1/4/2021
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a) [T]he marriage between spouses ANGELITA SIMUNDAC
and GEORG KEPPEL which was solemnized on August
30, 1988 in Dulsburg, Germany, is hereby declared as
null and void in view of the psychological incapacity of
defendant to perform the essential marital obligations;
b) [A]ll the real and personal properties including the
businesses subject of the instant suit is (sic) hereby
declared as forming part of the paraphernal property of
petitioner;
c)
[T]he spouses are directed to equally support their
minor child Lisselotte Angela Keppel;
d) [T]he custody of the minor child is hereby declared as
belonging to herein petitioner, the mother, without
prejudice to the visitorial rights accorded by law to
defendant, unless the said minor child chooses her
father's custody, herein defendant.
SO ORDERED.[4]
The RTC found both of the parties psychologically incapacitated but considered Georg's
incapacity to be more severe on the basis of the clinical finding that he had manifested
an anti-social or psychopathic type of personality that translated to the symptomatic
tendency to deceive and injure Angelita. The RTC declared that as to the properties of
the parties to be distributed after the dissolution of the marriage, the business and
personal properties should be allocated to Angelita pursuant to the "Matrimony
Property Agreement;" and that the lands should exclusively belong to Angelita
inasmuch as Georg, being a German citizen, was absolutely prohibited from owning
lands pursuant to Section 7, Article XVII of the Constitution.
Decision of the CA
On September 26, 2011, the CA promulgated its decision on appeal, reversing the
RTC's findings, and thereby dismissing the complaint, disposing thusly:
WHEREFORE, the Decision, dated 21 June 2006, of the Regional Trial
Court, Branch 256, Muntinlupa City in Civil Case No. 96-048 for Annulment
of Marriage and Custody of Minor Child is REVERSED and SET ASIDE,
except for the trial court's declaration that all properties acquired in the
Philippines by Angelita Simundac Keppel belong to her alone. The complaint
is DISMISSED.
SO ORDERED.[5]
The CA observed that Angelita did not prove the allegations in her complaint because
she did not present the original of her divorce decree from Reynaldo Macaraig, her first
spouse; that she did not also prove the German law that capacitated her to marry
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