MEMORANDUM

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SUBJECT

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DATE

AAAA, Paralegal
Atty. BBBB
Assignment: Office Legal Memo on questioning paternity in a
declaration of nullity of marriage case
January 26, 2017

Please prepare an Office Legal Memorandum for the following case:

Client Geraldine delos Reyes approached our office since her husband Gerard delos
Reyes had filed a Petition for declaration of nullity of marriage against her.
Facts:
The parties got married sometime January 5, 2011. Around one week after their
marriage, being an Overseas Filipino worker, her husband went left for abroad. They
communicated regularly either through email, chat or telephone.
Antonio came home sometime in July 2012 for a one-month vacation and left in the
middle of August 2012. Around one month after her husband left, Annie discovered that
she was pregnant. She communicated this to her husband and he planned to come home
when she was scheduled to give birth. Thus, he came home sometime in the middle of
April 2013 and she gave birth to their daughter Joanna on May 3, 2013. After he left
again for abroad, their communication was still regular and he sent her regular monthly
support but sometime February 2014, he stopped sending regular support and did not
contact her for a month. As she was worried about him, she tried to contact him but he
was always out when she called. He did not also answer her emails. She never
communicated to her after that.
She was surprised that sometime in June 2014, she received a summons for a petition for
declaration of nullity of marriage filed by her husband on the ground of psychological
incapacity. One of the bases for psychological incapacity was that she was an unfaithful
wife, that she got pregnant from another man and that the child was not his. According to
him, the child was born less than nine months from the time they had sexual intercourse
with his wife. In his allegation, they had sexual intercourse on August 9, 2012 but she
gave birth on May 3, 2013 less than nine months had lapsed. Another allegation of the
husband was the she was only after his money as she was always asking him for money.
One of his prayers in the petition was for the court to direct petitioner to undergo DNA
test.
According to Mrs. delos Reyes, it was not true that she was unfaithful to her husband and
was 100% sure that he was the father of her daughter. She wants to know if she could ask
for regular support and if she had to undergo DNA test so that her husband will give
support.

INSTRUCTION:
Prepare an Office Legal Memorandum for this case. Use the outline in the powerpoint
presentation. You may raise additional issues other than those indicated in the problem.