By : Rossville “Aeron” B. Violanta
CIVIL PERSONALITY
Art. 37. Juridical capacity, which is the fitness to be the subject of legal relations, is inherent in every natural person and is lost only through death. Capacity to act, which is the power to do acts with legal effect, is acquired and may be lost.
Kinds of Capacity. – Capacity may be (1) juridical capacity, and (2) capacity to act. The union of these two forms the full civil capacity.
*Juridical capacity is synonymous to legal capacity and to personality. These terms are, therefore, used interchangeably in the law. They all refer to the aptitude for the holding and enjoyment of rights. Juridical capacity is indivisible, irreducible, and essentially the same for all men; it is an inherent and ineffaceable attribute of man, and attaches to him by the mere fact of his being a man. It is acquired upon birth and there are some cases that even the child is still unborn he is already given provisional personality and it is terminated upon death.
* Capacity to act is the aptitude for the exercise of rights, and is often referred to merely as “capacity.” In this sense, it is broadly defined as “the ability, power, qualification, or competency of persons, natural or artificial, for the performance of civil acts depending on their state or condition (status) as defined or fixed by law”. Capacity to act is conditional and variable. It is acquired and may be lost. The mere existence of a man is not sufficient to confer capacity to act, because this capacity requires both intelligence and will; and since these are not always present in all men, nor are they always of the same degree, the law in some cases denies this capacity and in others limits it.
Juridical capacity can exist without the capacity to act, but the existence of the latter implies that of the former. They do not always coincide.
Art. 38. Minority,insanity or imbecility, the state of being a deaf-mute, prodigality and civil interdiction are mere restrictions on capacity to act, and do not exempt the incapacitated person from certain obligations, as when the latter arise from his acts or from property relations, such as easements.
Case Digest
The causes of incapacity enumerated in this article are minority, insanity or imbecility, the state of being a deaf-mute, prodigality, and civil interdiction. However, these are not the only causes of incapacity. Some of them are mentioned in the next article, such as family relations, alienage, absence, insolvency, and trusteeship. Others are to be found in the Rules of Court and other legal provisions.
*Minority. – The age of majority commences upon the attainment of the age of 18 years (R.A. 6809); a person bellow such age is a minor, and has a limited capacity to act. The unemancipated minor cannot enter into contracts; but he may be estopped from disavowing his contract if he has misled the other party as to his age.
The mere fact that one month after the execution of the contract, the minor informed the other contracting party of his minority, does not affect the case; such subsequent information is of no moment, because his previous misrepresentation has already estopped him from disavowing the contract.
*Insanity or Imbecility. – Insanity includes the various forms of mental disease, either inherited or acquired, in which there is a perversion of the mentality, as when the person is suffering from illusions, hallucinations, or delusions, unnatural exaltation or depression, or insane ideas of persecution or power. Various phases of insanity are known as dementia praecox, paranoia, schizophrenia, mania, melancholia, etc. It is a manifestation, in language or conduct, of disease or defect of the brain, or a more or less permanently diseased or disordered condition of the mentality, functional or organic, characterized by perversion, inhibition, or disordered function of the sensory or of the intellective faculties, or by impaired or disordered volition.
An insane person cannot make a valid will or testament and he cannot validly give consent to contracts.
*Deaf-Mutism. – The old rule that a deaf-mute was presumed to be an idiot no longer prevails; such persons are now considered as capable of entering into contracts if shown to have sufficient mental capacity. A deaf-mute can make a valid will, so long as its contents have been communicated or made known to him in some practicable manner. But when the deaf-mute does not know how to read and write, he cannot give consent to contracts and he cannot personally accept or repudiate an inheritance.
*Civil Interdiction. – is the legal restrain upon a person incapable of managing his, estate because of mental incapacity from signing any deed. Civil interdiction is an accessory penalty imposed upon persons who are sentenced to a principal penalty not lower than reclusion temporal (article 41, Revised Penal Code), which is a penalty ranging from twelve years and one day to twenty years.
Article 34 of the Revised Penal Code provides: “Civil interdiction shall deprive the offender during the time of his sentence of the rights of parental authority, or guardianship, either as to the person or property of any ward, of marital authority, of the right to manage his property, and of the right to dispose of such property by any act or any conveyance inter vivos.”
*Prodigality. – A spendthrift or prodigal is a “person who, by excessive drinking, gambling, idleness or debauchery of any kind shall so spend, waste or lessen his estate as to expose himself or his family to want or suffering” . The acts of prodigality must show a morbid state of mind and disposition to spend, waste and lessen the estate to such an extent as is likely to expose the family to want of support, or to deprive the compulsory heirs of their legitime.
Prodigality in itself does not limit the capacity of a person to act. He may enter into contracts and make wills disposing of his property. There is no specific provision which incapacitates him for any particular act. But he may be placed under guardianship as an incompetent under the provisions of Rule 93, section 2, of the Rules of Court. The moment he is under guardianship, his capacity to act is restricted, because he can only bind himself by contract through his guardian.
Art. 39. The following circumstances, among others, modify or limit capacity to act : age, insanity, imbecility, the state of being a deaf-mute, penalty, prodigality, family relations, alienage, absence insolvency and trusteeship. The consequences of these circumstances are governed in this Code, other codes, the Rules of Court, and in special laws. Capacity to act is not limited on account of religious belief or political opinion.
A married woman, eighteen years (previously twenty-one, as amended by R.A. 6809) of age or over, is qualified for all acts of civil life, except in cases specified by law.
Some of the circumstances mentioned in the present article as modifying or limiting capacity to act are already given in the preceding article.
*Family Relations. – Certain family relations limit the capacity of persons for some juridical acts. Ascendants and descendants, brothers and sisters, and collateral relatives within the fourth civil degree (as cousins), cannot validly marry; their marriage would be incestuous or against public policy and void. Husband and wife, during the marriage, cannot give donations to each other were limited by previous constitutions.
*Alienage or Citizenship. – Citizenship may affect the right of persons in matters where the State may validly discriminate between aliens and its citizens for reasons of public policy, without doing violence to the equal protection of the laws. Some of the limitations on the rights of aliens are imposed by the Constitution, and others by statute.
* Absence. – A person is absent when he disappears from his domicile, and his whereabouts are unknown. He cannot properly administer his properties, and so another person is appointed to administer them. Continued absence may even give rise to the presumption of his death (article 390). However, the absentee may be alive somewhere, and, if not otherwise incapacitated, his acts in such other place are perfectly valid. He can even alienate his properties without the knowledge of those who administer them in his domicile, and the alienation would be valid to confer title upon the grantee.
*Insolvency and Trusteeship. – When a person has been adjudicated as an insolvent, his capacity to dispose of his property becomes limited. He cannot dispose of his property existing at the time of the commencement of the insolvency proceedings; and no payments of property or credit can be made to him.
*Physical Condition. – In some cases, the physical condition of a person may limit capacity for certain acts. Thus, physical incapacity to enter into the married state, or impotence, is a ground for annulment of marriage, and a person who is blind, or deaf or dumb, cannot be a witness to the execution of a will.
PERSONS AND FAMILY RELATIONS 