I.

State whether the following marital unions are valid, void, or voidable, and give the
corresponding justifications for your answer:

a. Ador and Becky’s marriage wherein Ador was afflicted with AIDS prior to the marriage.
(2%)

Voidable.

Art. 45, FC provides, among others, that the marriage is voidable if either party was
afflicted with a sexually transmissible disease found to be serious and appears to be
incurable.

Ador was afflicted with AIDS, a serious and incurable sexually transmissible disease.

Hence, his marriage to Becky is voidable.

b. Carlos’ marriage to Dina which took place after Dina had poisoned her previous husband
Edu in order to free herself from any impediment in order to live with Carlos. (2%)

Void.

Art. 38, FC provides, among others, that the marriage shall be void from the beginning
for reason of public policy where one party, with the intention to marry the other, killed
that other person’s spouse, or his or her own spouse.

Dina killed her previous spouse in order to marry Carlos.

Hence, her marriage to Carlos is void.

c. Eli and Fely’s marriage solemnized seven years after the disappearance of Chona, Eli’s
previous spouse, after the plane she had boarded crashed in the West Philippine Sea. (2%)

Void.

Art. 41, FC provides that for purpose of remarriage in a case where the prior spouse had
been absent, the present spouse must institute a summary proceeding for the
declaration of presumptive death of the absentee spouse. Otherwise, the subsequent
marriage is considered bigamous and hence, void.

In the case at bar, Eli, the present spouse, did not institute a Judicial Declaration of
Chona’s Presumptive Death after the period provided by law.

Therefore, in the absence of the required Judicial Declaration of Presumptive Death, Eli
remains married to Chona and his subsequent marriage to Fely is void for being
bigamous under Art. 35, FC.
d. David who married Lina immediately the day after obtaining a judicial decree annulling his
prior marriage to Elisa. (2%)

Void.

The Family Code requires that the judgment of annulment, partition and distribution of
the properties of the spouses, and the delivery of the presumptive legitimes of their
children be recorded in the appropriate civil registry prior to the contracting of
subsequent marriage; otherwise, the subsequent marriage is void.

David did not comply with the above requirements prior to his subsequent marriage to
Lina. Hence, their marriage is void.

e. Marriage of Zoren and Carmina who did not secure a marriage license prior to their
wedding, but lived together as husband and wife for 10 years without any legal impediment
to marry. (2%)

Valid.

Art. 34, FC exempts from the requirement of marriage license man and woman who
have been living together as husband and wife for at least 5 years before the marriage
without any legal impediment to marry.

Zoren and Carmina lived together as husband and wife for 10 years which is even
beyond the prescribed 5-year period of marital cohabitation without any legal
impediment to marry.

Therefore, notwithstanding the absence of marriage license, the marriage of Zoren and
Carmina is valid.