Republic of the Philippines SUPREME COURT Manila EN BANC G.R. No.

47101 April 25, 1941

GODOFREDO BUCCAT, plaintiff-appellant, vs. LUIDA MANGONON DE BUCCAT, defendant-respondent. HORRILLENO, J.: This issue has been raised to this superiority by the Court of First Instance of Baguio, as only raises a question purely of law. On March 20, 1939 the plaintiff inico the present case, in which the defendant failed to appear, despite having been duly summoned. Therefore, allowed the plaintiff to present evidence, the lower court decision, the matter in favor of the defendant. Hence this appeal. The applicant requests the annulment of their marriage had with the defendant Luisa Buccat Mangonon of the November 26, 1938, in Baguio City, the grounds that, in consenting to the marriage, he did so because the defendant had assured him that she was virgin. In the lower court's decision reveals the following facts: The plaintiff met the defendant in March 1938. After several interviews, both were committed on 19 September of that year. On 26 November the same year, the plaintiff married the defendant in the Catholic catedrla Baguio City. Desoues of living maritally for the space of eighty-nine days, the defendant gave birth to a child of nine months, the February 23, 1939. Following this event, the plaintiff abandoned the defendant and did not return to do with her marital life. We do not see any reason to vacate the judgment appealed. Indeed, it is improbable the plaintiff's allegation that the appellant and had not even suspected the gravid state of the defendant, being this, as has been proven, highly advanced in pregnant condition. Therefore not necessary to estimate the fraud that speaks the appellant. He argued for this in the sense that countries not uncommon to find people of the abdomen developed, it seems childish to merit our consideration, especially as the applicant was a freshman in law. Marriage is a most sacred institution: it is the foundation on which society rests. You can stop this are necessary to clear and reliable. In this case no such evidence. Finding the judgment appealed in accordance with law, must be confirmed, as confirmed by the present, in all its parts, with costs against the appellant. So ordered.