CIVIL LAW REVIEW I LECTURE SERIES

Articles 37 to 51, New Civil Code

Articles 1 to 26, Family Code of the Philippines

For: University of San Agustin School of Law

General Luna Street, Iloilo City

SY 2016-2017, 1st Semester

By: Atty. Eduardo T. Reyes, III

Article 37.

II. Juridical Capacity v. Capacity to Act

Juridical Capacity- the FITNESS to be the subject of legal relations, is inherent in every natural person
and is lost only through death.

Capacity to Act- which is the POWER to do acts with legal effect, is acquired and may be lost.

Restrictions on Capacity to Act.

1) Minority

2) Insanity or imbecility

3) The state of being a deaf-mute;

4) Prodigality; and,

5) Civil Interdiction

Circumstances that MODIFY or LIMIT Capacity to Act

1) Age

2) Insanity

3) Imbecility

4) The state of being a deaf-mute

5) Penalty

6) Prodigality

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7) Family relations

8) Alienage

9) Absence

10) Insolvency; and

11) Trusteeship

PERSONS

1. Persons. Article 44, NCC

Hydrological jurisprudence. try me a river[1]. The new law that declares the Whanganui river, New
Zealands third longest, a legal person, in the sense that it can own property, incur debts and petition the
courts, is not unprecedented. Te, Urewara, an area of forested hills in the north-east that used to be a
national park, became a person for legal purposes in 2014. X x xTwo guardians will act for the river, and
one by the iwi tribe. X x x India then followed suit when an Indian court declared two of the biggest and
most sacred rivers in India, the Ganges and Yamuna, to be people too. X x x Making explicit reference to
the Whanganui settlement, the court assigned legal parents to protect and conserve their waters. Local
lawyers think the ruling might help fight sever pollution: the rivers defenders will no longer have to prove
that discharges into them harm anyone, since sullying the waters will now be a crime against the river
itself. There is no doubt that of the 1.3 bn-odd people in India, the Ganges and the Yamuna are the most
downtrodden

Natural Persons. Birth determines personality.

Exception: Presumptive personality. A conceived child shall be considered born for all purposes that are
favorable to it provided it be born alive.

For civil purposes, the fetus (with intra-uterine life of at least seven months) is considered born if it is
alive at the time it is completely delivered from the mothers womb.

However, if the fetus had an intra-uterine life of less than seven months- it is not deemed born if it dies
within twenty-four hours after its complete delivery from the maternal womb.

BAR QUESTION (1999)- A donation is made in favor of a fetus inside the mothers womb. Is the donation
valid? Discuss.

- Quimiguing v. Icao, 34 SCRA 132- Suit was filed for support of an unborn child which resulted from
seduction.

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NEW FAMILY CODE (R.A. No. 6809, December 18, 1989).

Article 1. Marriage is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered
into in accordance with the 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.

- No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity,
devotion, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they
were.(Justice Anthony Kennedy (On Decision upholding same-sex marriage in the United States).

Marriage as a civil contract

Petitioner filed for annulment of marriage on ground of failure of consideration because he only
wanted to give a name to the child in respondents womb, which however was never born.

It is not possible to have a marriage for one purpose and no marriage at all for other purposes, for
marriage is not only a contract but a status and a kind of fealty to the State as well x x x.[1]

Thus, rules governing rescission of civil contracts do not obtain in the annulment of marriage
conundrum

The reservations kept in the deep recesses of the heart of the spouse at the time of entering into
marriage are of no consequence for as long as he knows that what he is entering into is a marriage

Art. 1351, NCC- The particular motives of the parties in entering into a contract are different from
the cause thereof.

Marriage in jest v. Marriage for financial consideration

Republic v. Albios[2]. limited-purpose marriage. Marriage for convenience. For Immigration

purposes

Motives for entering into a marriage are varied and complex. The State does not and cannot
dictate on the kind of life that a couple chooses to lead. Any attempt to regulate their lifestyle would go
into the realm of their right to privacy and would raise serious constitutional questions. The right to
marital privacy allows married couples to structure their marriages in almost any way they see fit, to live
together or live apart, to have children or no children, to love one another or not, and so on. Thus,
marriages entered into for other purposes, limited or otherwise, such as convenience, companionship.
Money, status and title provided that they comply with all the legal requisites are equally valid. Love,
though the ideal consideration in a marriage contract, is not the only valid cause for marriage.

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Marriage is insulated against:

Discriminatory policies such as: (1)terminating a female employee who contracts marriage (PT&T v.
NLRC, 272 SCRA 596) (2) PAL cases on female flight attendants becoming pregnant

Jealous wife rummages through office files of husband and discovers damning evidence of infidelity.
(Zulueta v. Court of Appeals, 253SCRA 699).

BUT, is there something in the Constitution that prohibits Absolute divorce?

In Sta. Barbara, California, USA, a website was put-up for struggling college students who can barely
make it through college where they could post their profiles and find a sugar-daddy who will finance
their tuition in exchange for companionship and sex.

States that attempt to close that loophole fail, says Scott Cunningham, an Economics professor at
Baylor University in Texas who has studied prostitution markets. Proposed legislation against the
practice might, he says, inadvertently prohibit marriage- which could, after all, be defined as intercourse
for financial support[3].

Article 2. No marriage shall be valid, unless these essential requisites are present:

1)Legal capacity of the contracting parties who must be a male and a female; and

2)Consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer.

Article 3. The formal requisites of marriage are:

1)Authority of the solemnizing officer;

2)A valid marriage license except in the cases provided for in Chapter 2 of this Title; and

3)A marriage ceremony which takes place 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.

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Article 4. The absence of any of the essential or formal requisites shall render the marriage void ab
initio, except as stated in Article 35 (2).

A defect in any of the essential or formal requisites shall render the marriage voidable as
provided in Article 45.

An irregularity in the formal requisites shall not affect the validity of the marriage but the party
or parties responsible for the irregularity shall be civilly, criminally and administratively liable.

Article 5. Any male or female of the age of eighteen years or upwards not under any of the
impediments mentioned in Articles 37 and 38, may contract marriage.

Article 6. No prescribed form or religious rite for the solemnization of the marriage is required. It shall
be necessary, however, for the contracting parties to personally appear before the solemnizing officer
and declare in the presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age that they take each other as
husband and wife. This declaration shall be contained in the marriage certificate which shall be signed
by the contracting parties and their witnesses and attested by the solemnizing officer.

In case of a marriage in articulo mortis, when the party at the point of death is unable to sign
the marriage certificate, it shall be sufficient for one of the witnesses to the marriage to write the
name of said party, which facts shall be attested by the solemnizing officer.

Article 7. Marriage may be solemnized by:

1) Any incumbent member of the judiciary within the courts jurisdiction;

x x x

- Marriage must be between male and female. This is a statutory requirement, not Constitutional

- Effect of Sex Change

- Silverio v. Republic[4] doctrine v. Republic v. Cagandahan[5] ruling

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH)

Navarro v. Domagtoy, A.M. No. MTJ 06-1088, July 19, 1996

Where judge solemnizes a marriage outside his courts jurisdiction, there is a resultant irregularity
in the formal requisite laid down in Article 3 which while it may not affect the validity of the marriage
may subject the officiating official to administrative liability.

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 Just an obiter-dictum. Non observance of this rule is not a mere irregularity because it generally
makes the marriage void.

Article 22. The marriage certificate, x x x

-Proof of Marriage. Circado-Belison v. Circado, Jr. (2015)[6]

-Contrato Matrimonial issued by Church of Filipino Independiente, Sec. 20, Rule 132- Is a private
document

-Earlier baptismal certificate v. Later Certificate of Marriage from Local Civil Registrar

Article 26. All marriages solemnized outside the Philippines, in accordance with the laws in force in
the country where they were solemnized, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country,
except those prohibited under Articles 35 (1), (4), (5) and (6), 36, 37 and 38.

Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce
is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the
Filipino spouse shall likewise have capacity to remarry under Philippine law.

Gen. Rule- Lex Loci Celebrationes

Exception: nationality principle & Article 17 on Prohibitive Laws, and Articles 35 (1), (4), (5) and (6), 36,
37 and 38.

- minor, bigamous marriage, mistake in identity, subsequent void marriage, psychological incapacity,
bigamous, incestuous marriages and contrary to public policy.

- Mixed-Marriage

- RECKONING POINT. For purposes of Article 26 therefore, the DETERMINATIVE POINTwhen the
foreigner is at THE TIME OF THE DIVORCE and not at the time of marriage[7].

- Dual Citizen. In the event that the former Filipino spouse who has been naturalized as a foreign
citizen decides to return to the Philippines and reacquire Philippine citizenship, the divorce decree will
still be recognized here because at the time of the issuance of the decree of divorce and at the time of
the issuance of the decree of divorce, he or she was not a citizen of the Philippines[8].

- May the foreigner spouse avail of the benefits of the 2nd paragraph of Article 26?

- Hypotheticals:

1) X, an American; and Y, a Filipino, got married. If X obtains a divorce decree abroad which capacities
him to remarry. May X file a petition to dissolve his marriage in the Philippine courts?

2) A and B, both Filipinos, are spouses. They emigrated to the US, embraced US citizenship and there
obtained a Divorce decree. A, the husband, returns to the Philippines and meets and falls in love with a

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Filipino. When he wanted to marry the Filipina, he presented the divorce decree to the local civil
registrar who refused to accept it and required him to present a court order from a Philippine court
which dissolves his marriage with B before a marriage license will be issued. Is the Local Civil Registrar
correct?

3) In question No. 1, if it is Y, the Filipino spouse, who will file the petition, what legal provision should
she invoke? In which court should she file her petition?

4) In question No. 2, where will A file his petition? And what procedure will be applied by the court
once such petition is filed?

- Read: Corpus v. Sto. Tomas[9], Bayot v. Court of Appeals[10], Roehr v. Rodriguez[11].