VOID MARRIAGES

VOID MARRIAGES

• Void Ab Initio under Article 35

1. Contracted by any party below 18 years old

2. Solemnized by unauthorized solemnizing officer (Except if either or both parties believed in good faith that the officer had authority)

3. Solemnized without license (Except when license not required)

4. Bigamous or polygamous marriages (Except Article 41 – marriage contracted by a person whose spouse has been absent for 4 years (ordinary absence) or 2 years (extraordinary absence) where such person has a well founded belief that his/her absent spouse was already dead and after the absent spouse is judicially is declared presumptively dead

5. Mistake in identity

6. Subsequent marriage void under Article 53
• Article 53 provides that a person whose marriage has been annulled may remarry as long as he complies with Art. 52 which requires that after the marriage is annulled the properties of the spouses must be partitioned and distributed and the presumptive legitime of the children must be distributed. Furthermore, the judgment of annulment or absolute nullity, the partition and distribution of the spouses’ properties and the delivery of the children’s presumptive legitime must be recorded in the appropriate civil registry and registries of property. Failure to comply with these requisites will make the subsequent marriage void ab initio.

NOTE: The enumeration of void marriages under Art 35 is not exclusive.

Void under Article 36: where one party, who at the time of the celebration of the marriage, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations

VOID FOR BEING INCESTUOUS

1. Between ascendants and descendants of any degree

2. Between brothers and sisters, whether full or half blood

VOID FOR REASON OF PUBLIC POLICY:

1. Between collateral blood relatives up to the 4th civil degree

2. Between step-parents and step-children

3. Between parents-in law and children-in law

4. Between adopting parent and adoptive child

5. Between surviving spouse of the adopter and the adopted

6. Between surviving spouse of the adopted and the adopter

7. Between adopted and legitimate child of adopter

8. Between adopted children of same adopter

9. Between parties where one with the intention to marry the other, killed that the other person’s spouse or his/her own spouse

RULE ON BIGAMOUS MARRIAGE (ARTICLE 41)

General Rule: Marriage contracted by any person during the subsistence of a previous marriage is VOID

Exception: If before the celebration of the subsequent marriage, the prior spouse had been absent for 4 consecutive years (ordinary absence) or 2 years (extraordinary absence) and the spouse has a well-founded belief that the absent spouse was already dead. In this case, the subsequent marriage is valid but it shall be automatically terminated by the recording of the affidavit of reappearance of the absent spouse.

Exception to Exception: If both spouses of the subsequent marriage acted in bad faith, such marriage is void ab initio.