FABIAN PUGEDA, plaintiff-appellee, vs.

RAFAEL TRIAS, MIGUEL TRIAS, SOLEDAD TRIAS, assisted by her

husband Angel Sanchez, CLARA TRIAS, assisted by her husband Victoriano Salvanera, GABRIEL TRIAS,
minors ROMULO VINIEGRA, GLORIA VINIEGRA and FERNANDO VINIEGRA, JR., assisted by guardian-ad-
litem, Rafael Trias, TEOFILO PUGEDA, and VIRGINIA PUGEDA, assisted by her husband Ramon Portugal,
defendants-appellants.

1962-03-31 | G.R. No. L-16925

EN BANC Marriage - Requisites

LABRADOR, J. Appeal

Facts:

Maria Ferrer and Mariano Trias were husband and wife and acquired lands. However, when the latter
died, Maria contracted marriage with Fabian Pugeda. Now, there has been conflicting claim of the said
lands between Pugeda and Maria’s children with his first husband when she also passed away. Pugeda
prayed that the properties, acquired as conjugal properties, be partitioned and one-half thereof be
given as share of his since he contracted a lawful marriage with Maria.

But Maria’s children, the defendants, denied the existence of the marriage and introduced a photostatic
copy of the record of marriages in the municipality of Rosario, Cavite, in the month of January 1916,
which showed that no record of the alleged marriage existed therein; but this absence was explained by
the Justice of the Peace that perhaps the person who kept the register forgot to make an entry of the
marriage in the registry. Because of this, the lower court affirmed the existence of the marriage. Hence,
this appeal.

Issue:

Whether or not the absence of marriage record in the registry renders the marriage void or nonexistent

Ruling:

NO. As ruled in Madridejo vs. De Leon,

“The mere fact that the parish priest who married the plaintiff's natural father and mother, while the
latter was in articulo mortis, failed to send a copy of the marriage certificate to the municipal secretary,
does not invalidate said marriage, since it does not appear that in the celebration thereof all requisites
for its validity were not present, and the forwarding of a copy of the marriage certificate not being one
of said requisites.” Thus, similarly, the absence of marriage record in the registry does not render the
marriage void since it is not one of the requisites of marriage to comply with.

The person who officiated at the solemnization is competent to testify as an eyewitness to the fact of
marriage and can prove the existence of such marriage; as to this case, it was Ricardo Ricafrente who
was the solemnizing officer. Testimony is an admissible evidence of the existence of marriage. This is
pursuant to Article 53 of the Civil Code which states that, “As to marriages contracted subsequently, no
proof other than a certificate of the record in the civil register shall be admitted, unless such books have
never been kept, or have disappeared, or the question arises in litigation, in which cases the marriage
may be proved by evidence of any kind."
FOR ALL THE FOREGOING CONSIDERATIONS, the plaintiff's complaint is hereby dismissed, and the
judgment of the Court of First Instance of Cavite, Hon. Antonio G. Lucero, presiding, decreeing the
division of the properties of the deceased Maria C. Ferrer among her eight children and plaintiff, is
hereby modified in the sense that all of her properties be divided among her eight children at the rate of
one- eighth per child. As thus modified, the judgment of Judge Lucero is hereby affirmed. Without costs.