Annulment of Marriage

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Under Philippine law, annulment applies to both marriages and contracts that are considered voidable. A voidable marriage or contract is perfectly valid and binding, producing all civil effects, until it is invalidated or set aside by a final judgment of a competent court,,.

Here are the legal principles governing the annulment of marriages and contracts:

1. Annulment of Marriage

An action for annulment of marriage applies to unions where the essential requisites are present, but consent was defective at the time of the celebration.

Grounds for Annulment (Article 45, Family Code):

• Lack of Parental Consent: If a party was 18 but below 21 years old and married without the consent of parents or guardians,.
• Unsoundness of Mind: If either party was insane or of unsound mind at the time of the marriage,.
• Fraud: If consent was obtained through fraud. The law strictly limits this to four exclusive circumstances (Article 46):
  1. Concealment of a previous conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude.
  2. Concealment by the wife of her pregnancy by another man.
  3. Concealment of a sexually transmissible disease (STD).
  4. Concealment of drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, or homosexuality/lesbianism.
• Force, Intimidation, or Undue Influence: If consent was coerced and deprived the party of free will.
• Physical Incapacity (Impotence): If either party was physically incapable of consummating the marriage (impotentia copulandi), and the incapacity continues and appears incurable,.
• Serious and Incurable STD: If either party was afflicted with a serious and incurable sexually transmissible disease unknown to the other,.

Defenses and Prescription:

• Ratification: A voidable marriage can generally be ratified (cured) by free cohabitation after the party comes of age, regains sanity, discovers the fraud, or after the force/intimidation ceases,. Note: Impotence and serious STDs cannot be ratified by cohabitation, but the action will eventually prescribe.
• Prescription: The action to annul generally prescribes in five (5) years from the discovery of fraud, the cessation of force, or from the date of the marriage (for impotence and STDs),.

Legal Consequences of Annulment:

• Status of Children: Children conceived or born before the judgment of annulment becomes final are considered legitimate,.
• Property Regime: The absolute community or conjugal partnership of gains is dissolved and liquidated,. If either spouse acted in bad faith, their share in the net profits is forfeited in favor of the common children or the innocent spouse,.
• Donations and Insurance: The innocent spouse may revoke donations propter nuptias and any insurance designations made in favor of the spouse in bad faith,.
• Right to Remarry: The parties are free to remarry, provided they record the judgment, partition of properties, and delivery of children’s presumptive legitimes in the civil registry,.