Short answer. Article 39 lists eleven circumstances that can modify or limit capacity to act: age, insanity, imbecility, being a deaf-mute, penalty, prodigality, family relations, alienage, absence, insolvency, and trusteeship. Their specific consequences are governed elsewhere in the Code, other codes, the Rules of Court, and special laws — this article only names the categories.
What the law says
The following circumstances, among others, modify or limit capacity to act: age, insanity, imbecility, the state of being a deaf-mute, penalty, prodigality, family relations, alienage, absence, insolvency and trusteeship.
Civil Code, Article 39 — Circumstances Modifying Capacity to Act. Read the full provision →
What the law says
The consequences of these circumstances are governed in this Code, other codes, the Rules of Court, and in special laws.
Civil Code, Article 39 — Circumstances Modifying Capacity to Act. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Capacity to act is not limited on account of religious belief or political opinion.
Civil Code, Article 39 — Circumstances Modifying Capacity to Act. Read the full provision →
What the law says
A married woman, twenty-one years of age or over, is qualified for all acts of civil life, except in cases specified by law.
Civil Code, Article 39 — Circumstances Modifying Capacity to Act. Read the full provision →
The eleven circumstances Article 39 names
Article 39 lists age, insanity, imbecility, the state of being a deaf-mute, penalty, prodigality, family relations, alienage, absence, insolvency and trusteeship as circumstances that modify or limit a person's capacity to act. The article calls this list open-ended — "among others" — signaling that other circumstances found elsewhere in the law can have the same effect, even though these eleven are the ones expressly named here.
This article only names the categories — it doesn't spell out the effects
Article 39 deliberately stops short of explaining what each circumstance actually does to a person's capacity. Instead, it says the consequences of these circumstances are governed in this Code, other codes, the Rules of Court, and in special laws. So knowing that, say, insolvency or family relations appears on this list tells you capacity is affected in some way, but the actual rule — how much capacity is limited, and for what acts — has to be found in whichever specific provision covers that particular circumstance.
Two things that do not limit capacity
Article 39 is also explicit about what does not restrict capacity: it states that capacity to act is not limited on account of religious belief or political opinion. Whatever a person believes religiously, or whatever political views he holds, has no bearing on his capacity to enter contracts, sign documents, or perform other legal acts under this article, however strongly those beliefs or opinions are held.
Married women are expressly included as fully capable
Article 39 closes by affirming that a married woman, twenty-one years of age or over, is qualified for all acts of civil life, except in cases specified by law. Once she reaches that age, marriage itself is not treated as a circumstance limiting her capacity — she has the same standing to act as any other adult, subject only to whatever specific exceptions a particular law may separately provide.