Short answer. Yes. Article 135 of the Family Code lists loss of parental authority decreed by the court against your spouse as one of the sufficient causes for judicial separation of property — and where that cause applies, presenting the final judgment against your spouse is enough basis for the court to grant the decree.
What the law says
That loss of parental authority of the spouse of petitioner has been decreed by the court
Family Code, Article 135 — Sufficient Causes for Judicial Separation of Property. Read the full provision →
What the law says
In the cases provided for in Numbers (1), (2) and (3), the presentation of the final judgment against the guilty or absent spouse shall be enough basis for the grant of the decree of judicial separation of property.
Family Code, Article 135 — Sufficient Causes for Judicial Separation of Property. Read the full provision →
Loss of parental authority is one of six listed causes
Article 135 lists that loss of parental authority of the spouse of petitioner has been decreed by the court as one of six sufficient causes for judicial separation of property. If a court has already decreed that your spouse lost parental authority over your children, that decree by itself gives you a recognized ground under this article to petition for judicial separation of property.
The lighter proof standard for this ground
For this ground, along with the two grounds immediately before it, the article simplifies what you need to show: in the cases provided for in Numbers (1), (2) and (3), the presentation of the final judgment against the guilty or absent spouse shall be enough basis for the grant of the decree of judicial separation of property. So rather than re-litigating the underlying facts, presenting the final judgment decreeing the loss of parental authority is enough on its own to support the separation-of-property petition.
The other five sufficient causes, for comparison
Article 135 also recognizes as sufficient causes: a spouse sentenced to a penalty carrying civil interdiction, a spouse judicially declared an absentee, a spouse who abandoned the petitioner or failed to comply with family obligations under Article 101, a spouse who abused a granted power of administration under the marriage settlements, and spouses who have been separated in fact for at least a year with reconciliation highly improbable. Loss of parental authority is an independent ground, not something you need alongside any of these others.
What Article 101 adds about abandonment, for context
Article 101, which Article 135's fourth ground refers to, separately defines abandonment as leaving the conjugal dwelling without intention of returning, and treats an absence of three months, or a failure within that period to give any information about one's whereabouts, as a prima facie presumption of no intention to return. This is a different ground from loss of parental authority, but it illustrates how the article's causes are each defined with their own specific standards.
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 →
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 135 — Sufficient Causes for Judicial Separation of Property
- Family Code, Article 101 — Abandonment: Remedies of the Aggrieved Spouse