Report: Article 45 of Family Code of the Philippines

Art. 45. A marriage may be annulled for any of the following causes, existing at the time of the marriage:

(1) That the party in whose behalf it is sought to have the marriage annulled was eighteen years of age or over but below twenty-one, and the marriage was solemnized without the consent of the parents, guardian or person having substitute parental authority over the party, in that order, unless after attaining the age of twenty-one, such party freely cohabited with the other and both lived together as husband and wife;

(2) That either party was of unsound mind, unless such party after coming to reason, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;

(3) That the consent of either party was obtained by fraud, unless such party afterwards, with full knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud, freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;

(4) That the consent of either party was obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence, unless the same having disappeared or ceased, such party thereafter freely cohabited with the other as husband and wife;

(5) That either party was physically incapable of consummating the marriage with the other, and such incapacity continues and appears to be incurable; or

(6) That either party was afflicted with a sexually-transmissible disease found to be serious and appears to be incurable. (85a)

No Parental Consent

The law considers persons of the age of at least 18 years and below 21 years as too immature to be able to comprehend thoroughly the consequences and serious responsibilities of marital relations.

UNPREPAREDNESS OF THE CONTRACTING PARTIES

Financially

Emotionally

Psychologically

Unsound Mind

To successfully invoke unsoundness of mind as a ground for annulment, there must be such a derangement of the mind to prevent the party from comprehending the nature of the contract and from giving to it his free and intelligent consent.

Any form of mental disease that does not direct affect to the contract of marriage cannot be used as a basis for attacking the validity of the marriage

Fraud

Under the Family Code, fraud refers to the non-disclosure or concealment of certain circumstances which materially affect the essence of marriage. Hence, there is NO FRAUD when there is no concealment or there is disclosure.

Concealment of Pregnancy as Fraud

The law limits the fraud to the wife only and not to the husband. According to the Code of Commission, this is because If the wife is pregnant by another man, the husband would be misled in devoting all his attention and care on somebody else’s child. In addition, compared to pregnancy, the fact of the husband’s having a child in a concealed prior relationship is speculative and difficult to prove.

The concealment must have been done in bad faith. Thus, if a woman, after having sexual intercourse with another man previous to the marriage ceremony was diagnosed as NOT PREGNANT because she was completely barren and thereafter married her fiancé believing that she was not pregnant,

The marriage cannot later be annulled even if it turned out that her previous diagnosis was completely wrong and that actually she was really pregnant at the time of the marriage ceremony as a result of her sexual contact with the other man. There was no bad faith on her part. She could not even be guilty of concealment.

Vitiated Consent

One of the essential requisites for a valid marriage is that the consent of both parties must be freely given. Consent must not be obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence.

Incapacity to consummate denotes the permanent inability on the part of one of the spouses to perform the complete act of sexual intercourse.

The incapacity to consummate the marriage must exist at the time of the marriage ceremony.

Example:

The wife involved in an accident which occurred after the marriage ceremony, became paralyzed which physically incapacitated her from consummating the marriage, it was held that the marriage cannot be annulled as the incapability did not exist at the time of the marriage ceremony

Sexually Transmissible Disease

If the sexually transmissible disease were concealed at the time of the marriage ceremony, it constitutes fraud.

If the STD is not concealed, it can still be a ground for annulment of marriage but, to successfully invoke this ground, the sexually transmissible disease, unlike in case of fraud, must be found to be serious and incurable.