Grave and incurable

To declare a marriage void on the ground of psychological incapacity of one of the spouses, the totality of the evidence must prove that the incapacity is mental, not physical, which causes a party to be truly incapable of recognizing and fulfilling the basic marital covenants. It must be characterized by gravity, juridical antecedence and incurability. This is explained and illustrated in this case of Andy and Mely.

Andy met Mely when Mely was still the girlfriend of Andy’s friend. After some time Mely and her boyfriend broke up so that she could become Andy’s girlfriend. After developing a strong sense of sexual desire and physical attraction towards each other, they became sweethearts and got married civilly. The couple initially lived in the city but later on transferred to several places because of the aggressive behavior of Mely.

As they lived together, Mely kept herself occupied by gossiping and reading comic books. Andy asked her to limit gossiping with their neighbors, but Mely got mad and told him that there was nothing much to do in their house.

Despite their marital problems, the couple eventually had their church wedding, when Mely was already five months pregnant. But Mely’s behavior did not change even after the wedding. She continued to gossip and pick fights with their neighbors. She showed not only aggressive behavior but infidelity, especially when Gardo, a neighbor, became close to them and Andy found out about his affair with Mely. Andy forgave Mely but the latter showed no remorse. Gardo later on revealed to Andy that their twin children were not really Andy’s children but his. Andy then recalled one incident between him and Mely wherein the latter told him “Hindi mo anak yan” as she got mad because Andy spanked one of their children.

Thereafter, Mely had another affair with another neighbor, Willy. One time Andy even discovered Willy hiding under their marital bed and wearing his pants only. Then Andy left their conjugal home when Mely got mad and threw a knife at him after he asked Mely to check the pressure cooker and it exploded.

So, Andy secured his own psychological assessment and that of Mely by Dr. Rolly Lopez. The results showed