Superseded. This article assumes a marital incapacity the law no longer imposes. The Family Code equalised the spouses’ capacity to administer and dispose of property, and the restrictions it places on a wife alone do not survive that. The text below is reproduced as originally enacted, for reference only.
Text of the provision
Art. 388. The wife who is appointed as an administratrix of the husband's property cannot alienate or encumber the husband's property, or that of the conjugal partnership, without judicial authority.
(188a)
Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings.
What this article means
A wife appointed administratrix of her husband’s property cannot alienate or encumber that property, or the property of the conjugal partnership, without judicial authority. She may administer, but she may not dispose or burden on her own.
“Alienate” refers to transferring ownership, such as by sale or donation, while “encumber” refers to burdening the property with a lien, mortgage, or similar charge. Read together, the restriction leaves the wife free to perform ordinary acts of administration — collecting rents, paying taxes, maintaining the property — while withholding authority over acts that would reduce or burden the husband’s estate or the conjugal partnership’s assets. The judicial authority required is therefore not a formality attached to administration generally, but a separate check aimed specifically at transactions that could permanently diminish what the absentee, or the partnership, stands to recover.
Questions about this provision
Related provisions
- Article 387 — Administrator of Absentee’s Property.
- Article 389 — When Administration Ceases.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.