LEGAL SEPARATION

- It is a legal remedy available to parties in a valid but

failed marriage for the purpose of obtaining a decree
from court for certain reliefs such as the right to live
separately from each other without severing the marital
bond.

It does not dissolve the marriage tie.

It does not authorize the parties to remarry.

 GROUNDS
1. Repeated Physical Violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against
the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner.

- If the physical violence is in the form of an attempt against the life of

the petitioner, it is a separate ground under Par 9.

- The physical violence is also punishable under VAWC (RA 9262)

- If the physical violence is exerted in order for the petitioner to change

religious or political beliefs, it is likewise a ground for legal separation
under Par 2.
- Grossly abusive conduct connotes that the
abuse need not be physical;

- It includes psychological, verbal and sexual

abuse.
2. Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change
religious or political affiliation

- The moral pressure must be exerted against the petitioner.

- If it is directed against a common child, child of the petitioner to

compel said child to change religious or political affiliation, there
is no ground for legal separation.
3. Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common
child or a child of the petitioner to engage in prostitution or connivance in
such corruption or inducement

This is also a punishable act under RA 9262 (VAWC)

4. Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than

six years, even if pardoned.

- Requisites:
a. The sentence imposed is imprisonment of more than six years; and
b. The conviction occurs only after the celebration of the marriage
5. Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent

-To be a ground for legal separation, said cause is required to

arise only after the celebration of the marriage.

6. Lesbianism or Homosexuality of the respondent

7. Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage
whether in the Philippines or abroad

-The mere act of contracting a second or subsequent marriage during the

subsistence of the prior valid marriage as a ground for legal separation,
regardless of the fact that the second marriage is void ab initio other than
the existence of the first marriage.

8. Sexual infidelity or perversion

- It includes all unusual or abnormal sexual practices which may be

offensive to the feelings or sense of decency of either the husband or the
wife.

- If the husband uses force, physical or other harm or threat or intimidation

against his wife for the purpose of satisfying his sexual perversion, the same
also constitutes a punishable act under RA 9262 (VAWC)
9. Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner

-intent to kill is required

10. Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for

more than one year

- Requisites:

a. The abandonment must be without justifiable cause

b. The abandonment must be for more than one year

A spouse is deemed to have abandoned the other when he or she left the
conjugal dwelling without intention of returning.
 DEFENSES IN LEGAL SEPARATION
1. CONDONATION

- It is the conditional forgiveness or remission by a husband or wife of a

matrimonial offense which the other has committed.

- It is conditional forgiveness because the condonation is subject to an implied

condition that the party forgiven will abstain from the commission of the like
offense thereafter.

2. CONSENT

- When either of the spouses agreed to or did not object despite full knowledge to
the act of giviing rise to a ground for legal separation before such act was in fact
committed.
DEFENSES IN LEGAL SEPARATION
3. CONNIVANCE

- Denotes direction, influence, personal exertion or other action

with knowledge and belief that such action would produce
certain results and which results are produced.

- Basis is doctrine of unclean hands

4. RECRIMINATION OR EQUAL GUILT

- Both are in pari delicto

DEFENSES IN LEGAL SEPARATION
5. COLLUSION

- The agreement between husband and wife for one of them to

commit, or to appear to commit, or to be represented in court as
having committed a matrimonial offense, or to suppress
evidence of a valid defense, for the purpose of enabling the
other to obtain a divorce or legal separation.

6. PRESCRIPTION

- Action for legal separation must be filed within five years from
the occurrence of the cause.
 PROCEDURE
1. Mandatory Cooling-Off period (Art 58 -59)

-during this period, the court should take steps toward getting the parties to reconcile
- No legal separation may be decreed unless the Court has taken steps toward the
reconciliation of the spouses and is fully satisfied, despite such efforts, that
reconciliation is highly improbable.

2. Effect of death of either the parties

- Being personal in character, it follows that the death of one party to the action
causes the death of the action itself. (action personalis moritur cum persona)

3. Prohibited Judgment

- No judgment based on stipulation

- No confession of Judgment
4. After the filing of the petition for legal separation, the spouses
shall be entitled to live separately from each other.

5. During the Pendency of the Legal Separation

- Court may issue provisional orders and protection orders with or

without a hearing. These orders may be enforced immediately.
 EFFECTS OF LEGAL SEPARATION
(1) The spouses shall be entitled to live separately from each other,
but the marriage bonds shall not be severed;

- But they are not allowed to remarry

(2) The absolute community or the conjugal partnership shall be

dissolved and liquidated but the offending spouse shall have no right
to any share of the net profits earned by the absolute community or
the conjugal partnership, which shall be forfeited in accordance with
the provisions of Article 43(2);
(3) The custody of the minor children shall be awarded to the innocent
spouse, subject to the provisions of Article 213 of this Code; and

-Parental authority shall be exercised by the parent designated by the court. The court
shall take into account all relevant considerations, especially the choice of the child over
seven years of age, unless the parent chosen is unfit.

-No child under seven years of age shall be separated from the mother, unless the court
finds compelling reasons to order otherwise.

(4) The offending spouse shall be disqualified from inheriting from the
innocent spouse by intestate succession. Moreover, provisions in favor
of the offending spouse made in the will of the innocent spouse shall
be revoked by operation of law. (106a)
5. Disqualification to inherit

- Unless the decree of legal separation is set aside, the offending spouse
shall cease to be a legal heir of the innocent spouse.

6. Revocation of Donations

7. Revocation of designation as beneficiary in

insurance policy
 EFFECTS OF RECONCILIATION

Art. 65. If the spouses should reconcile, a corresponding joint manifestation

under oath duly signed by them shall be filed with the court in the same
proceeding for legal separation.

Art. 66. The reconciliation referred to in the preceding Articles shall have the
following consequences:

(1) The legal separation proceedings, if still pending, shall thereby be terminated at
whatever stage; and

(2) The final decree of legal separation shall be set aside, but the separation of property
and any forfeiture of the share of the guilty spouse already effected shall subsist,
unless the spouses agree to revive their former property regime.

The court’s order containing the foregoing shall be recorded in the proper civil
registries. (108a)
In other words, the effects when the decree of legal separation
is set aside, the following consequences necessarily follow:

1. The spouses shall again be entitled to joint custody of their children;

2. The offending spouse shall again be entitled to inherit from the

innocent spouse by way of intestate succession;

3. The provisions in the will of the innocent spouse favoring the

offending spouse shall be revived automatically, as if the same had not
been revoked;
4. Any revocation of donations in favor of the offending spouse or
revocation of the designation of the offending spouse as beneficiary in the
innocent spouse’s insurance policy, already effected, shall likewise be set
aside, as if the same had not been revoked;

5. However, the separation of property and any forfeiture of the share of

the guilty spouse in the net profits already effected shall subsist, unless
the spouses agree to revive their former property regime.
Art. 67. The agreement to revive the former property regime referred to in
the preceding Article shall be executed under oath and shall specify:

(1) The properties to be contributed anew to the restored regime;

(2) Those to be retained as separated properties of each spouse; and

(3) The names of all their known creditors, their addresses and the
amounts owing to each.