Rght of Common Law Wife

Someone asked me, "I have a friend who...

belongs to a prominent family and he has 3 siblings (B, C, and D). One of his siblings, B had a common law wife, E. They never married because E had not yet legally dissolved her previous marriage. B never had any child of his own.

B died without a will but left verbal instructions to transfer his shares in the 3 family owned real properties (but all registered in B name alone due to citizenship issue before) to his remaining 3 siblings equally in case he dies. 

One of the properties now considered common property among the siblings was leased by C to a third person and she kept for herself the monthly rentals. C claims that property was hers and equivalent to her 1/3 of the family owned properties.

Question: Is E entitled to any share in the share of B in the family owned properties? Is C entitled to get the whole monthly rentals for herself? 

My answer is E is not entitled to any share in the share of B in the family owned properties and C should not get the whole monthly rentals for herself.

The law provides that a common law wife has no right in the property of the man unless the property or assets were acquired by the common law wife from her actual contribution. Art. 148 applies because E is not capacitated to marry B.

According to Art. 148 of the Family Code,“In cases of cohabitation not falling under the preceding Article, only the properties acquired by both of the parties through their actual joint contribution of money, property, or industry shall be owned by them in common in proportion to their respective contributions. In the absence of proof to the contrary, their contributions and corresponding shares are presumed to be equal. The same rule and presumption shall apply to joint deposits of money and evidences of credit.

Since the properties were owned by the family of B, there is no contribution from the common law wife.  In the case at hand, E has no right and will not receive anything from the family owned properties of what B left.

The case does not explain how such verbal instructions were given. However, this is acceptable than no instruction at all. B’s family owned properties would go through intestate, and having no surviving spouse or parents, the properties will be divided equally by the siblings even if no instruction was made. 

However, C has no right to keep the whole amount of the monthly rentals of a particular property as his right is to inherit equally and all properties are owned in common with inchoate rights only. Only after the transfer and partition of the estate will C have any right to specific property.

Answered by A. Ramos as modified

/BM