G.R. No. L-30977 January 31, 1972 CARMEN LAPUZ SY, represented by her substitute MACARIO LAPUZ, petitioner-appellant, vs. EUFEMIO S. EUFEMIO alias EUFEMIO SY UY, respondent-appellee. REYES J.B.L.,
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DOCTRINE: An action for legal separation is purely personal. Being personal in in character, the death death of one party to the action causes the death of the action itself. The right to the dissolution of the conjugal partnership of gains, the loss of right by the offending spouse to any share of the profits earned by the partnership or community, or his disqualification to inherit by intestacy from the innocent spouse as well as the revocation of testamentary provisions in favor of the offending spouse made by the innocent one, are all rights and disabilities that are vested exclusively in the persons of the spouses and by their nature, such claims and disabilities are not assignable or transmissible. FACTS: •
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CARMEN O. LAPUZ SY filed a petition for legal separation against EUFEMIO. EUFEMIO. She alleged that they were married civilly on 9/21/1934 and had lived together as husband and wife continuously until 1943 when her husband abandoned her. They had no child. She prayed for the issuance of a decree , which would order defendant Eufemio to be deprived of his share of the conjugal partnership profits. EUFEMIO alleged affirmative and special defenses and counter-claimed for the declaration of initio of his nullity ab initio his marri marriage age with with Carmen Carmen becaus because e of his prior prior and subsis subsistin ting g marria marriage, ge, celebrated according to Chinese law and customs, with one Go Hiok, alias Ngo Hiok. During trial, petitioner Carmen died in a vehicular accident o n May 1969. Eufemio moved to dismiss the petition for legal separation on 2 grounds that the: (1) petition for legal separation separation was filed beyond the 1-year period period provided for in Article 102 of the Civil Code; and (b) death of Carmen abated the action for legal separation. Counsel for deceased petitioner moved to substitute the deceased Carmen by her father, Macario Lapuz. Lapuz. Counsel for Eufemio opposed the motion. The court dismissed the case and stated that the motion to dismiss and the motion for substitution had to be resolved on the question of whether or not the plaintiff's cause of action has survived, which the court resolved in the negative. Petiti Petitione onerr filed filed a petiti petitione onerr for review review of the order order of dismi dismissa ssal, l, but the order order of dismi dismissa ssall was affirmed.
ISSUES: Does the death of the plaintiff before final decree, in an action for legal separation, abate the action? – YES – YES RULING:
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An action for legal separation involves nothing more than the bed-and-board separation of the spouses is purely personal. The Civil Code of the Philippines recognizes in Article 100 allows only the innocent spouse (and no one else) to claim legal separation and in Article 108, by providing that the spouses can, by their reconciliation, stop or abate the proceedings and even rescind a decree of legal separation already rendered. Being personal in character, it follows that the death of one party to the action causes the death of the action itself. Changes in property relations between spouses shows that they are solely the effect of the decree of legal separation. Hence, they cannot survive the death of the plaintiff if it occurs prior to the decree. An action for legal separation is abated by the death of the plaintiff, even if property rights are involved, is that these rights are mere effects of decree of separation, their source being the decree itself; without the decree such rights do not come into existence, so that before the finality of a decree, these claims are merely rights in expectation. Regarding Eufemio’s petition for a declaration of nullity ab initio of his marriage to Carmen Lapuz, it is apparent that such action became moot and academic upon the death of the latter, and there could be no further interest in continuing the same after her demise, that automatically dissolved the questioned union.
