Grounds for Declaration of Nullity

1. Minority (those contracted by any party below 18 years

of age even with the consent of parents or guardians).

1.
2.
3.

2. Lack of authority of solemnizing officer (those

solemnized by any person not legally authorized to
perform marriages, unless such marriages were contracted
with either or both parties believing in good faith that the
solemnizing officer had the legal authority to do so).
3. Absence of marriage license (except in certain cases).
4. Bigamous or polygamous marriages (except in cases
where the other spouse is declared as presumptively
dead).
5. Mistake in identity (those contracted through mistake of
one contracting party as to the identity of the other).
6. After securing a judgement of annulment or of asolute
nullity of mariage, the parties, before entering into the
subsequent marriage, failed to record with the appropriate
registry the: (i) partition and distribute the properties of
the first marriage; and (ii) delivery of the childrens
presumptive legitime.
7. Incestous marriages (between ascendants and
descendants of any degree, between brothers and sisters,
whether of the full or half blood).
8. Void by reason of public policy. Marriages between (i)
collateral blood relatives whether legitimate or
illegitimate, up to the fourth civil degree; (ii) step-parents
and step-children; (iii) parents-in-law and children-in-law;
(iv) adopting parent and the adopted child; (v) surviving
spouse of the adopting parent and the adopted child; (vi)
surviving spouse of the adopted child and the adopter;
(vii) an adopted child and a legitimate child of the adopter;
(viii) adopted children of the same adopter; and (ix)
parties where one, with the intention to marry the other,
killed that other persons spouse, or his or her own spouse.
9. Psychological Incapacity. Psychological incapacity,
which a ground for annulment of marriage, contemplates
downright incapacity or inability to take cognizance of and
to assume the basic marital obligations; not a mere
refusal, neglect or difficulty, much less, ill will, on the part
of the errant spouse. Irreconcilable differences, conflicting
personalities, emotional immaturity and irresponsibility,
physical abuse, habitual alcoholism, sexual infidelity or
perversion, and abandonment, by themselves, also do not
warrant a finding of psychological incapacity. We already

4.
5.
6.

Grounds for annulment

Lack of parental consent
Insanity of one of the parties
Fraud

Circumstances constituting fraud:

a. Non-disclosure of conviction by final
judgment of crime involving moral
turpitude
b. Concealment of pregnancy by a man
other than her husband
c. Concealment of sexually transmissible
disease, regardless of its nature, existing
at the time of marriage
d. Concealment of drug addiction, habitual
alcoholism, homosexuality and
lesbianism
Force, intimidation or undue influence
Impotency
Affliction of sexually transmissible disease found
to be serious and which appears incurable

Grounds for Legal Separation

Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive
conduct directed against petitioner, a common
child or a child of the petitioner
2. Physical violence or moral pressure to compel
change in religious or political affiliation
3. Attempt to corrupt or induce petitioner to engage
in prostitution or connivance in such corruption or
inducement
4. Final judgment sentencing respondent to
imprisonment of more than 6 years
5. Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism
6. Lesbianism or homosexuality
7. Subsequent bigamous marriage
8. Sexual infidelity or perversion
9. Attempt by despondent against the life of the
petitioner
10. Abandonment for more than one year without
justifiable cause
1.

discussed the guidelines and illustrations of psychological

incapacity, including a case involvinghabitual lying, as well
as the steps and procedure in filing a petition.
Please note, however, that there are still other grounds to
declare a marriage as null and void.