Facts:
Benjamin Bugayong, a serviceman in the United States Navy, was married to Leonila Ginez in 1949 at Asingan, Pangasinan. In July 1951, Benjamin began receiving letters informing him of alleged acts of infidelity of his wife. In August 1952, Benjamin went to Pangasinan and looked for his wife whom he met in the house of one Mrs. Malalang, Leonila's godmother. She came along with him and both proceeded to the house of Pedro, Benjamin's cousin, where they stayed and lived for 1 night and 1 day as husband and wife. The next day they passed the night in their house as husband and wife. On the second day, Benjamin tried to verify from his wife the truth of the information he received that she had committed adultery but Leonila, instead of answering his query, merely packed up and left, which he took as a confirmation of the acts of infidelity imputed on her.
Benjamin then filed a case for legal separation. Leonila filed an answer vehemently denying the averments of the complaint and setting up affirmative defenses. After Benjamin testified, Leonila's counsel moved for the dismissal of the complaint on the ground of condonation.
Issue:
Does Benjamin's attitude of sleeping with his wife for 2 nights despite his alleged belief that she was unfaithful to him, amount to a condonation of her previous and supposed adulterous acts?
Held:
Condonation is the forgiveness of a marital offense constituting a ground for legal separation. A detailed examination of the testimony of the plaintiff-husband, clearly shows that there was a condonation on the part of the husband for the supposed "acts of infidelity amounting to adultery" committed by defendant-wife. Admitting for the sake of argument that the infidelities amounting to adultery were committed by the defendant, a reconciliation was effected between her and the plaintiff. The act of the latter in persuading her to come along with him, and the fact that she went with him and consented to be brought to the house of his cousin Pedro Bugayong and together they slept there as husband and wife for one day and one night, and the further fact that in the second night they again slept together in their house likewise as husband and wife — all these facts have no other meaning in the opinion of this court than that a reconciliation between them was effected and that there was a condonation of the wife by the husband. The reconciliation occurred almost ten months after he came to know of the acts of infidelity amounting to adultery. It has been held in a long line of decisions of the various supreme courts of the different states of the U. S. that 'a single voluntary act of sexual intercourse by the innocent spouse after discovery of the offense is ordinarily sufficient to constitute condonation, especially as against the husband'. In the lights of the facts testified to by the plaintiff-husband, of the legal provisions above quoted, and of the various decisions above-cited, the inevitable conclusion is that there is condonation. (Bugayong vs. Ginez, G.R. No. L-10033, December 28, 1956)
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