TING v.

VELEZ-TING NACHURA

FACTS: Benjamin Ting and Carmen Velez met each other in medical school and they married each
other after several years. Years after, Benjamin became a full-fledged doctor and he practiced at the
Velez Hospital owned by Carmen’s family. Benjamin and Carmen had six children during their
marriage. But after 18 years of marriage, Carmen went to court to have their marriage be declared
void on the ground that Benjamin was psychologically incapacitated. She alleged that even before she
married Benjamin, the latter was already a drunkard; that Benjamin was a gambler, he was violent,
and would rather spend on his expensive hobby; that he rarely stayed home and even neglected his
children and family obligations.

Carmen presented an expert witness, Dr. Oñate, to prove Benjamin’s psychological incapacity.
However, Oñate merely based her findings on the statement submitted by Benjamin. Oñate was not
able to personally examine Benjamin because at that time, Benjamin was already working as an
anaesthesiologist in South Africa. On his part, Benjamin opposed the petition. He also presented his
own expert witness to disprove Carmen’s allegations. Obra was not able to personally examine
Benjamin but he also evaluated the same deposition evaluated by Oñate. Also, Benjamin submitted
himself for evaluation to a South African doctor (Dr. Pentz) and the transcript of said evaluation was
submitted to Obra and the latter also evaluated the same. Obra found Benjamin not to be
psychologically incapacitated.

The trial court, and eventually the Court of Appeals, ruled in favor of Carmen.

ISSUE:

Whether or not Benjamin Ting’s psychological incapacity was proven.

RULING:

No, the totality of evidence presented by respondent was insufficient to prove that petitioner is
psychologically unfit to discharge the duties expected of him as a husband, and more particularly,
that he suffered from such psychological incapacity as of the date of the marriage 18 years ago.

The intendment of the law has been to confine the application of Article 36 to the most serious cases
of personality disorders clearly demonstrative of an absolute insensitivity or inability to give meaning
and significance to the marriage. The psychological illness that must have afflicted a party at the
inception of the marriage should be a disorder so grave and permanent as to deprive one of
awareness of the duties and responsibilities of the matrimonial bond he or she is about to assume.

In this case, respondent failed to prove that petitioner’s defects were present at the time of the
celebration of their marriage. She merely cited that prior to their marriage, she already knew that
petitioner would occasionally drink and gamble with his friends; but such statement, by itself, is
insufficient to prove any pre-existing psychological defect on the part of her husband. Neither did the
evidence presented prove such defects to be incurable. The evaluation of the two psychiatrists should
have been the significant evidence in determining whether to declare the marriage between the
parties null and void. Sadly, however, the Court was not convinced that the opinions proiced by these
experts strengthened respondent’s allegation of psychological incapacity. The two provided
absolutely contradicting psychological evaluations.