PFR – civil personality notes

31 OCTOBER 2021

Capacity to act – capacity to perform actions with legal effect

Q: Does a 6-year old child have the capacity to act?

A: No, a 6-year old child does not have the capacity to act because he still does not
have the discernment.

Limitations:

IF-I-PAID-TAPA

Prodigality – state of squandering money or property with a morbid desire to prejudice

the heirs of a person

Civil interdiction – the capacity to act is regulated (i. e. authority to dispose a property,
capacity to enter into a marital contract)

Insanity – once you are confined in an institution, you are presumed to be insane.

Minority -

Alienage – an alien cannot generally acquire private or public agricultural lands,

including those residential in nature, except thru hereditary succession

Family relations

Deaf-mute

Absence – court declaration of absence and declaration of authority to dispose the

property

Juridical capacity is the capacity to be the subject of a legal relation

Less than seven months premature from severance: must survive within 24 hours to
have civil personality
Seven months above: presumed to survive and has a civil personality upon birth and
severance from the mother’s womb
Civil personality is distinguished by death
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Ability to perceive, express, remember, know right and wrong

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Juridical persons can also be held criminally liable.

Juridical persons also have the capacity to act.

Doctrine of piercing corporate fiction – Piercing the corporate veil is warranted when
"[the separate personality of a corporation] is used as a means to perpetrate fraud or
an illegal act, or as a vehicle for the evasion of an existing obligation, the circumvention
of statutes, or to confuse legitimate issues." When [the] corporate veil is pierced, the
corporation and persons who are normally treated as distinct from the corporation are
treated as one person, such that when the corporation is adjudged liable, these
persons, too, become liable as if they were the corporation.

Liability versus consent

Juridical person can acquire properties.

CITIZENSHIP AND DOMICILE

Natural born citizen – citizens of the Philippines from birth who does not have to
perform any act to acquire or perfect their citizenship.

HW: Citizenship of an American born in the Philippines; effect of dual citizenship.

Domicile – a place you live where you have the intention to return.

Q: can a marriage be valid when a person contracting marriage signs the contract
under protest?
A: The marriage is voidable. Marriage contract is only a proof of marriage, hence a
marriage is valid even without a contract. Witnesses will provide proof that a marriage
was indeed conducted.