MARBELLA-BOBIS Vs BOBIS - GR NO. 138509
MARBELLA-BOBIS Vs BOBIS - GR NO. 138509
MARBELLA-BOBIS Vs BOBIS - GR NO. 138509
Cajayon
JD-1 WVSU
1st Sem AY 2021-2022
Sometime thereafter, respondent initiated a civil action for the judicial declaration of
absolute nullity of his first marriage on the ground that it was celebrated without a marriage
license. Respondent then filed a motion to suspend the proceedings in the criminal case for
bigamy invoking the pending civil case for nullity of the first marriage as a prejudicial
question to the criminal case. The trial judge granted the motion to suspend the criminal case.
Petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration, but the same was denied.
ISSUES:
Whether the subsequent filing of a civil action for declaration of nullity of a previous
marriage constitutes a prejudicial question to a criminal case for bigamy.
RULING:
The petition for review on certiorari was granted, reversing the decision of the lower court
and ordered the latter to immediately proceed with the criminal case.
A prejudicial question is one which arises in a case the resolution of which is a logical
antecedent of the issue involved therein. It is a question based on a fact distinct and separate
from the crime but so intimately connected with it that it determines the guilt or innocence of the
accused.
A party who raises a prejudicial question is deemed to have hypothetically admitted that
all the essential elements of a crime have been adequately alleged in the information, considering
that the prosecution has not yet presented single evidence on the indictment or may not yet have
rested its case. A challenge of the allegations in the information on the ground of prejudicial
question is in effect a question on the merits of the criminal charge through a non-criminal suit.
Article 40 of the Family Code requires a prior judicial declaration of nullity of a previous
marriage before a party may remarry. The clear implication of this is that it is not for the parties,
particularly the accused, to determine the validity or invalidity of the marriage.
Thus, as ruled in Landicho v. Relova, he who contracts a second marriage before the
judicial declaration of nullity of the first marriage assumes the risk of being prosecuted for
bigamy, and in such a case the criminal case may not be suspended on the ground of the
pendency of a civil case for declaration of nullity.