Grounds for Legal Separation

Title II- Legal Separation(Family Code)


-A decree of legal separation or relative divorce does not affect the marital status.
-Involves nothing more than bed-and-board separation.
-Does not dissolve the marriage.
-Decree is terminable at the will of the parties by merely filing a manifestation in court.

Art 55- ten (10) grounds for legal separation
          - Usually occur after the celebration of marriage.
          - No other grounds can be invoked by any party other than those stated by law(EXCLUSIVITY)

1. REPEATED PHYSICAL VIOLENCE OR GROSSLY ABUSIVE CONDUCT directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner.
         a. there must be frequency of violence.
         - does not include repeated violence upon the child of the respondent or the guilty spouse.
         - act must have been inflicted with bad faith and malice.
         b. Grossly abusive conduct is determined on a case-to-case basis.
          - spouse has deliberately adopted as a course of conduct, the use of offensive language toward the other spouse, continually calling him vile and opprobrious names with intent and fixed purpose of causing unhappiness.
          - continued manifestation by one spouse of indifference or aversion to the other coupled with persistent neglect of the duties incident to marital relation.

2. PHYSICAL VIOLENCE or MORAL PRESSURE to COMPEL the petitioner to CHANGE RELIGIOUS or POLITICAL AFFILIATION.
         - one attempt, one incident of physical violence or moral pressure to compel the change in religious or political affiliation can be a ground for legal separation.

3. ATTEMPT of respondent TO CORRUPT OR INDUCE the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, TO ENGAGE in PROSTITUTION, or CONNIVANCE in such corruption or inducement.
      - does not include the subjects of attempt the child of the respondent.
      - involves only the immoral and corrupt act of prostitution only.
    
4. FINAL JUDGMENT sentencing the respondent the imprisonment of more than 6 years, EVEN IF PARDONED.
     - judgment must be final, hence, does not apply while the case is still on appeal.
     - must be more than 6 years of imprisonment
     - this ground may be invoked even if the convicted party is pardoned.
     -the offense does not necessarily be committed to the other spouse, it could have been committed to anybody.
     - if concealed, is a ground for annulment.

5. Drug Addiction or Habitual Alcoholism
   - deal with a mental state that is detrimental to ones social and personal well-being as well as to the society as a whole as they prevent the one afflicted from properly exercising their judgment.
   - if concealed, is a ground for annulment.

6. Lesbianism or Homosexuality of the respondent
- considered a cruelty, as the continued acts can create serious mental anguish on the part of the innocent spouse as to endanger her life and health.
- if concealed, is a ground for annulment.


7. Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad.
   - BIGAMY whether committed here or abroad is immaterial in legal sepation, however, if it is committed abroad, the guilty party can not be criminally prosecuted in the Philippines.
  
8. Sexual infidelity or Perversion
   - Adultery, Concubinage and other acts that would constitute a clear betrayal of trust, even a single act of sexual intercourse with others may warrant the issuance of the decree.
   - No conviction is necessary for the case to prosper.
   - Perversion not only with the third person but also with the spouse.

9. Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner.
   - attempt must proceed from an evil design and not from any justifiable cause like self-defense or from the fact that the spouse caught the other in the act of having sexual intercourse with another man or woman.
   - No previous criminal conviction is required for the case to prosper.
   - attempt on the life must not be incidental as such is not intentional, willful or an evil design.

10. Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year.
    - The act is willful, deliberate intent to cease living with the other spouse, and abnegation of all duties of the marriage relation, not to return.
   - Physical separation alone is not abandonment if one neither neglects the management of the conjugal partnership nor ceases to give support to the family.
   - leaving the conjugal home without intention of returning.



References:Book of Sta Maria and Family Code