CASE DIGEST ON REPUBLIC VS NOLASCO

FACTS:

Respondent Gregorio Nolasco, a seaman by employment, first met Janet Monica Parker in a bar in England. From that chance meeting onwards, Janet lived with respondent Nolasco on his ship for six months until they arrived to respondent’s hometown of San Jose, Antique on November 19, 1980 after his contract as a seaman expired. Respondent married Janet in San Jose, Antique, in Catholic rites on January 15, 1982.

After the marriage celebration, he acquired another employment contract as a seaman and left his wife with his parents in San Jose, Antique. Respondent received a letter from his mother informing him that Janet had given birth to his son sometime in January 1983. Upon further reading the letter, it also informed him that Janet had left Antique. Respondent then asked permission to leave his ship to return home, arriving in Antique in November 1983.

Respondent claimed that he did everything that he could to look for Janet himself whenever his ship docked in England. He also stated that all the letters he had sent to his missing spouse at the address of the bar where he and Janet first met, were all returned to him. Even by inquiring through their friends proved fruitless since they had no news on the whereabouts of Janet. He does not know anything about Janet’s family background since she refused to give him any details when he asked her even when they were married. Furthermore, Janet’s disappearance went unreported to the Philippine government authorities.

Because of such incidences, respondent filed before the RTC a petition for the declaration of presumptive death of his wife Janet Monica Parker, invoking Article 41 of the Family code. The petition prayed that respondent’s wife be declared presumptively dead or, alternatively, that the marriage be declared null and void. RTC granted the petition, declaring Janet as presumptively dead without prejudice to her reappearance.

The Republic appealed to the Court of Appeals, contending that the RTC erred in declaring Janet presumptively dead because respondent failed to show that there existed a well-founded belief for such declaration. However, the Court of Appeals affirmed the RTC’s decision, holding that respondent had satisfactorily established a basis to form a belief that his absent spouse had already died.

The Republic forwarded their case for a petition to review by the Supreme Court through the Solicitor-General.

ISSUE:

Whether or not respondent Gregorio Nolasco has a well-founded belief that his wife is already dead.

HELD:

NO. Respondent lacked the necessary evidences and efforts to prove that he has a well-founded belief that his wife was already dead. Furthermore, the court believes that

respondent failed to conduct a search for his missing wife with such diligence as to give rise to a “well-founded belief” that she is dead.

To further prove that he lacked evidence, the respondent failed to mention whom he made “inquiries” to the whereabouts of Janet. Moreover, he did not even write to the parents of his first wife, who lived in Pampanga, for the purpose of securing information concerning her current location. The respondent even admitted that his basis for suspecting the death of his wife was the fact that she had been absent.

Another important factor is that the respondent did not even secure the help of local authorities or of the British Embassy for locating his lost wife. Instead, he secured another seaman’s contract and went to London, a huge city with millions of people living in that country, to look for her there alone. Upon cross-examination of the respondent, it was proved that he confused London for Liverpool, which makes his supposed efforts to locate his wife in England doubtful.

In regards with his claim that he did not know any personal information regarding his wife Janet even after she had married the respondent is too convenient an excuse to justify his failure to locate her. Even the letters that he sent (which were returned to him) to the bar got lost, with unspecified circumstances.

In light of the aforementioned views and facts, the supreme court therefore REVERSED the declaration that Janet Monica Parker is presumptively dead and both decisions by the RTC and CA are NULLIFIED and SET ASIDE.