G.R. No.
L-30977, January 31, 1972
CARMEN
LAPUZ SY, REPRESENTED BY HER SUBSTITUTE MACARIO LAPUZ VS. EUFEMIO S. EUFEMIO
ALIAS EUFEMIO SY UY
FACTS: Lapuz Sy filed a petition for legal separation against
Eufemio, alleging that they were married; that they had lived together as
husband and wife continuously until her husband abandoned her, that they had no
child; that they acquired properties during their marriage; and that she
discovered her husband cohabiting with a Chinese. She prayed for the
issuance of a decree of legal separation, which, among others, would order that
the defendant Eufemio should be deprived of his share of the conjugal
partnership profits.
ISSUE: Whether the death of the plaintiff before final decree
abate the action and if such abatement will apply if the action involves
property rights.
RULING: An action for legal separation is purely personal in
character, hence, it follows that the death of one party to the action causes
the death of the action itself.
A review of the resulting changes in property relations between
spouses shows that they are solely the effect of the decree of legal
separation; hence, they can not survive the death of the plaintiff if it occurs
prior to the decree.
"Art. 106. The decree of legal separation shall have
the following effects:
***(4) The offending
spouse shall be disqualified from inheriting from the innocent spouse by
intestate succession. Moreover, provisions in favor of the offending
spouse made in the will of the innocent one shall be revoked by operation of
law." * * *
If death supervenes during the pendency of the action, no decree
can be forthcoming, death producing a more radical and definitive separation;
and the expected consequential rights and claims would necessarily remain
unborn.
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