Julian Ambalada and Modesta Afable lived together as husband and wife from 1870 until 1886, when Modesta Afable died. During their union, eight children were born to them, of whom Maria Ambalada alone survived her mother. This Maria married Sancho Sison, having three children, Vicente, Maria Consolacion, and Conrado, all surnamed Sison.
These three grandchildren of Ambalada and Afable have instituted the present suit against Julian Ambalada seeking liquidation of the estate belonging to the conjugal partnership between Julian Ambalada and Modesta Afable, and partition of the property constituting it, so that to them might be adjudicated the half of its products belonging to the portion of the spouse who died first, Modesta Afable. For this purpose the plaintiffs enumerate in their complaint six parcels of land as constituting the conjugal partnership property mentioned.
The defendant Julian Ambalada denies the existence of the conjugal partnership he said to have had with Modesta Afable, to whom, he avers, he was never legally married. He acknowledges in his written answer that he had by Modesta Afable among other children (four altogether enumerated in the instrument) Maria Ambalada, who, he says was born on September 11, 1875, and died on November 12, 1902, leaving the plaintiffs as her sole descendants.
Issue:
Whether or not there is valid marriage between Julian and Modesta.
Ruling:
Yes.
Julian admitted that he was capitan municipal, Modesta Afable was called capitana, because she was publicly accepted in that town as was his lawful wife, and when after Modesta's death he tried to get married in Navotas he represented himself to be a widower, and in his personal cedula he was stated to be married when he sought title to the land.
The legal presumption is that a man and woman living together as husband and wife have entered into a lawful contract of marriage (Code Civ, Proc., sec. 334, No. 28.); but presumptions established by law may be destroyed by proof to the contrary (Civil Code, art. 1251). Proof to the contrary rests upon the defendant, and he has adduced more whatever, for proof to overcome the legal presumption is not constituted by absence of the marriage certificate in the books of the parish of Balayan, wherein it is seen that other entries as important as that of the marriage in question are lacking. Lack of record of an act or fact in certain books of registry is not per seproof of the non-existence of the fact or act, outside of the cases where the laws specifically requires as essential evidence the record itself or the inscription of the fact or act to be proven.
The judgment appealed from is affirmed in so far as it declares that there was a legal marriage between Julian Ambalada and Modesta Afable.
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