriage
- The second marriage has all the essential requisites for validity
Who may file a petition for nullity of void marriages?
Under AM 02-11-20 SC, only the husband and the wife.
When must the defect which serves as a ground for annulment of marriage exist?
The defect which serves as a ground for annulment must be in existence oat the time of the celebration of the marriage.
Cooling off period
An action for legal separation must “in no case be tried before six months shall have elapsed since the filing of the petition” obviously in order to provide the parties a cooling off period
In this interim, the court should take steps getting the parties to reconcile.
Exceptions to absolute community of property
- Property acquired during the marriage by gratuitous title by either spouse and its fruits (unless the donor expressly states that it shall form part of the community property)
- Property for the personal and exclusive use of either spouse (Jewelry not included)
- Property acquired by either spouse who has legitimate descendants by a former marriage and its fruits and income
- Properties excluded by the marriage settlement.
Exceptions to Conjugal Partnership of gains
- That which is brought to the marriage as his or her own
- That which each acquires during the marriage by gratuitous title
- That which is acquired by right of redemption, by barter, or by exchange of property only belonging to one spouse
- That which is purchased with the exclusive money of the wife or of the husband
Sufficient Causes for judicial separation of property between spouses
- Civil Interdiction
- Judicial Declaration of absence
- Loss of parental authority as decreed by the court
- Abandonment of failure to comply with familial obligations
- Administrator’s spouse has abused authority
- Separation in fact for one year and reconciliation is highly improbable
Paternity vs. Filiation
P - Civil status of the FATHER with respect to the child begotten by him
F - Civil Status of children in relation to his parents
Pieces of evidence that can establish the filiation of legitimate children
- Record of birth appearing in a civil registrar or a final judgment
- Admission of filiation in a public document or private HANDWRITTEN instrument and signed by the parent concerned
In the absence thereof, filiation may be proved by:
1. Open and continuous possession of the status of a legitimate child
2. Any other means allowed by the ROC
Rights of legitimate children
- Bear the surnames of the father and mother
- Receive support from their parents, SBroS
- Entitled to the legitimate and other successional rights granted to them under the CC
Grounds to impugn legitimacy
Art. 166. Legitimacy of a child may be impugned only on the following grounds:
(1) That it was physically impossible for the husband to have sexual intercourse with his wife within the first 120 days of the 300 days which immediately preceded the birth of the child because of:
(a) the physical incapacity of the husband to have sexual intercourse with his wife;
(b) the fact that the husband and wife were living separately in such a way that sexual intercourse was not possible; or
(c) serious illness of the husband, which absolutely prevented sexual intercourse;
(2) That it is proved that for biological or other scientific reasons, the child could not have been that of the husband, except in the instance provided in the second paragraph of Article 164; or
(3) That in case of children conceived through artificial insemination, the written authorization or ratification of either parent was obtained through mistake, fraud, violence, intimidation, or undue influence.
Rights of illegitimate children
- Use the surname of the mother
- Be under the parental authority of the mother
- Entitled to support in conformity of the code only as to the separate property of the parent
- they shall be entitled to a legitime which shall consist of 1/2 of the legitime of a legitimate child
When may heirs impugn the filiation of a child
1.If the husband should die before the expiration of the period fixed for bringing the action
2. If he should die after the filing of the complaint without having desisted therefrom
3. If the child was born after the death of the husband
Who are entitled to legitimation
Only children conceived and born outside of wedlock of parents who, at the time of the conception of the former, were not disqualified by any impediment to marry each other may be legitimated
Requisites of legitimation
- The child must have been conceived and born outside of wedlock
- At the time of the child’s conception, the parents were not disqualified by any impediment to marry each other or disqualified only because they were below 18
Who may impugn legitimation
Those who are prejudiced in their rights, within 5 years from the time their cause of action accrues (death of putative parent)
What comprises support?
Support comprises everything indispensable for sustenance, dwelling, clothing, medical attendance, education and transportation, in keeping with the financial capacity of the family.
Who are obliged to give support
- Spouses
- Legitimate Ascendants and Descendants
- Parents and their children
- Legitimate brothers and sisters
- Illegitimate brothers and sisters whether full or half blood. XP: Need of support is fue to a cause imputable to their fault or negligence
Discuss the rule when two or more persons are obliged to give support
the payment shall be divided between them in proportion to the resources of each.
In cases of urgent need and special circumstances, the judge may order that only one party give support subject to reimbursement
Order of Support
- The Spouse
- Descendants in the nearest degree
- Ascendants in the nearest degree
- Brothers and Sisters
Parental Authority
- Caring and rearing of children for civic consciousness and efficiency
- Development of children’s moral, mental, and physical character and well-being
Parental Preference Rule
A natural parent, whether mother or father, who is of good character and a proper person to have the custody of the child and is reasonably able to provide for such child is entitled to custody against all persons
Special Parental Authority
The school, its administrators and teachers, or the individual, entity or institution engaged in child care shall have special parental authority and responsibility over the minor child while under their supervision, instruction or custody.
Authority and responsibility shall apply to all authorized activities whether inside or outside the premises of the school, entity or institution.
Tan Andal Guidelines
- The psychological incapacity (IC) must have been shown to have existed at the time of the celebration of the marriage
- Caused by a durable aspect of one’s personality structure
- Caused by a genuinely serious psychic cause
- Evidence is proven by clear and and convincing evidence
Arroyo vs Vasquez de Arroyo
It is not within the province of the courts of this country to attempt to compel one of the spouses to cohabit with, and render conjugal rights to the other
Cohabitation is a purely personal obligation. To compel the wife to comply with such obligation would be an infringement of her personal liberty
