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STARE DECISIS
NCC Article 8: Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a part of the legal
system of the Philippines
ISSUE: WON the guidelines in the case of Republic vs. Court of Appeals and Molina
should be taken to be merely advisory and not mandatory in nature.
HELD: YES. The “doctrine of Stare Decisis” in Article 8 of the Civil Code states that
Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a
part off the legal system in the Philippines. The rule follows the settled legal maxim
– “legis interpretatio legis vim obtinet” – that the construction of law obtains the
force of the law. It requires courts in a country to follow the rule established in a
decisions of the supreme court thereof. That decision becomes a judicial precedent
to be followed in subsequent cases by all courts in the land.
Thus the term “psychological incapacity”, borrowed from the Canon Law, was given
legal life by the court in the case of Santos; In the case of Molina, additional
procedural guidelines to assist the courts and the parties in cases for annulment of
marriages on the grounds of psychological incapacity was added. Both judicial
decisions in the Santos and Molina case have the force and effect of law. Therefore,
the guidelines in the case of Molina is mandatory.
Petition is denied, petitioner has utterly failed, both in her allegations in the
complaint and in her evidence, to make out a case of psychological incapacity on the
part of respondent, let alone at the time of solemnization of the contract, so as to
warrant a declaration of nullity of the marriage. Emotional immaturity and
irresponsibility, invoked by her, cannot be equated with psychological incapacity.