Case Digest (G.R. No. L-1780)
Facts:
Consuelo Sors v. Nicolas Szatraw, G.R. No. L-1780, August 31, 1948, the Supreme Court En Banc, Padilla, J., writing for the Court.Petitioner Consuelo Sors alleged under oath that she married Nicolas Szatraw, a Polish citizen, in Manila in November 1936; that they had a son, Alexis Szatraw (born 8 September 1937); and that they lived together until February 1940, when Szatraw left the conjugal home "on the pretext" of visiting friends, took the child with him and never returned. Petitioner averred that, despite inquiries among her husband's friends and countrymen, she could only learn that they had gone to Shanghai and that subsequently neither husband nor child had been seen or located; she had received no news from them for more than seven years.
Petitioner filed a petition praying that her husband be declared dead (or presumed dead) and that her parental authority over the child, should he later appear alive, be preserved. The trial court received and considered the evidence proving the factual averments and further found that the spouses had acquired no property during the marriage and that the husband's life was not insured.
The trial court dismissed the petition. It held that the petition was not for the settlement of the absentee's estate and that the seven‑year rule invoked by petitioner is merely a rule of evidence (a presumption juris tantum) which does not create a substantive right or a subject matter for a final judicial determination; therefore a judicial declaration that a person is presumptively dead would be superfluous and could be collusively used to evade the provisions of the Divorce Law (Act No. 2710). Petitioner appealed to the Supreme Court.
The case reached the Supreme ...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Is the petition for a judicial declaration that Nicolas Szatraw be presumed dead a proper subject for a court decree (procedural/justiciability)?
- Can the legal presumption that a person unheard from for seven years is dead be the sole basis for a final judicial declaration of ...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Ratio:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Doctrine:
- (Subscriber-Only)