INTRO (ALM1&CLM1) – MODULE 4: Persons [WEEK 4 - 19 Aug 2019]

MODULE 4
PERSONS
WEEK 4 – 19 August 2019

PERSONS AND FAMILY RELATIONS

AS PART OF CIVIL LAW

❶ What is civil law? – Civil law refers to that body of laws that
deal with the status, rights and obligations, relationships of natural
persons with the State and with each other.

As such, it deals with such areas as legal personality, abuse of

rights, marriages, legal separation, nullity of marriage, filiation, property
regimes between spouses, support, adoption, succession, property,
obligations and contracts, special contracts and the like.

Refers to the body of laws that is focused on resolving disputes

between individuals or organisations and seeks to remedy them through
compensation or court ordered performance.
❷ The Civil Code. – The Civil Code of the Philippines governs
the relations between private parties from status, rights and duties to
property ownership, contractual relations and liability for torts. As such, it
is basically divided into several books – Persons and Family
Relations, Property, Succession, Obligations and Contracts,
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and Special Contracts. Note also that a huge part of Book I was
replaced by what is popularly known as the Family Code.

❸ The Family Code. – The Family Code of the

Philippines, or more formally designated as Executive Order No.
209, Series of 1987, replaced several provisions of the Civil Code
as well as that of the Child and Youth Welfare Code (P.D. 603).

These are provisions on marriage, legal separation, property

relations, the family home, paternity and filiation, adoption, parental
authority, and support among other things as contained in Titles III, IV, V,
VI, VIII, IX, XI, and XV of Book 1 of the Civil Code, as well as Articles 17,
18, 19, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 39, 40, 41, and 42 of the Child and Youth
Welfare Code. (Art. 254, Family Code.)

CONCEPT OF A PERSON

❶ ‘Person’ defined. – The technical, legal meaning of a person

is any being capable of possessing legal rights and duties.

❷ Two Classes of Persons. – The term “being” in the above

definition includes both human beings and legal creations. These form
the two classes of persons in the eyes of the law: (1) the natural or
physical persons, whose personality come to existence through the
natural process of procreation, or birth, and extinguished by death; and,
the (2) artificial or juridical persons, which are created by fiction of
law.
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NATURAL PERSONS

❶ Status defined. – The most important subject in the study of

natural persons is that of status. Status may be defined as the legal
condition or position of a person by virtue of which certain rights and
duties arise. Briefly, it is “the condition or class to which one belongs in
society.”

❷ ‘Juridical capacity’ and ‘capacity to act’. –

⮲ Juridical capacity is defined as the fitness to be the subject of
legal relations. It is inherent and ever present in every natural person
(individual), and is lost only when he dies. (Article 37, NCC.)

⮲ Capacity to act denotes the power to do acts with legal effect.

It is acquired and may be lost. (Article 37, NCC.)

⮲ Full or complete civil capacity – The union of the two kinds of

capacity, i.e., when a person possesses both juridical capacity and
capacity to act.

◉ Illustrative example: A one year old boy has juridical

capacity, but has no capacity to act. When he becomes 18, he will have
full civil capacity.

CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING CIVIL PERSONALITY

❶ What determines personality?

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⮲ It is birth that gives personality in the case of natural persons

or human beings. Hence, unless a being is born, he is not considered a
person. (Arts. 40, NCC.)

⮲ For civil purposes, however, the fetus, although not born yet
but already conceived in the mother’s womb, may be considered a person
for all purposes favorable to it, if he is subsequently born with the
requisites required by law. (Arts. 40 & 41, NCC)
👓 Geluz vs. CA, G.R. No. L-16439, July 20, 1961. – In
this case, the Supreme Court held that the grant of damages under
Article 2206 for the death of a person does not cover the case of an
unborn fetus that is not endowed with personality. The Court ratiocinated
as follows:

“Since an action for pecuniary damages on account of

personal injury or death pertains primarily to the one
injured, it is easy to see that if no action for such damages
could be instituted on behalf of the unborn child on account
of the injuries it received, no such right of action could
derivatively accrue to its parents or heirs. In fact, even if a
cause of action did accrue on behalf of the unborn child, the
same was extinguished by its pre-natal death, since no
transmission to anyone can take place from on that lacked
juridical personality (or juridical capacity as distinguished
from capacity to act). It is no answer to invoke the
provisional personality of a conceived child (conceptus pro
nato habetur) under Article 40 of the Civil Code, because
that same article expressly limits such provisional
personality by imposing the condition that the child should
be subsequently born alive: “provided it be born later with
the condition specified in the following article.” In the
present case, there is no dispute that the child was dead
when separated from its mother’s womb.”
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❷ Expound on the ‘provisional personality of a conceived

child’.–

⮲ The provisional personality given by law to the fetus has two

characteristics:

(a) It is essentially limited, because it is only for purposes favorable to the

child; and

(b) It is provisional or conditional, because it depends upon the child

being born alive later. Hence, if the child is not born alive, its
personality disappears as if it had never existed.

👓In Quimiguing vs. Icao, 34 SCRA 132 (1970), the

Supreme Court discussed that since a conceived child is given by law a
provisional personality of its own for all purposes favorable to it, the
unborn child is entitled to the following rights:
(a) It has a right to support from its progenitors.
(b) It may receive donations.
(c) It may not be ignored by the parent in his will.
(d) Its filiation may be recognized.

❸ When is a fetus considered born?

(a) For a fetus with an intra-uterine life of seven (7) months or more –
The fetus shall be considered born and having acquired juridical
personality if it is born alive upon complete delivery.

(b) For a fetus with an intra-uterine life of less than seven (7) months
– The fetus shall be considered born and having acquired juridical
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personality if it does not die within 24 hours after its complete delivery
from the mother’s womb.

❹ What are some of the restrictions on one’s capacity to act?

–

(A) Minority –

⮲ Pursuant to R.A. 6809, the age of majority in the Philippines

has been lowered from 21 to 18. Hence, a person below 18 years of age is
considered a minor, who is restricted or limited in his capacity to act.
⮲ Prior to R.A. 6809, emancipation of a minor can take place
by marriage or by a recorded agreement. After the amendment of Article
234 of the Family Code by R.A. 6809, emancipation can take place ONLY
by the attainment of majority age.
⮲ A contract entered into by a minor, without the consent or
assistance of his legal guardian, is either voidable (if only one of the
parties to the contract is a minor) or unenforceable (if both parties to the
contract are minors). Said contract is NOT VOID.

⮲ If the contract is voidable on the ground of minority, an action

for annulment of such contract must be commenced by the minor within
four (4) years counted from the time the minor reaches the age of
majority; otherwise, his right to file the action for annulment will have
prescribed.

(B) Insanity or Imbecility –

⮲ Insanity is a condition in which a person’s mind is sick.

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⮲ Imbecility or feeble-mindedness is a condition in which a

person who, while advanced in age, has the mental capacity comparable
to that of a child between two and seven years of age.
⮲ Contracts entered into by an imbecile, insane or demented
person are voidable.
☞ Under Article 1328 of the Civil Code, if a contract
is entered into by an insane during a lucid interval, the contract is valid
and not defective. But the party who alleges that the contract was entered
into by the insane during a lucid interval has the burden to prove that fact
in court.

⮲ It is always presumed that every person who contracts is of

sound mind. Therefore, he who alleges insanity must present sufficient
evidence in court to prove such fact of insanity.

(C) State of being a deaf-mute –

⮲ Under Article 1327(2) of the Civil Code, only deaf-

mutes who do not know how to write are incapable of giving consent.
⮲ Under Article 820 of the Civil Code, deaf-mutes cannot
be witnesses to a will.

(D) Prodigality –

⮲ Prodigality is the state of squandering money or property with

a morbid desire to prejudice the heirs of a person.
⮲ There is no specific provision which incapacitates a prodigal
for any particular act. But he may be placed under guardianship as an
incompetent under the provisions of Rule 93, Section 2 of the Rules
of Court. The moment he is under guardianship, his capacity to act then
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becomes restricted, because he can only bind himself in a contract

through his guardian.

(E) Civil interdiction –

⮲ The penalty of civil interdiction is given to a criminal who is

sentenced by the court to imprisonment not lower than 12 years and 1
day.
⮲ By civil interdiction, a person is deprived by the court of his
right:

(1) To have parental or marital authority.

(2) To be the guardian of the person and property of a ward.
(3) To dispose of his property by an act inter vivos. (He cannot
donate, for this is an act inter vivos; but he can make a will, for
this is a disposition mortis cause.)
(4) To manage his own property.

❸ What are the effects in general of the restrictions under Article

38?
⮲ These restrictions do not extinguish or take away capacity to
act, but merely restrict or limit the same. Thus, an insane person’s
contract is merely voidable, NOT void.

⮲ The incapacitated person is not exempt from certain

obligations arising from his acts. Thus, while an insane who commits a
crime is exempt from criminal liability, his property may still be held liable
to answer for his civil liability.

JURIDICAL PERSONS
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❶ Juridical persons are artificial beings to which the law grants a

personality distinct and separate from each individual member composing
it, and susceptible of rights and obligations, or of being the subject of legal
relations.

❷ Their personality begins from the time the law recognizes them or
creates them unless the law provides otherwise, and such personality is
extinguished only in accordance with law.

❸ There are two kinds of juridical persons:

(a) Public juridical persons (Article 44[1] & [2], NCC).
⮚ The state itself, i.e., The Republic of the Philippines
⮚ The state’s political subdivisions, e.g. provinces, cities,
municipalities
⮚ Government Owned or Controlled Corporations, e.g., GSIS,
SSS, Philhealth

(b) Private juridical persons (Article 44[3], NCC).

⮚ Private Corporations
⮚ Partnerships
⮚ Cooperatives
⮚ Home Associations
⮚ Sole Proprietorship
HAPPY READING & LEARNING! 

* * * END * * *
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SOURCES of NOTES:

The discussions outlined in this module have been

collectively lifted from the cases cited and
commentaries made by the authors in the references
cited below:

1. David Robert C. Aquino. Introduction to Law (Quezon City:

Central Book Supply, Inc., 2017).
2. Virgilio P. Alconera. Law, Persons and Family Relations (Quezon
City: Central Book Supply, Inc., 2010).
3. Melquiades J. Gamboa. An Introduction to Philippine Law
(Quezon City: Central Lawbook Publishing Co., Inc., 1969).
4. Edgardo L. Paras. Civil Code of the Philippines, Vol. I (Manila:
Rex Book Store, Inc., 2002).
5. Rolando A. Suarez. Introduction to Law (Manila: Rex Book
Store, Inc., 2017).

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable,
and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
Christopher Reeve