Short answer. Yes, unless the case turns out to be groundless. The absolute community answers for the expenses of litigation between the spouses, so neither has to fund the fight alone. If the suit is found groundless, that protection falls away and the cost is not a community charge.
What the law says
Expenses of litigation between the spouses unless the suit is found to be groundless
Family Code, Article 94 — Charges on the Community Property. Read the full provision →
Why the law funds a fight between the spouses
It looks strange at first that shared property should pay for a case one spouse brings against the other. The reason is practical. In many marriages one spouse controls the money. If litigation costs had to come from each spouse's own pocket, the spouse without separate funds could be shut out of court entirely — not because the claim was weak, but because the other side held the purse. Making it a community charge keeps the courthouse door open to both, whatever the balance of financial power inside the marriage.
The groundless exception, and what it does
The protection is not unconditional. It applies unless the suit is found to be groundless. That is the safeguard against the obvious abuse — filing case after case at the community's expense to wear the other spouse down. Note the timing built into the wording: whether a suit is groundless is known at the end of it, not at the start. So the exception operates as a risk carried by the spouse who sues, rather than as a filter applied before the case can be brought at all.
It covers litigation between the two of you
The clause is specific about who the parties are: litigation between the spouses. A case one of you brings against an outsider is not governed by this clause and has to find its footing elsewhere in the same article — for instance as a debt contracted for the benefit of the community, or as an expense upon community property. It is worth identifying which clause you are actually relying on, because each one carries different conditions and a different consequence at liquidation.
A charge, not an advance
This matters more than it sounds. Some items in the article are paid by the community only provisionally and are then deducted from the share of the debtor-spouse upon liquidation, so they behave like a loan. Litigation expenses between the spouses are not in that group. Subject to the groundless exception, they are an outright charge on the community, absorbed by it, with nothing to reimburse when the property is eventually divided between you.
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.
- Philippine National Bank vs. Venancio C. Reyes, Jr, G.R. No. 212483, October 5, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 94 — Charges on the Community Property
- Family Code, Article 102 — Liquidating the Absolute Community