Legal Separation and Inheritance: What You Need to Know

Legal Separation and Inheritance: What You Need to Know

Atty. Kathleen Felise T.

Getting married to the perfect partner is something to look forward to. However, marriages don’t always turn out the way they are imagined. In reality, marital relations can deteriorate due to serious supervening circumstances, such as violence, sexual infidelity, abandonment, and other acts that make living together as husband and wife unsafe or unreasonable.

Because the Philippine legal system does not recognize divorce, couples in these situations often feel trapped in marriages that no longer seem to work. While Annulment 1 and Declaration of Nullity of Marriage 2 are available, the process is lengthy and costly, and the grounds are limited.

This is why Legal Separation exists in Philippine family law: an interim remedy that allows spouses to sever key marital obligations and legal consequences without ending the marriage itself.

What is Legal Separation Under the Family Code?

Legal separation is governed by Articles 55 to 67 of the Family Code of the Philippines. It is a court proceeding that authorises spouses to live separately and regulates their property relations without dissolving the marital bond.

Grounds for legal separation (Article 55) include:

• 1. Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct
• 2. Physical violence to compel the other spouse to change religion or political affiliation
• 3. Attempt to corrupt or induce a spouse or child to engage in prostitution
• 4. Final judgment sentencing a spouse to imprisonment of more than six years
• 5. Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism
• 6. Lesbianism or homosexuality
• 7. Bigamous or subsequent marriage
• 8. Sexual infidelity or perversion
• 9. Attempt by a spouse against the life of the other
• 10. Abandonment without just cause for more than one year

These grounds generally involve urgent, serious, or harmful circumstances, which may necessitate the immediate separation of the couples’ bed and board.

Effects of Legal Separation: Disqualification of the Offending Spouse to Inherit from the Innocent Spouse

Apart from being entitled to live separately from each other, 3 another significant consequence of a decree legal separation is its impact on inheritance rights between spouses.

Under Article 63(4) of the Family Code, once a decree of legal separation becomes final:

• If the innocent spouse dies without a Will: The offending spouse is disqualified from inheriting from the innocent spouse.
• If the innocent spouse dies with a Will: Any testamentary disposition in favour of the offending spouse will be revoked by operation of law.

This means that if the innocent spouse dies while separated from the offending spouse, the offending spouse is disqualified from inheriting from the former.

Conversely, the Family Code does not disqualify the innocent spouse from inheriting from the offending spouse. Thus, if the offending spouse dies while the decree of legal separation is in force, the innocent spouse can still inherit from the latter.

A Scenario: Can Irvin Inherit From Emma?

Picture this situation:

A few years into Emma and Irvin’s marriage, Irvin had an affair, one of the grounds for legal separation under Article 55. Emma filed for legal separation and was eventually granted a permanent decree. Soon after, she became terminally ill and passed away, leaving no will, ₱10 million in cash and was survived by her three children with Irvin. Irvin argues that since he is still legally married to Emma, he can inherit from her as her surviving spouse.

Question: Can Irvin inherit from Emma?

Answer: No.

Because the decree of legal separation was already final, Irvin, as the offending spouse, is automatically disqualified from inheriting from Emma. Her estate will pass to her only legal heirs, her three children, without Irvin receiving any share.