had a girlfriend of 7 years, lived together with her for 3 years as husband and wife, and then got married without a marriage license by filing an Affidavit of Cohabitation. A year after, the wife wanted to declare the marriage null and void for lack of marriage license since they lied in the Affidavit. My friend argued that the 3 year and not 5 year cohabitation is a mere irregularity. Do you think the case of the wife will prosper?
My answer is the wife is correct and her case will prosper.
The Family Code provides that one of the formal requisites of a valid marriage is to secure a marriage license at the place of either party. The exception provided in Art. 34 reads:
No license shall be necessary for the marriage of a man and a woman who have lived together as husband and wife for at least five years and without any legal impediment to marry each other. The contracting parties shall state the foregoing facts in an affidavit before any person authorized by law to administer oaths. The solemnizing officer shall also state under oath that he ascertained the qualifications of the contracting parties are found no legal impediment to the marriage.
In this case, while they have known each other for 10 years, they were only living together as husband and wife for only 3 years. Thus they submitted a falsified affidavit. The fact that the Affidavit of Cohabitation obtained to exempt the couple from a marriage license was false, thus the marriage celebrated without the marriage license is void. In the case of De Castro vs. De Castro (G.R. No. 160172, February 13, 2008), the Supreme Court stated that:
“The falsity of the affidavit cannot be considered as a mere irregularity in the formal requisites of marriage. The law dispenses with the marriage license requirement for a man and a woman who have lived together and exclusively with each other as husband and wife for a continuous and unbroken period of at least five years before the marriage. The aim of this provision is to avoid exposing the parties to humiliation, shame and embarrassment concomitant with the scandalous cohabitation of persons outside a valid marriage due to the publication of every applicant’s name for a marriage license. In the instant case, there was no “scandalous cohabitation” to protect; in fact, there was no cohabitation at all. The false affidavit which petitioner and respondent executed so they could push through with the marriage has no value whatsoever; it is a mere scrap of paper. They were not exempt from the marriage license requirement. Their failure to obtain and present a marriage license renders their marriage void ab initio.”
Thus, the falsification of facts to obtain the Affidavit is not considered an irregularity but an absence of the marriage license altogether. And absence of a formal requisites makes the marriage void.
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