54.
4 Consent is Obtained Through Force, Intimidation, or Undue Influence:
(a) Requisites for Duress (Violence and Intimidation):
(i) It must be the determining cause of the contract;
(ii) It must be unjust or unlawful;
(iii) It must be serious or grave; and
(iv) It must have produced a reasonable and well-grounded fear from the fact that the
person who employed it has the necessary means to inflict the threatened injury.
(b) If claim is just: A threat to enforce once claim through competent authority, if the claim is
just or legal, does not vitiate consent.
54.5 Either Party was Physically Incapable of Consummating the Marriage (Impotence):
(a) Reminder: The ground refers to impotency or physical inability to perform the act of sexual
intercourse, not sterility or the inability to recreate. Art. 45(5) of the family code refers to
lack of power to copulate. Incapacity to consummate denotes the permanent inability on the
part of the spouses to perform the complete act of sexual intercourse. Non-consummation
of a marriage maybe on the part of the husband or of the wife and may be caused by a
physical or structural defect in the anatomy of one of the parties, or it may be due to chronic
illness and inhabitation of fears arising in whole or in the part from psychophysical
conditions. It may be caused by a psychogenic causes where such mental block or
disturbance has the result of making the spouse physically incapable of performing the
marriage act.
(b) Requisites:
(i) Incapacity must be existing at the time of the marriage;
(ii) It continues up to the time of filing of petition of for annulment;
(iii) It appears to be incurable; and
(iv) It must be unknown to the injured party at the time of the marriage.
(c) Burden of proof: The law presumes potency. Hence, the burden of proof is upon the injured
party who alleges the existence of impotency. But if the wife remains a virgin after three
years of cohabitation, the husband will be presumed impotent under the doctrine of
“triennial cohabitation”
54.6 Either Party was Afflicted with STD which is Serious and Incurable:
(a) Requisites:
(i) The STD must have existed at the time of the marriage;
(ii) It is unknown to the injured party;
(iii) The injured party himself or herself was not afflicted with the disease of the same
nature; and
(iv) It must be serious and appears to be incurable.
(b) Article 45(6) compared with Article 46(3):
(i) In Article 45(6), the ground is the existence of the STD itself; in Article 46(3), the
ground is concealment of the STD;
(ii) In Article 45(6), the STD is required to be serious and incurable; in Article 46(3),
regardless of its nature.
55) Effects of Annulment Decree
(1) Termination of the marital bond but the former spouses must comply with the requirements of
Article 52 of the FC if any of them wishes to remarry; otherwise, the subsequent marriage will be
void but there is no criminal liability for bigamy.
(2) Children of the terminated marriage are considered legitimate, if conceived or born prior to the
finality of the judgment of annulment, but parental authority and custody shall be exercised by
the parent designated by the court. In matters of custody, the paramount criterion is the welfare
of the child. However, if the child is under seven years of age, the law presumes that the mother
is the best custodian, unless the court finds compelling reasons to deprive her of custody. The
non-custodial parent is entitled, however, to visitation rights.
(3) Dissolution and liquidation of the absolute community or conjugal partnership, as the case may
be. However, if either party contracted the marriage in bad faith, his or her share in the “net
profits” shall be forfeited in favor of: (i) common children; (ii) in default thereof, children of the
guilty spouse by a previous marriage; or (iii) in default thereof, the innocent spouse.
(4) Effect on donation propter nuptias:
(a) General rule: The donation propter nuptias shall remain valid.
(b) Exception: But if the donee acted in bad faith, the donor may revoke the donation.
(c) Reminder: The donation is revocable at the instance of the donor, even in the absence of a
judgment of annulment if the marriage is voidable by reason of lack of parental consent.
(5) The innocent spouse may revoke the designation of the other spouse who acted in bad faith as
beneficiary in the insurance policy of the former, even if the designation be stipulated as
irrevocable.
(6) The spouse who contracted the marriage in bad faith shall be disqualified to inherit from the
innocent spouse by testate and intestate succession.
