August 24, 2012 Mr. & Mrs. AB Shaw Blvd.

Mandaluyong City Re: Marriage Annulment & Legitimes Dear Mr. & Mrs. AB In response to your request, we have analyzed the possible grounds that will nullify your marriage. Our firm believes that the invocation of psychological incapacity as a ground for Annulment of your marriage has a great chance of prevailing if the guidelines for that ground are met. Let us further explain the guidelines in a concise and understandable way, the root cause of psychological incapacity must be medically or clinically identified in the alleged complaint that is sufficiently proven by experts e.g. qualified psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. The said incapacity must be psychological not physical although the symptoms maybe physical. The incapacity must be proven to be existing at the time of the celebration of the marriage. The evidence must show that the illness was existing when the parties exchanged their I dos or in the actual celebration of your marriage. The incapacity must also be shown to be medically or clinically permanent or incurable and furthermore such incapacity must be relevant to the assumption of marriage obligations, not necessarily to those not related to marriage, like the exercise of a profession or employment in a job. The illness must be grave enough to bring about the disability of the party to assume the essential obligations of marriage. Thus, mild character peculiarities, mood changes, occasional emotional outbursts cannot be accepted as root causes. These grounds are given in the case of REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, petitioner, vs. COURT OF APPEALS and RORIDEL OLAVIANO MOLINA, respondents. In a more specific way of relating this grounds to a certain situation we can give examples of cases like Antonio vs. Reyes the Supreme Court sustained the nullity of the marriage based on the psychological incapacity of the wife. As concluded by the psychiatrist, the wifes repeated or habitual lying is abnormal and pathological, and amounts to psychological incapacity. We can determine if one of you is psychologically incapacitated with the help of expert witnesses and of course with the help of a more extensive facts that will be given to us. Let us discuss the other situation you have given to us if assuming that your marriage is nullified, what will happen to your properties or in a legal term legitimes of your heirs? In accordance to Law you children will still be considered legitimate even if your marriage has been nullified and because

you were married before the enactment of the Civil Code the property regime that governs your marriage is the Conjugal Partnership of Gains which means that what properties ( paraphernal properties ) you already have before you were married will not be part of the conjugal properties of your marriage but all the earnings, real property or profit acquired during the duration of the marriage shall form part of the conjugal properties, assuming that your marriage is nullified it will terminate the Property Regime as stated in Art. 177 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, just to reiterate the article tells "In case of annulment of the marriage, the spouse who acted in bad faith or gave cause for annulment shall forfeit his or her share of the conjugal partnership profits. The provision of the preceding article shall govern" now Art. 177 also talks about a preceding article which is Art. 176 which states that "In case of legal separation, the guilty spouse shall forfeit his or her share of the conjugal partnership profits, which shall be awarded to the children of both, and the children of the guilty spouse had by a prior marriage. However, if the conjugal partnership property came mostly or entirely from the work or industry, or from the wages and salaries, or from the fruits of the separate property of the guilty spouse, this forfeiture shall not apply. In case there are no children, the innocent spouse shall be entitled to all the net profits."