Text of the provision
Art. 52. The judgment of annulment or of absolute nullity of the marriage, the partition and distribution of the properties of the spouses and the delivery of the children's presumptive legitimes shall be recorded in the appropriate civil registry and registries of property; otherwise, the same shall not affect third persons.
(n)
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
Article 52 is a registration rule with teeth. Three things must be recorded — the judgment of nullity or annulment, the partition and distribution of the spouses' property, and the delivery of the children's presumptive legitimes — in the appropriate civil registry and registries of property. If they are not, the consequence is blunt: the same "shall not affect third persons."
In practice this means an unrecorded decree is good between the former spouses but invisible to the outside world. A buyer, a creditor, or a later spouse dealing with one of the parties is entitled to rely on the register; what is not recorded there cannot be held against them.
Why it matters
This is also the hinge for remarriage. Article 53 makes compliance with Article 52 — the recording — a condition of a valid subsequent marriage. A party who obtains a decree but never registers it, and then remarries, has not completed what the Code requires.
Related provisions
- Article 50 and Article 51 — the liquidation and delivery that must be recorded.
- Article 53 — recording is a precondition to remarriage.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on the third-person effect of the Article 52 recording requirement will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.