PERSONS AND FAMILY RELATIONS MOCKBAR QUESTIONS

Atty. Bernice Piñol

1. Marilyn Monro married Yoshino Hakiro in the Philippines on June 12,

1998. They both lived in Tokyo, Japan after their wedding and enjoyed
marital bliss for the first five years. When misunderstandings arose and
conflicts became unbearable, Marilyn filed for divorce and after due
proceedings, the Japanese Court rendered a divorce decree on December
6, 2011. Three months later, Marilyn went home to the Philippines to file
a petition for cancellation of entry of marriage in the civil registry of San
Juan, Metro Manila. She also had to put in order her fraternal properties
and those acquired during her marriage with Yoshino. Her divorce was
heavily opposed by her mother and parents-in-law who were devout
Catholics and conservative Filipinos. Both families could not understand
why divorce had to be an option for the couple. Despite of such
resistance, Marilyn pursued the recognition of her foreign divorce
because she was already madly in love with another man. The RTC
however denied the petition for lack of merit. It ruled that the divorce
obtained by Monro is invalid and it should not be recognized based on
Article 15 of the New Civil Code,q which does not afford Filipinos the
right to file for a divorce. If you were the judge of the appellate court, will
you sustain or overturn the decision of the trial court? (5%)

2. Will the proceedings for a petition for annulment remain valid even if
there is no intervention of the prosecutor? (3%)

3. Dawn and Richard started to live together as husband and wife without
the benefit of marriage in the year 1986. Because of Richard’s alcoholism,
they separated in 1996. One year later, they reconciled and in 1999 they
got married. Five years into their marriage, Richard became alcoholic
again and it was found that he was psychologically incapacitated. On
January 2002, Dawn filed for declaration of nullity of marriage with
Richard under Article 36 of the Family Code. The Court rendered the
following decisions:

a. Declaring the marriage null and void.

b. Dissolving the regime of absolute community of property
c. Declaring that a decree of absolute nullity of marriage shall only be
issued after liquidation, partition and distribution of the parties’
properties under Art. 147 of the Family Code.

Dinah filed a motion for partial consideration questioning the last portion
of the decision. If you were the judge, how will you decide petitioner’s
motion for partial reconsideration? Why? (5%)
4. What are the rules for pretermission based on Article 13 of the New Civil
Code and as applied in Philippine jurisprudence? (5%)

5. Lino and Jade got married on December 5, 2015 before Judge Barry of the
Court of Appeals in a beautiful garden wedding in Davao City. They
immediately tried to conceive a child because it has always been Lino’s
dream to be a father. A month later, or on January 15, 2016, Lino was
hospitalized and was diagnosed with severe tuberculosis. For the next
five months of medication, Jade would take care of her husband because
he was very weak to the point that he could not stand up on his own. His
feet were swollen and his voice was totally hoarse. Exhausted from being
a caregiver and sole bread-winner, Jade had an affair with her handsome
neighbor, Ace and found her emotional and financial needs met by him.
On May 1, 2016, Jade and Ace found an opportunity to have sexual
intercourse because Lino was asleep the whole day due to his illness. Two
weeks later, Jade was overwhelmed by guilt and tried to make it up to
Lino by preparing a romantic evening for him at home. After this, Jade’s
affair with Ace ended. On December 15, 2016, Jade gave birth to a
beautiful baby girl and named her AC. A year later, Lino found out that
Jade and Ace were having an affair so he filed a case for annulment on the
ground that the Judge had no authority to solemnize their wedding. He
moved out of their house in Matina, Davao City and transferred to a condo
unit in Buhangin. Two weeks later, Lino discovered that the affair had
actually began when he was severely ill. This gave him the idea that
maybe Baby AC is the child of Ace and not his. Resolve the following:

a) Is Baby AC a legitimate child? (5%)

b) Will the case for annulment prosper? (5%)
c) Assuming that Lino was able to prove that AC is not his child, can he
impugn the legitimacy of Baby AC? (2%)