What to Study for Persons and Family Relations

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1. What is the Civil Code?

◦ The collection of laws regulating private relations of the members of civil society, determining their respective rights and obligations, with reference to persons, things, and civil acts.

2. When do Laws Become Effective?

◦ Laws shall take effect 15 days after completion of their publication in the Official Gazette, or in a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines, unless it is otherwise provided. [Art. 2, Civil Code] ◦ Other presidential issuances which apply only to particular persons or class of persons such as administrative and executive orders need not be published on the assumption that they have been circularized to all concerned. [Tañada v Tuvera, G.R. No. L-63915, (1986)]

3. What is the Effect of Ignorance of the Law?

◦ Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith. [Art. 3, Civil Code] ◦ There is a difference between ignorance of the law and a misunderstanding of it due to its complicated language. [Kasilag v Rodriguez, G.R. No. 46623 (1939)]

4. What are the Rules Pertaining to the Retroactivity of Laws?

◦ General Rule: Laws are not retroactive. [Art. 4, Civil Code] ◦ Exceptions: When retroactivity is specified, remedial statutes, curative statutes, interpretive laws, penal statutes beneficial to the accused, and laws that create new rights. [Ibid.] ◦ Exception to the exception: When, due to retroactivity, a person’s constitutional rights are compromised.

5. What are the Rules Governing the Repeal of Laws?

◦ Laws are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their violation or nonobservance shall not be excused by disuse, or custom or practice to the contrary. [Art. 7, Civil Code]

◦ Kinds of Repeals

▪ Express or declared repeal - Specifically states it repeals a law. ▪ Implied or tacit repeal - Provisions of the subsequent law are irreconcilably incompatible or inconsistent with those of an earlier law . [Javier v. COMELEC, G.R. No. 215847 (2016)]

6. What is Stare Decisis and Hierarchy of Laws?

◦ Stare Decisis - Only Supreme Court decisions are treated as precedents. Those decisions become judicial precedent to be followed in subsequent cases by all courts in the land. [Lazatin v. Desierto, G.R. No. 147097 (2009)] ◦ Stare decisis means that a conclusion reached in one case should be applied to those that follow if the facts are substantially the same, even though the parties may be different. [Lazatin v. Desierto, G.R. No. 147097(2009)] ◦ Hierarchy of Laws - Administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be valid only when they are not contrary to the laws or the Constitution. [Art. 7, Civil Code]

7. What are the Rules Governing the Determination of Years, Months, Days, or

Nights?

◦ When the laws speak of years, months, days or nights, it shall be understood that years are of 365 days each; months of 30 days; days of 24 hours; and nights from sunset to sunrise. [Art. 13, Civil Code] ◦ If months are designated by their name, they shall be computed by the number of days which they respectively have. [Ibid.]

DEFINITION OF A PERSON

◦ What are the Kinds of Persons?

▪ Natural Persons - human beings or men, exist in nature, perceptible to the senses, and products of procreation. [Paras, 235] ▪ Juridical Persons - entities forced by association of men as artificial, fictitious, abstract or moral persons, who have no physical existence, but only exist in contemplation of law and products of legal fiction (i.e. corporations, associations, estates). [Ibid.]

RULES ON MARRIAGE

◦ When is a Breach of promise to marry an Actionable Wrong?

▪ Ordinarily, a mere breach of promise to marry is not an actionable wrong. But to formally set a wedding and go through all the necessary preparations and publicity and only to walk out of it when matrimony is about to be solemnized, is against good customs. [Wassmer v Velez, G.R. No. L-20089 (1964)]

◦ What is the Definition of Marriage?

▪ Marriage is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. It is the foundation of the family and an inviolable social institution whose nature, consequences, and incidents are governed by law and not subject to stipulation, except that marriage settlements may fix the property relations during the marriage within the limits provided by this Code. [Art. 1, Family Code]

▪ Memorize very well, and divide the provision to understand it better.

◦ What are the Requisites of Marriage? ▪ Essential Requisites ▪ Legal Capacity, ▪ Must be male and female, ▪ Consent freely given, and ▪ In the presence of the solemnizing officer. [Art. 2, Family Code]

▪ Formal Requisites ▪ Authority of solemnizing officer, ▪ Valid marriage license, except marriages of exceptional circumstances under Articles 27-34, and ▪ A marriage ceremony with the appearance of the contracting parties before the solemnizing officer and their personal declaration that they take each other as husband and wife in the presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age. [Art. 3, Family Code]

Combinations of Essential and Formal Requisites and their Subsequent Legal Effect

VOID MARRIAGES

Essential

Yes

No

Yes

Defect

Yes Irregularity VALID, but offender is held civilly, criminally, or administratively liable

Formal

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Verdict

VALID

VOID

VOID, but the person who caused the irregularity is held civilly, criminally, or administratively liable

VOIDABLE

◦ What are the Grounds of Void Marriages?

◦ Marriages void from the beginning ▪ Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even with the consent of parents or guardians; ▪ Those solemnized by any person not legally authorized to perform marriages unless such marriages were contracted with either or both

parties believing in good faith that the solemnizing officer had the legal authority to do so; ▪ Those solemnized without license, except those covered by the preceding

Chapter; ▪ Those bigamous or polygamous marriages not falling under Article 41; ▪ Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the other; and ▪ Those subsequent marriages that are void under Article 53. [Art. 35,

Family Code] ▪ Those between ascendants and descendants of any degree, and ▪ Those between brothers and sisters, whether full or half blood, [Art. 37,

Family Code] ▪ Those between collateral blood relatives, whether legitimate or illegitimate, up to the 4th civil degree, ▪ Between step-parents and step-children, ▪ Between parents-in-law and children-in-law, ▪ Between the adopting parent and the adopting child, ▪ Between the surviving spouse of the adopting parent and the adopted child, ▪ Between the surviving spouse of the adopted child and the adopter, ▪ Between an adopted child and a legitimate child of the adopter, ▪ Between the adopted children of the same adopter, and ▪ Between the parties where one, with the intention to marry the other, killed that other person’s spouse or his or her own spouse. [Art. 38, Family

Code]

◦ Subsequent Marriages ▪ Refer to Wiegel v. Sempio-Diy, G.R. No. L-53703 (1986). This case laid down the doctrine that a judicial declaration is necessary before a void marriage is considered void. Without a judicial declaration of nullity, subsequent marriages are therefore bigamous. Note that the Supreme Court has reversed this doctrine in the yet-unreleased en banc decision in Pulido v. People, GR No. 220149, July 27, 2021 (2021). Under Pulido, the parties are not required to obtain a judicial declaration of absolute nullity of a prior or subsequent marriage that is void ab initio in order to raise it as a defense in a Bigamy case. The accused in a Bigamy case may collaterally attack the validity of the prior void marriage in the same criminal proceedings.

◦ What is Psychological incapacity? ▪ A marriage contracted by any party who, at the time of celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations shall likewise be void, even if incapacity manifests only after solemnization. [Art. 36, Family Code] ▪ Psychological incapacity consists of clear acts of dysfunctionality that show a lack of understanding and concomitant compliance with one's essential marital obligations due to psychic causes. It is not a medical

illness that has to be medically or clinically identified; hence, expert opinion is not required. [Tan-Andal v. Andal, G.R. No. 196359 (2021)] ▪ Psychological incapacity must be characterized by (a) gravity, (b) juridical antecedence, and (c) incurability. ▪ The incapacity must be grave or serious such that the party would be incapable of carrying out the ordinary duties required in marriage; ▪ It must be rooted in the history of the party antedating the marriage, although the overt manifestations may emerge only after the marriage; and ▪ It must be incurable in the legal sense, where the couple's respective personality structures are so incompatible and antagonistic that the only result of the union would be the inevitable and irreparable breakdown of the marriage. [Santos v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 112019 (1995), Tan-Andal v. Andal, G.R. No. 196359 (2021)]

▪ Look up and review the guidelines for interpretation of Psychological incapacity under Art. 36 under the Molina Doctrine [Republic v. Molina,

G.R. No. 108763 (1997)] as modified by the case of Tan-Andal v. Andal,

G.R. No. 196359 (2021) (in bold) ▪ The burden of proof to show the nullity of the marriage belongs to the plaintiff, who must prove their case with clear and convincing evidence. ▪ The incapable spouse’s personality structure, manifested

through clear acts of dysfunctionality that undermine the family, must make it impossible for him or her to understand and, more important, to comply with his or her essential marital obligations. Proof of these aspects of personality need not be given by an expert. Ordinary witnesses who have been present in the life of the spouses before the latter contracted marriage may testify on behaviors that they have consistently observed from the supposedly incapacitated spouse.

▪ The incapacity must be proven to be existing at "the time of the celebration" of the marriage. ▪ Such incapacity must also be shown to be legally incurable, where

the incapacity is so enduring and persistent with respect to a specific partner, and contemplates a situation where the couple's respective personality structures are so incompatible and antagonistic that the only result of the union would be the inevitable and irreparable breakdown of the marriage.

▪ Such illness must be grave enough to bring about the disability of the party to assume the essential obligations of marriage. It must

be shown that the incapacity is caused by a genuinely serious psychic cause.

▪ The essential marital obligations must be those embraced by Articles 68 up to 71 of the Family Code as regards the husband and wife as well as Articles 220, 221 and 225 of the same Code in

regard to parents and their children, but not all kinds of failure to

meet their obligations to their children will nullify the vinculum between the spouses. In each case, it must be clearly shown that it is of such grievous nature that it reflects on the capacity of one of the spouses for marriage.

▪ Interpretations given by the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, while not controlling or decisive, should be given great respect by our courts.

VOIDABLE MARRIAGES

◦ What are the Grounds for Annulment? ▪ One of the parties is 18 or above but below 21 years old, and there is no parental consent. ▪ Either party was of unsound mind (insanity). ▪ The consent of either party was obtained through fraud: ▪ Through non-disclosure of a previous conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude; ▪ Through concealment by the wife of the fact that at the time of the marriage she was pregnant by another man; ▪ Through concealment of a sexually transmitted disease, regardless of its nature, existing at the time of marriage; ▪ Through concealment of drug addiction, habitual alcoholism or homosexuality/lesbianism [Rabuya, 311]

▪ The consent of either party was obtained through force, intimidation, or undue influence. ▪ Either party is physically incapable of consummating the marriage (impotence). ▪ Either party has a serious and incurable sexually transmissible disease, even if not concealed. [Art. 45, Family Code]

LEGAL SEPARATION

◦ What are the Grounds for Legal Separation? ▪ Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, ▪ Physical violence or moral pressure to change religious or political affiliation, ▪ Attempt to corrupt the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement, ▪ Final judgement sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than 6 years, ▪ Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism, ▪ Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent, ▪ Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage whether in the Philippines or abroad,

▪ Sexual infidelity, ▪ Attempt against the life of the petitioner, or ▪ Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than 1 year. [Art. 55, Family Code]

◦ What are the Defenses against Legal Separation? ▪ Where the aggrieved party has condoned the offense or act complained of, ▪ Where the aggrieved party has consented to the commission of the offense or act complained of, ▪ Where there is connivance between the parties in the commission of the offense or act constituting the ground for legal separation, ▪ Where both parties have given ground for legal separation, ▪ Where there is collusion between the parties to obtain legal separation, or ▪ Where the action is barred by prescription. [Art. 56, Civil Code]

◦ What are the Effects of a Legal Separation Decree? ▪ The innocent spouse may revoke the donations made by him or her in favor of the offending spouse, as well as the designation of the latter as beneficiary in any insurance policy, even if such designation be stipulated as irrevocable. The revocation of the donations shall be recorded in the registries of property in the places where the properties are located. Alienations, liens and encumbrances registered in good faith before the recording of the complaint for revocation in the registries of property shall be respected. The revocation of or change in the designation of the insurance beneficiary shall take effect upon written notification thereof to the insured. [Art. 64, Civil Code] ▪ If the spouses should reconcile, a corresponding joint manifestation under oath duly signed by them shall be filed with the court in the same proceeding for legal separation. [Art. 65, Civil Code] ▪ The reconciliation referred to in the preceding Articles shall have the following consequences: ▪ The legal separation proceedings, if still pending, shall thereby be terminated at whatever stage; and ▪ The final decree of legal separation shall be set aside, but the separation of property and any forfeiture of the share of the guilty spouse already effected shall subsist, unless the spouses agree to revive their former property regime. ▪ The court’s order containing the foregoing shall be recorded in the proper civil registries. [Art. 66, Civil Code]

◦ Foreign Divorces ▪ By reason of comity, the Supreme Court allows recognition of divorces between foreigners and Filipinos, if these divorces are held valid in a foreigner's state. [Tenchavez v. Escano, G.R. No. L-19671, (1965) and compare with the later case of Republic v. Manalo, G.R. No. 221029 (2018)]