Daily Serving of Legal Matters

The property of the spouses may be separated from each other even if they have agreed to a different regime in their marriage settlement. Even if the property is governed by absolute community or conjugal partnership of gains, the property of the spouses can still be separated. How to effect the Separation of Property? The future spouses, inorder to have a complete separation of property, must have signed a marriage settlement or a pre-nuptial agreement stating therein that their properties should be separated from each other.  In the absence of such agreement, there would be no separation of property between them. Aside from the marriage settlement, the properties of the spouses may be declared separate from each upon order of the court.  Such judicial separation of property may either be voluntary or for sufficient cause. What are the sufficient causes to invoke the judicial separation of property? 1.  That the spouse of the petitioner has been...

This is the continuation of the previous post about Conjugal Partnership of Gains.  The properties as a result of the regime of conjugal partnership of gains are conjugal partnership properties. What are the conjugal partnership of properties? 1.  Those acquired by onerous title during the marriage at the expense of the common fund, whether the acquisition be for the partnership, or for only one of the spouses; 2.  Those obtained from the labor, industry, work or purchase of either or both of the spouses; 3.  The fruits, natural, industrial, or civil, due or received during the marriage from the common property, as well as the net fruits from the exclusive property of each spouse; 4.  The share of either spouse in the hidden treasure which the law awards to the finder or owner of the property where the treasure is found; 5.  Those acquired through occupations such as fishing or hunting; 6.  Livestock existing upon dissolut...

In the previous post, it was discussed that the future spouses may agree on what regime of property that would govern on their property.  The agreement must be stipulated in the marriage settlement or in the prenuptial agreement.  In the absence of any such settlement, the property of the future spouses shall be governed by the regime of absolute community. Granting that the future spouses would consider to have a regime of CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP OF GAINS, this post is a must read. What is a regime of conjugal partnership of gains? Under this regime, the husband and wife place in a common fund the proceeds, products, fruits and income from their separate properties and those acquired by either or both spouses through their efforts or by chance, and, upon dissolution of the marriage or of the partnership, the net gains or benefits obtained by either or both spouses shall be divided equally between them, unless otherwise agreed in the marriage settlement. In this...

As the title of this post says, not all marriages celebrated in the Philippines can be legally separated.  Only those that have the valid grounds provided in the Family Code of the Philippines can be petitioned for such. In my previous post Legal Separation Versus Declaration of Nullity/Annulment of Marriage ( http://dailyservingoflegalmatters.blogspot.com/2014/03/legal-separation-versus-declaration-of.html ), it was defined there what legal separation is and what does it entail. Again, legal separation does not severe the existence of a marriage bond.  The marriage ties do still exist but the husband and wife are separated in board and lodging.  Meaning, they are allowed to live on their own and mind their own separate lives.  Considering that the marriage exists, they are not allowed to remarry, otherwise, they may face criminal consequences. Grounds for Legal Separation: 1.  Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed agai...