Text of the provision
Art. 131. Whenever the liquidation of the conjugal partnership properties of two or more marriages contracted by the same person before the effectivity of this Code is carried out simultaneously, the respective capital, fruits and income of each partnership shall be determined upon such proof as may be considered according to the rules of evidence.
In case of doubt as to which partnership the existing properties belong, the same shall be divided between the different partnerships in proportion to the capital and duration of each.
(189a)
Family Code of the Philippines, Executive Order No. 209, approved July 6, 1987. The Code took effect on August 3, 1988 (Republic v. Orbecido III, G.R. No. 154380, October 5, 2005). Reproduced in full.
What this article means
This handles a rare but messy situation: the same person had two or more successive marriages (contracted before the Family Code took effect) whose conjugal partnerships must be liquidated at the same time. The rule is to trace each partnership's own capital, fruits and income using the ordinary rules of evidence.
Where it is genuinely impossible to tell which marriage a property belongs to, the law falls back on a proportional split: the doubtful property is divided among the partnerships in proportion to each one's capital and how long it lasted. It mirrors Article 104 for the absolute community.
Related provisions
- Article 104 — the parallel rule for overlapping absolute communities.
- Article 129 — the general liquidation procedure.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on Article 131 will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.