A declaration of absolute nullity of marriage applies to marriages that are considered void ab initio (void from the very beginning). These marriages are deemed never to have taken place and produce no legal effects, except those specifically declared by law regarding properties and children.
Here are the key legal principles governing the declaration of nullity of marriage under Philippine law:
1. Grounds for Declaration of Nullity
A petition for declaration of nullity may be filed on the following grounds:
- Absence of Essential or Formal Requisites (Art. 35): Marriages contracted by parties below 18 years of age; solemnized by an unauthorized person (unless parties believed in good faith they had authority); solemnized without a valid marriage license; bigamous or polygamous marriages; and marriages contracted through mistake in identity.
- Psychological Incapacity (Art. 36): When a party was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations at the time of the celebration of the marriage.
- Incestuous Marriages (Art. 37): Marriages between ascendants and descendants, or between brothers and sisters (full or half-blood).
- Void by Reason of Public Policy (Art. 38): Marriages between collateral blood relatives up to the fourth civil degree, step-parents and step-children, parents-in-law and children-in-law, the adopter and the adopted, or parties where one killed the other’s spouse to marry them.
- Non-compliance with Article 52 (Art. 53): A subsequent marriage contracted without recording the judgment of nullity/annulment of a previous marriage, the partition of properties, and the delivery of children’s presumptive legitimes.
- Child Marriages: Under R.A. No. 11596, child marriages are void ab initio.
2. Psychological Incapacity (The Tan-Andal Doctrine)
For petitions based on psychological incapacity (Art. 36), the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Tan-Andal v. Andal significantly modified the rules:
- Legal, Not Medical Concept: Psychological incapacity is no longer viewed as a medical illness or personality disorder that must be clinically identified. It refers to a “personality structure” that makes it impossible for the spouse to understand and comply with essential marital obligations.
- Expert Testimony Not Required: Because it is not a medical illness, the testimony of a psychiatrist or psychologist is no longer mandatory. Ordinary witnesses who observed the spouse’s dysfunctional behavior before and during the marriage can testify.
- Characteristics: It must still be characterized by gravity (a genuinely serious psychic cause, not mere refusal or neglect), juridical antecedence (existing at the time of celebration, though manifesting later), and incurability (in the legal sense, meaning the spouses are so incompatible that the breakdown of the marriage is inevitable and irreparable).
- Burden of Proof: The petitioner must prove the incapacity through clear and convincing evidence.
3. Necessity of a Judicial Declaration
- General Rule for Remarriage: The absolute nullity of a previous marriage may be invoked for purposes of remarriage only on the basis of a final judgment declaring the previous marriage void (Article 40).
- Exception in Criminal Cases (Bigamy): In the recent case of Pulido v. People, the Supreme Court ruled that an accused in a bigamy case can raise the defense that their first or second marriage was void ab initio without needing a prior judicial declaration of nullity.
4. Who May File and Prescription
- Who May File: As a general rule, under A.M. No. 02-11-10-SC, only the husband or the wife can file a direct petition for declaration of absolute nullity.
- Exceptions for Third Parties:
- In bigamous marriages, the legal spouse of the prior subsisting marriage has the personality to file the petition.
- Compulsory or intestate heirs cannot file a direct petition for nullity, but they can collaterally attack the validity of the void marriage in a proceeding for the settlement of the deceased spouse’s estate to protect their successional rights.
- Prescription: The action or defense for the declaration of absolute nullity of a marriage does not prescribe.
5. Legal Consequences of a Declaration of Nullity
- Property Relations: The property regime of a void marriage is governed by the rules on co-ownership (Article 147 if the parties had no legal impediment to marry, such as in Art. 36 cases; or Article 148 if there was a legal impediment, such as in bigamous marriages), rather than Absolute Community of Property or Conjugal Partnership of Gains.
- Status of Children: Generally, children born out of void marriages are illegitimate. Exceptions: Children conceived or born of marriages declared void under Article 36 (psychological incapacity) and Article 53 (failure to record partition) are considered legitimate.
- Donations: Donations propter nuptias remain valid, but if the donee contracted the marriage in bad faith, the donor may revoke the donation.
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