POSITION ON SUPPORT PENDENTE LITE

Respondent is obliged to give support. Support is required to sustain not only the children, but even
the innocent spouse. It is to be shown that Jupiter does not have any independent means to fully
support the children in the manner that befits their standing and what they are accustomed to. The
Respondent has a continuing means of income while the Petitioner has yet to find regular income.

It is true that Petitioner’s mother has come to his aid and that of their children, but the support due
from the spouse and the parent with the means to do so, is more primordial than the support
required of an ascendant (Art. 199)

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Family Code Art. 174. Legitimate children shall have the right x x x:

(2) To receive support from their parents

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Art. 194. Support comprises everything indispensable for sustenance, dwelling, clothing, medical
attendance, education and transportation, in keeping with the financial capacity of the family.

The education of the person entitled to be supported referred to in the preceding paragraph shall
include his schooling or training for some profession, trade or vocation, even beyond the age of
majority. Transportation shall include expenses in going to and from school, or to and from place of
work. (290a)

Art. 195. Subject to the provisions of the succeeding articles, the following are obliged to support each
other to the whole extent set forth in the preceding article:

(1) The spouses;

(2) Legitimate ascendants and descendants;

(3) Parents and their legitimate children and the legitimate and illegitimate children of the latter;

(4) Parents and their illegitimate children and the legitimate and illegitimate children of the latter; and

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Art. 198. During the proceedings for legal separation or for annulment of marriage, and for declaration
of nullity of marriage, the spouses and their children shall be supported from the properties of the
absolute community or the conjugal partnership. After the final judgment granting the petition, the
obligation of mutual support between the spouses ceases. However, in case of legal separation, the
court may order that the guilty spouse shall give support to the innocent one, specifying the terms of
such order.
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Art. 201. The amount of support, in the cases referred to in Articles 195 and 196, shall be in proportion
to the resources or means of the giver and to the necessities of the recipient.

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ARGUMENT AGAINST AWARDING SUPPORT TO JUPITER:

Art. 100. The separation in fact between husband and wife shall not affect the regime of absolute
community except that:

(1) The spouse who leaves the conjugal home or refuses to live therein, without just cause, shall not
have the right to be supported;

POSSIBLE COUNTER-ARGUMENT: Jupiter had just cause because of Respondent’s marital misconduct
neglect and unhealthy addictions.

IT IS JUPITER WHO IS THE GUILTY SPOUSE:

POSSIBLE COUNTER-ARGUMENT: Jupiter is guilty only of utilizing his separate property to answer for his
debts.

POSSIBLE ARGUMENT: Article 203 - The support shall only be demandable from the time the person
who has a right to receive the same needs it for maintenance, but it shall not be paid except from the
date of judicial or extrajudicial demand. There is nothing in the evidence to show that Jupiter’s mom
executed an extra-judicial demand since the children started living in their home. |

POSSIBLE COUNTER-ARGUMENT: It is admitted that there was no demand until the time of this trial. It
is also admitted that it was not our client who provided for the support of the child, but his mother.
[NOTE: Mars only, nothing in the evidence that Saturn is included]

Nevertheless, Article 207 of the Family Code states that when the person obliged to give support
unjustly refuses or fails to give support when urgently needed, any third person may furnish support to
the needy individual and said third person has a right to be reimbursed by the person obliged. [This
results to a quasi-contract (Lacson v. Lacson), falling within the purview of Article 2164 of the New Civil
Code, wherein knowledge of the person obliged to give support is immaterial and that the same is
bound to reimburse the third-person] |

POSSIBLE REBUTTAL: Article 2164 of the NCC provides that the right to claim is waived “unless it
appears that he gave it out of piety and without intention of being repaid” |
POSSIBLE REJOINDER: There is nothing in the evidence that the support provided by Jupiter’s mother
means that she is not expecting support anymore. The presumption must stand. |

Comment: it is Jupiter who is seeking support, not his mom.

POSSIBLE SUR-REBUTTAL: Years have passed already, Jupiter’s mother cannot claim anymore. She is
deemed to have waived her right to claim. (Article 6, NCC)|

Comment: it is Jupiter who is seeking support, not his mom.