Short answer. Generally no. Under Article 739 of the Civil Code, donations made between persons who were guilty of adultery or concubinage at the time of the donation are void. A gift exchanged during an adulterous or concubinage relationship has no legal effect and can be declared null.
What the law says
Those made between persons who were guilty of adultery or concubinage at the time of the donation
Civil Code, Article 739 — Donations That Are Void. Read the full provision →
The gift is void, not merely questionable
Article 739 lists donations that the law refuses to recognise at all, and the first item covers exactly this situation: donations made between persons who were guilty of adultery or concubinage at the time of the donation. Being void means the donation produces no legal effect from the very beginning — it is not a valid gift that someone can later attack, but one that never transferred anything in the eyes of the law. The donee acquires no title, and the property is treated as never having left the donor. The law will not lend its aid to enforce a gift that springs from an illicit relationship it condemns.
The guilt is judged "at the time of the donation"
The wording ties the nullity to the parties' status at the time of the donation. What matters is that, when the gift was made, the giver and receiver stood in a relationship of adultery or concubinage. It is the existence of that illicit relationship at the moment of giving that poisons the donation, not the label the couple later adopt. The rule is aimed at gifts that flow from and sustain the wrongful relationship. A transfer made when no such relationship existed is not caught by this particular ground, so the timing of the gift against the timing of the affair is central.
Who can challenge it, and how it is proved
Article 739 also answers who may go to court and what must be shown. In the case of donations tied to adultery or concubinage, the action for declaration of nullity may be brought by the spouse of the donor or donee. The betrayed spouse — the person the illicit relationship injures — is given standing to have the gift struck down. Crucially, the guilt of the donor and donee may be proved by preponderance of evidence in the same action. That is the lighter civil standard, not proof beyond reasonable doubt, and there is no need for a prior criminal conviction; the adultery or concubinage can be established within the very case seeking to void the donation.
The limits of this rule
Article 739 voids gifts rooted in an adulterous or concubinage relationship, but it does not turn every transfer between unmarried partners into a nullity — the ground requires that state of guilt at the time of the gift, and other transactions may stand on different footing. The article also covers two further void donations: those between persons guilty of the same criminal offense in consideration of it, and those to a public officer or his close family by reason of his office. Because whether a particular relationship and a particular transfer fall within the article turns on the facts and their timing, a spouse considering a challenge, or a recipient defending a gift, should seek counsel on how it applies.