G.R. No.

109975 | February 9, 2001

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, petitioner, vs. ERLINDA MATIAS
DAGDAG, respondents.

DIGEST
By: Eunice Saavedra

FACTS: Petitioner and private respondent met in 1977 at the Philippine Christian
University in Dasmarias, Cavite. Petitioner, who is five years older than private
respondent, was then in her first year of teaching zoology and botany. Private
respondent, a college freshman, was her student for two consecutive semesters. They
became sweethearts in February 1979 when she was no longer private respondents
teacher. On January 1, 1981, they were married. Out of their marriage, three (3)
children were born, namely, Maie, Lyra, and Marian.

However, on July 10, 1992, petitioner filed a petition seeking the annulment of her
marriage to private respondent on the ground of psychological incapacity of the latter.
She alleged that from the time of their marriage up to the time of the filing of the suit,
private respondent failed to perform his obligation to support the family and contribute
to the management of the household, devoting most of his time engaging in drinking
sprees with his friends. She further claimed that private respondent, after they were
married, cohabited with another woman with whom he had an illegitimate child, while
having affairs with different women, and that, because of his promiscuity, private
respondent endangered her health by infecting her with a sexually transmissible
disease (STD). She averred that private respondent was irresponsible, immature and
unprepared for the duties of a married life. Lastly, she averred that the respondent
abandoned her and their children.

RTC denied Lucitas petition ruling that the grounds in her petition are for legal
separation and not for psychological incapacity under Article 36.

On appeal, CA affirmed RTC and further ruled that the grounds of Lucita for
Respondents psychological incapacity did not, as required under Article 36, occur at
the time of her marriage with the respondent.

ISSUE: WON Respondents (Mario) habitual alcoholism, infidelity, STD

transmitting to petitioner, abandonmen, irresponsiblity and imaturity constitute
psychological incapacity under Article 36 of the New family Code?

LAW: Article 36, Family Code. A marriage contracted by any party who, at the
time of the celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential
marital obligations of marriage, shall likewise be void even if such incapacity becomes
manifest only after its solemnization

DECISION: No. As held in Santos v. Court of Appeals, Psychological incapacity

should refer to no less than a mental (not 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 by Article 68 of the
Family Code, include their mutual obligations to live together, observe love, respect and
fidelity and render help and support. There is hardly any doubt that the intendment of the
law has been to confine the meaning of psychological incapacity to the most serious cases
of personality disorders clearly demonstrative of an utter insensitivity or inability to give
meaning and significance to the marriage. This psychological condition must exist at the
time the marriage is celebrated.

Furthermore, the other forms of psychoses, if existing at the inception of

marriage, like the state of a party being of unsound mind or concealment of drug
addiction, habitual alcoholism, homosexuality or lesbianism, merely renders the
marriage contract voidable pursuant to Article 46, Family Code.

If drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, lesbianism or homosexuality should occur

only during the marriage, they become mere grounds for legal separation under Article
55 of the Family Code. These provisions of the Code, however, do not necessarily
preclude the possibility of these various circumstances being themselves, depending on
the degree and severity of the disorder, indicia of psychological incapacity.

In the instant case, other than her self-serving declarations, petitioner failed to
establish the fact that at the time they were married, private respondent was suffering
from a psychological defect which in fact deprived him of the ability to assume the
essential duties of marriage and its concomitant responsibilities. In other words, there
was no evidence was presented to show that private respondent was not cognizant of
the basic marital obligations.

The court upheld the case of Molina (Republic v CA) holding that the root cause of
the psychological incapacity must be: (a) medically or clinically identified, (b) alleged in
the complaint, (c) sufficiently proven by experts and (d) clearly explained in the
decision. Article 36 of the Family Code requires that the incapacity must be
psychological not physical, although its manifestations and/or symptoms may be
physical.

In the present case, expert testimony should have been presented to establish the
precise cause of private respondents psychological incapacity, if any, in order to show
that it existed at the inception of the marriage. The burden of proof to show the nullity
of the marriage rests upon petitioner.