Short answer. Yes. Where either party is at the point of death, the marriage may be solemnized without a license, and the Family Code says it stays valid even if the ailing party afterwards survives. The exemption removes the license only; every other requisite of a valid marriage still applies.

What the law says

In case either or both of the contracting parties are at the point of death, the marriage may be solemnized without necessity of a marriage license and shall remain valid even if the ailing party subsequently survives.

Family Code, Article 27 — Marriage in Articulo Mortis. Read the full provision →

The condition is being at the point of death

Article 27 applies where either or both of the contracting parties are at the point of death. That is a factual condition to be judged at the moment of the ceremony, and it is a demanding one. A grave diagnosis, a long illness or advanced age is not the same as being at the point of death, and a couple who use the article to avoid the delay of a licence when nobody is dying have not created a valid marriage — they have created one with no license and no exemption. The condition must exist when the marriage is celebrated, not later.

Survival does not undo the marriage

The article settles the obvious anxiety in its own words: the marriage shall remain valid even if the ailing party subsequently survives. Recovery is not a resolutory condition and does not send the couple back to the registrar for a license. This is a deliberate choice by the Code, because the alternative would leave every such marriage in doubt for as long as the patient lived and would make the couple's status depend on a medical outcome. Once validly celebrated under this article, the marriage is a marriage, with the property consequences and the obligations that follow from it.

Everything else still has to be there

What Article 27 removes is the license, which is a formal requisite under Article 3. It removes nothing else. Both parties must still have legal capacity, and consent must still be freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer, as Article 2 requires. There must still be an officer with authority, and a ceremony where the parties appear and personally declare that they take each other as husband and wife before at least two witnesses of legal age. Consent is the requisite most often in issue here, because a party at the point of death may be sedated, confused, or unable to speak at all.

The affidavit that follows, and why it matters later

A marriage under this article is not meant to leave a thin record. Article 29 requires the solemnizing officer to execute an affidavit, sworn before the local civil registrar or another officer authorised to administer oaths, stating that the marriage was performed in articulo mortis and setting out the circumstances, and Article 30 requires that affidavit to be attached to the marriage certificate and sent to the registrar. If a deathbed marriage in your family is later questioned — usually when an estate is opened — that affidavit and the certificate are the first two documents to obtain.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.