Short answer. Yes. Article 135 lists abuse of the power of administration granted in the marriage settlements as one of the sufficient causes for judicial separation of property. If your spouse was given that power and abused it, you have a recognized ground to petition for separation.
What the law says
That the spouse granted the power of administration in the marriage settlements has abused that power
Family Code, Article 135 — Sufficient Causes for Judicial Separation of Property. Read the full provision →
Abuse of granted administration power is its own listed ground
Article 135 lists several distinct grounds for judicial separation of property, and this is one of them by name. That the spouse granted the power of administration in the marriage settlements has abused that power. If your marriage settlement gave your spouse authority to administer property and that authority was abused, this article gives you a recognized, specific basis for petitioning the court, rather than requiring you to fit your situation into one of the article's other grounds.
How this ground differs from the others in the article
Some of the other grounds in Article 135 — civil interdiction, judicial declaration of an absentee, and loss of parental authority — allow the separation decree to be granted simply on the presentation of the final judgment establishing that fact. Abuse of administration power is not grouped with those three; it is treated as its own separate ground, which means it depends on establishing the abuse itself as a fact in the proceeding, rather than resting on a prior judgment covering a different matter.
The power has to come from the marriage settlement itself
The ground is specifically tied to a power granted in the marriage settlements — meaning the administration authority your spouse holds has to trace back to what the two of you agreed to in your marriage settlement, not some general or informal arrangement. If your spouse's administration role came from that settlement and was then abused, this article's language matches your situation directly.
What this means for pursuing separation of property
Having a recognized ground under Article 135 is the starting point for a judicial separation of property petition based on abuse of administration power, but the article does not itself detail what evidence would be needed to prove the abuse or the specific court procedure for filing. What it does confirm is that this situation is not something you have to simply tolerate — abuse of a granted administration power is written into the law as sufficient cause to seek separation of property.
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.
- David A. Noveras vs. Leticia T. Noveras AM. No. P-06-2227 August 19, 2014 Office of the Court Administrator vs. Atty. Mario N. Melchor, Former Clerk of Court VI, RTC, Br. 16, Naval, Biliran (now Presiding Judge, MCTC, Calubian-San Isidro, Leyte), G.R. No. 188289, August 20, 2014 — read the decision on LawPhil →