1/4/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly FIRST DIVISION [ G.R. No. 202039, August 14, 2019 ] ANGELITA SIMUNDAC-KEPPEL, PETITIONER, VS. GEORG KEPPEL, RESPONDENT. DECISION BERSAMIN, C.J.: The courts do not take judicial notice of foreign laws. To have evidentiary weight in a judicial proceeding, the foreign laws should be alleged and proved like any other material fact. This Case By this appeal, the petitioner assails the decision promulgated on September 26, 2011[1] by the Court of Appeals (CA) that reversed the judgment rendered on June 21, 2006[2] by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Muntinlupa City in Civil Case No. 96-048. Antecedents As summarized by the CA, the factual antecedents are as follows: In November 1972, petitioner Angelita Simundac Keppel (Angelita) left the Philippines to work in Germany as a nurse. In the hospital where Angelita worked, she met Reynaldo Macaraig (Reynaldo), also a nurse and fellow Filipino who had become a naturalized German citizen. They fell in love and got married in Germany on 12 June 1976. Angelita and Reynaldo's union produced a son. After a few years of marriage, Angelita became attracted to another German nurse and co-employee, Georg Keppel (Georg). Like Angelita, Georg was married to a Filipina nurse, with whom he had two children. Eventually, the attraction between Angelita and Georg developed into an intimate affair. Not long after that, Reynaldo discovered Angelita's infidelity and they separated. In the meantime, in February 1986, Angelita became a naturalized German citizen. Angelita and her son left Germany to go home to the Philippines, where they planned to start over. While in the Philippines, Angelita continued communicating with Georg through letters and telephone calls. In July 1987, Georg's wife divorced him, and so Georg felt free to come to the Philippines to meet Angelita's family in September 1987. https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/65677 1/10

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