95.

Republic vs Pangasinan

Danny and Josephine are couple for 30 years. They’ve 3

children.

Initially they live harmoniously in fact they were business

partners.

Later in life however they were fighting incessantly

resulting to the filing of RA9262 (vawc) and petition for
annulment by the wife, later withdrawn and have petition
for legal separation instead.

On the 30th year it’s the husband who’s filing annulment on

the ground of Josephine’s psychological incapacity.

He cited Josephine’s domineering behavior and making

trivial matters turning into a big fight. She is allegedly self-
centered.

RTC declared both as psychologically incapacitated, hence,

the marriage is void as the parties failed to establish a
functional family and for failure to comply their marital
obligations as narrated by Dr.Dayan , a psychologist. CA
affirmed RTC’s ruling.

The OSG contends that Danilo failed to prove that

Josephine's psychological incapacity is a medically rooted
psychological affliction that was incurable and existing at
the inception of their marriage.

It further avers that the gravity, antecedence, root cause

and incurability of Josephine's psychological incapacity
were not established by the evidence of respondent in
accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Court
in Molina.

Issue : whether or not the totality of evidence presented

warrants the declaration of nullity of Danilo and
Josephine's marriage based on their psychological
incapacity under Article 36 of the Family Code.

Ruling :

Petition is meritorious.

Psychological incapacity," as a ground to nullify marriage

under Article 36 of the Family Code, should refer to no less
than a mental—not merely physical—incapacity that
causes a party to be truly incognitive of the basic marital
covenants that concomitantly must be assumed and
discharged by the parties to the marriage which, as so
expressed in Article 68 of the Code, among others, include
their mutual obligations to live together, observe love,
respect and fidelity and render help and support.

Psychological incapacity must be characterized by

(a) gravity,
(b) juridical antecedence, and
(c) incurability.

According to the court the evidence failed to support that

the root cause of Josephine's personality disorder
antedated the marriage since witnesses’ testimonies
covered circumstances that transpired after the marriage.