Short answer. Yes, but only where the donee acted in bad faith. Article 86 lets the donor revoke a donation by reason of marriage when the marriage is annulled and the person who received the gift was in bad faith. An annulment on its own, with an innocent donee, is not a ground.
What the law says
A donation by reason of marriage may be revoked by the donor in the following cases:
Family Code, Article 86 — Revoking Donations by Reason of Marriage. Read the full provision →
What the law says
When the marriage is annulled, and the donee acted in bad faith
Family Code, Article 86 — Revoking Donations by Reason of Marriage. Read the full provision →
A closed list, and an option rather than an effect
Two features of the opening line shape everything else. The donation may be revoked, which makes revocation a right the donor chooses to exercise rather than something the annulment accomplishes by itself; a donor who does nothing keeps the gift where it is. And the article then sets out the cases in which that right exists, which makes the list closed. Disappointment, the collapse of the relationship, or a sense that the gift was given on a false premise are not grounds unless they fit one of the described situations. The starting position is that a donation by reason of marriage stands.
For an annulment, bad faith is the whole question
The annulment ground is drafted with a conjunction that does the deciding: the marriage is annulled and the donee acted in bad faith. Both limbs are required. So the practical dispute is never really about the decree, which is a matter of record, but about the state of mind of the person who received the property at the time the marriage was contracted. Note also who is exposed. The provision looks at the donee's bad faith, not the donor's, so a donor who was himself less than candid does not lose the remedy on that account — though the facts that establish one party's knowledge often reveal the other's.
The other five cases the article lists
Revocation is also available where the marriage is not celebrated or is judicially declared void from the beginning — except for donations made in the marriage settlements, which the Code sends to a different provision; where the marriage takes place without the parental or guardian consent the law requires; upon legal separation, where the donee is the guilty spouse; where the donation carried a resolutory condition and that condition has been complied with; and where the donee has committed an act of ingratitude as the Civil Code on donations defines it. Each is a distinct factual case, and a claim has to be pinned to one of them.
What to establish before making the claim
Three things usually decide it. First, whether the transfer really was a donation by reason of marriage rather than a sale, a loan, or an ordinary gift — the instrument and its recitals answer that. Second, which ground you are relying on, since the elements differ sharply between them and evidence gathered for one may be useless for another. Third, what the donee knew and when, because in the annulment case that is the contested issue. If the property is registered land, its current registry status is worth checking at the same time, as later dealings can complicate what a revocation is able to recover.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Heirs of Cesario Velasquez, et al. vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 126996, February 15, 2000 — read the decision on LawPhil →