Nullity or Annulment of Marriage, A99(3) Family Code

Art. 99. The absolute community terminates:

x x x

(3) When the marriage is annulled or declared void; x x x

Related:

• Void Marriages, A35-44 Family Code

• Voidable Marriages, A45 Family Code

1) The system of absolute community of property, where all assets earned or acquired during the marriage are jointly owned by both spouses, comes to an end when the marriage itself is legally annulled or declared void. An annulment treats the marriage as though it was flawed from the beginning but still had legal effects until it was nullified, while a declaration of nullity means the marriage never legally existed at all. In either case, once the court makes its ruling, the shared property arrangement is dissolved, and the distribution of assets will follow specific legal guidelines depending on the good or bad faith of each spouse. (OpenAI ChatGPT-4 [2025], reviewed by J. Del Puerto. Available at: https://chat.openai.com [Accessed: 5 May 2025])

Example 1: Sarah discovered that Jon had a prior existing marriage, which made their union legally void from the start. When the court declared their marriage null, the absolute community of property between them automatically ended. (Ibid.)

Example 2: Derek and Faye had their marriage annulled after it was proven that Derek was psychologically incapacitated. After the annulment, their jointly owned properties were no longer governed by absolute community and had to be divided. (Ibid.)

Example 3: Tina married Luis without knowing that he used a false identity. The court later annulled the marriage due to fraud. As a result, their absolute community was terminated, and Tina was allowed to retain most of their shared assets because she entered the marriage in good faith. (Ibid.)