ANTONIO v REYES [2006]

● Leonilo and Marie got married and had a child who died.
● Leonilo filed a petition to have their marriage declared null and void on the
ground that Marie was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential
obligation of
marriage.
● Such incapacity was manifested by Marie’s behavior or
persistently lying about herself, the people around her, her occupation, income,
educational attainment and other events of things.
○ She concealed her illegitimate child and introduced him as her family’s
adopted child
○ She fabricated a story of her brother-in-law attempting to rape and kill her
○ She misrepresented herself as a psychiatrist to her obstetrician, and would
tell some of her friends she graduated with a psychology degree
○ She claimed to be a singer affiliated with Blackgold, and created “friends”
who wrote letters to Leonilo about Marie
○ She altered her payslip to make her income
appear higher; bought a sala set from the market but said she got it from a
famous dealer; would spend on unnecessary items and borrow money on
false pretexts
○ She would call up his officemates to know his whereabouts
● Leonilo left her. Leonilo presented a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist
to conduct tests - they found that Marie’s persistent and constant lying was
abnormal and pathological and that her extreme jealousy was pathological and
reached the point of paranoia. They concluded her psychological incapacity to
perform her essential marital duties

Issue:
WON their marriage be declared null on the ground of Marie’s psychological
incapacity? YES

Ruling:
Trial court ruling: Marie’s propensity to lying about almost anything had been duly
established. Her fantastic ability to invent and fabricate stories and personalities
enabled her to live in a world of make believe. This made her psychologically
incapacitated as it rendered her incapable of giving meaning and significance to their
marriage.
From the totality of evidence, the court was convinced of the incurability of Marie’s
psychological incapacity. xx