PERSONS AND FAMILY Essential Requisites: 1.

Legal Capacity Age requirement (at least 18 years old) Sex of the parties Absence of legal impediments mentioned in ART 37 and 38 of the family code

2. Consent Formal Requisites 1. Authority of Solemnizing officer 2. Valid marriage license 3. Marriage ceremony Impediments Between ascendants and descendants of any age Between brothers and sisters Between collateral blood relatives Between step-parents and step-children Between parents in law and children in law Between adopting parent and the adopted child Between the surviving spouse of the adopting parent and the adopted child Between the surviving spouse of the adopted child and the adopter Between the adopted child and the legitimate child of the adopter Between adopted children of the same adopter Between parties where one, with the intention to marry the other, killed that other persons spouse, or his or her own spouse.

The absence of any of the essential or formal requisites shall render the marriage void ab initio, except as stated in article 35(2) A defect in any of the essential requisites shall render the marriage voidable as provided in art 45. A marriage which preceded the issuance of the marriage license is void Failure of the parties to sign the marriage certificate will not affect the validity of the marriage

Three things required in a marriage ceremony.

1. Personal appearance of the contracting parties before a solemnizing officer 2. Their personal declaration that they take each other s husband and wife, which can also be by nodding the head or by sign. 3. That the said declaration should be done in the presence of the solemnizing officer and at least two witnesses of legal age.

Marriages among Muslims or members of the ethnic cultural communities may be solemnized without need of securing marriage license. Marriage license must be issued by the local civil registrar of the city of municipality where either contracting party habitually resides. Signature and official title of the person issuing the certificate shall be sufficient proof of its validity. If citizen of a foreign country, should obtain certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage issued by their diplomatic or consular officials. Stateless persons or refugees should submit an affidavit stating the circumstances. Validity of marriage license should be 120 days from the date of issue.

Distribution of Marriage Certificate 1. Original to the contracting parties 2. Local civil registrar 3. Place where the marriage was solemnized 4. Solemnizing officer

The mere fact that no record of marriage exists in the registry of marriage does not invalidate the marriage, as long as in the celebration thereof all requisites for its validity are present.

Exemption from marriage license. 1. Either or both contracting parties are at point of death 2. If residence of either party is located in a place where there is no means of transportation 3. Marriages among muslims and members of the ethnic groups 4. Marriage between a man and a woman who lived together as husband and wife for at least five years and without any legal impediment to marry ach other. Void marriage is deemed to never have taken place before and cannot be source of rights Voidable marriage is considered valid and produces all its civil effects until it is set aside by final judgment of a competent court in action for annulment. Characteristics of psychological incapacity: 1. Gravity 2. Juridical antecedence

3. Incurability

The burden of proof to show the nullity of the marriage belongs to the plaintiff. Any doubt should be resolved in favor of the existence and continuance of marriage against nullity and its dissolution. One who enters into a subsequent marriage without first obtaining such judicial declaration is guilty of bigamy. Without a judicial declaration of nullity the first marriage is presumed to be existing

Grounds for annulment 1. No parental consent 2. Unsoundness of mind during the celebration of marriage 3. Fraud 4. Force, intimidation, or undue influence 5. Physical incapability of consummating marriage 6. Sexually transmissible disease Unsoundness of mind requires that action for annulment be filed before the death of either spouse Fraud annulment must be within years after discovery of the fraud Grounds for legal separation 1. Repeated physical violence or any abusive conduct against the petitioner, common children, or children of the petitioner 2. Attempt of the respondent to induce the petitioner or common child or child of the petitioner to engage in prostitution or connivance in such corruption or inducement 3. Physical violence or moral pressure to compel petitioner to change religion or political affiliation 4. Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years, even if pardoned 5. Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent 6. Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent 7. Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad 8. Sexual infidelity or perversion 9. Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner 10.Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year. Defenses in legal separation 1. Condonation 2. Consent

3. Connivance 4. Collusion 5. Recrimination Connivance involves criminality on the part of the individual who connives Collusion collude in the manipulation of evidence