Transcript for:
Exploring a Marriage Nullification Case

[Applause] what's up welcome to the courtroom i am theo and i'm oj and in this podcast we tell the stories about people's life liberty and property kokuento hanamikayo about court rulings in a way that will make you understand jurisprudence like a 9 year old so join us as we delve into true crime political controversies and all things started cheeses every week [Music] mario and rosanna first met in 1975 through the legion of mary at saint peter and paul parish in makati they wrote letters to each other during those times apart mario had worked in switzerland germany and italy before returning to the philippines in april 1995. it was during this time that mario sought to find rosanna through their childhood friends and [Music] he had been in love with her for the past 20 years so rosanna eventually fell in love with mario and agreed to be his girlfriend [Music] july 1995 [Music] on december 16 1995 at the saints peter and paul parish in public and on july 27 1996 rosanna gave birth to maria samantha and kaisa tomiran duplex according to mario exhibited odd behaviors even prior to their wedding and during their marriage odd behaviors [Music] and purchases using supplementary credit card which resulted in financial losses and the eventual closure of design and construction matrix surely and it didn't end there because mario continued with his emotional immaturity responsibility irritability and psychological imbalance means he would leave their house for several days without informing rosanna mario allegedly did not assist rosanna when she gave birth to their child maria samantha in iwatosa hospital knowing that she could not move until mgboard of young effects now spinal anesthesia he only returned to the hospital later that evening just to sleep mario also showed symptoms of paranoia everyone was out to attack him in sanpa he would hide maria samantha from those he thought were out to hurt them he would prevent the nurse from administering prescribed medications [Music] in his possession when rosanna confronted him about it an excuse is that it was the only way long thou for him to function kasey no pressure rosanna eventually got tired of mario and petition the original trial court to voluntarily commit mario for drug rehabilitation at the nbi treatment and rehabilitation center and eventually at seagull's flight foundation mario remained confined there until the rehabilitation center released mario without completing his rehab program in december 24 2000. rosanna wrote the trial court as to mario's premature release from the rehabilitation center since mario's release rosanna and mario had been separated and had not lived together these events according to rosanna showed mario's psychological incapacity to comply with his essential marital obligations to her sabine rosanna young bug the drug snimario was the manifestation of a grief personality disorder deeply rooted within mario's adaptive system kayanaman she prayed that the trial court nullified their marriage and that she be declared the soul and absolute owner of the parcel of land donated to her by her aunt and as well as the duplex built on it to prove mario's psychological incapacity rosanna presented dr garcia a physician psychiatrist as expert witness and dr garcia found rosanna psychologically capacitated to comply with her essential marital obligations as for mario dr garcia diagnosed him with narcissistic antisocial personality disorder and substance abuse disorder with psychotic features young narcissistic antisocial personality disorder dona mario is said to be grave with juridical antecedents and incurable and this rendered him psychologically incapacitated to comply with his essential marital obligations to rosanna dr garcia testified that mario's personality disorder was grave and deeply rooted in his character and other that persons suffering from personality disorders are impermeable to any form of psychiatric therapeutic modality because of the presence of denial and cognizance on the basic pathology of the person suffering from the disorder mario contended that it was actually rosanna who was psychologically incapacitated to comply with her essential marital obligation he prayed that the trial court nullify his marriage to rosanna due to her psychological incapacity and that the properties they had acquired during their cohabitation be divided equally between them he also prayed that the custody of maria samantha be awarded to him the trial court nullified the party's marriage on the ground of mario's psychological incapacity and as to the duplex rosanna was declared as its sole and absolute owner including the parcel of land on which it was built caso the court of appeals reversed the ruling of the lower court and declared na validan subsisting padinda on marriage it found dr garcia's psychiatric evaluation of mario to be unscientific and unreliable since she diagnosed mario without interviewing him it ruled that dr garcia was working on pure suppositions and secondhand information fed to her by one side rosanna argued that psychological incapacity need not be grounded on psychological illness as this is allegedly more consistent with psychological incapacity being a liberal ground for nullifying marriages nag site dinshan among jurisprudence where the supreme court held that competent evidence may establish psychological incapacity and that what matters is the totality of the evidence presented and not necessarily expert opinion the rosanna and psychological incapacity are incurable but not necessarily in a medical or clinical sense wedding incurability being manifested by ingrained behavior shown during the marriage by the psychologically incapacitated spouse so sasuke supreme court if there is a need for a medical or clinical proof to attest one's psychological incapacity and sabino supreme court i no psychological incapacity need not be medically or clinically proven in effect the court modified the doctrine enunciated in the molina case or republic versus court of appeals and molina well according to second guidelines in molina the root cause dao of psychological incapacity must be number one medically or clinically identified b number two as alleged in the complaint number three or letter c sufficiently proven by experts and the clearly explained in the decision so if you'll notice another letter is seen as sufficiently proven by expert hey and santos versus court of appeals the word defines psychological incapacity as a mental incapacity to comply with the essential marital obligation it involves the most serious cases of personality disorders clearly demonstrative of an utter insensitivity or inability to give meaning and significance to the marriage in the past the court or young previous jurisprudence have been inconsistent in requiring expert evidence in psychological incapacity cases hayanaman paradoma is clear the court now categorically abandons the second molina guideline my own psychological incapacity is neither a mental incapacity nor a personality disorder that must be proven through expert opinion an expert medical opinion to ascertain psychological incapacity and just mindlessly end marriages there must be proof of the durable or enduring aspects of a person's personality which manifests itself through clear acts of dysfunctionality that undermines the family such personality structure must make it impossible for him or her to understand and comply with their marital obligations the proof required for this need not be given by an expert enough right ordinary witnesses who have been present in the life of the spouses before they contracted marriage and they may testify on the behavior that they have consistently observed from the incapacitated spouse [Applause] the juridical antecedence of the psychological incapacity pursuant to article 36 of the family code is that such psychological incapacity must be incurable remember the court also acknowledges that psychological incapacity not being an illness in a medical sense is not something to be cured psychologically capacitated psychological incapacity has grown to nullify their marriage the capacity has to be incurable supreme court answered that as such the third molina guideline is amended to mean incurability should be taken in a legal sense and not a medical sense this means that the incapacity is so enduring and persistent with respect to a specific partner and contemplates a situation where the couple's respective personality structures are so incompatible and antagonistic that the only result of the union would be the inevitable and irreparable breakdown of the marriage dahilito the court found mario psychologically incapacitated to comply with his essential marital obligations rosanna was able to discharge the burden of proof required to nullify her marriage to mario clear and convincing evidence of his incapacity was shown through testimonies on mario's personality and how it formed primarily through his childhood and adult experiences way before he married rosanna dr garcia was also able to recount how mario developed traits exhibiting chronic irresponsibility impulsiveness lack of remorse lack of empathy and a sense of entitlement behaviors which manifest his inherent psychological incapacity to comply with his essential marital obligations while drug addiction is a ground for legal separation it will not prevent the court from voiding a marriage so long as it can be proven that the drug abuse is a manifestation of psychological incapacity existing at the time of marriage here the totality of evidence presented by rosanna clearly and convincingly proved that mario's drug abuse was a sufficient durability that antidates the marriage his persistent failure to rehabilitate even bring his child into a room where he did drugs indicates a level of dysfunctionality that shows utter disregard of his obligations not only to his wife but unfortunately also to his child maria samantha his failure to render mutual help and support was also clearly proven by his consistent failure to find gainful employment and even driving to bankruptcy the construction firm founded by rosanna by siphoning its funds for his drug abuse the petition was granted and the decision of the court of appeals was reversed and set aside actually this case gave a very beautiful insight of love and marriage yes according to supreme court marriage is not compulsory when in love neither does it create love nonetheless it remains an institution designed to provide legal and public recognition that may be well deserved not only for the couple but also for their families existing or yet to come to be clear the collective hope is that one who choose marriage realizes that the other deserves more caring more compassion more kindness in the daily and venal grind of their relationship yet we should not be blind to the reality that a person may be truly psychologically incapacitated from the beginning it is in disregard that the horde takes part in making parting less bitter minimize animosity because as the court says parting is already a sorrow it need not be more than what it already is if you guys like this audiogram please listen to the full episode on spotify or on your favorite podcast app where you can hear our insights on this case again this is odd and theo leaving you with a reminder to always look back in history because precedent shall rule the future thank you for listening and we'll see you again in the courtroom bye [Music]