Concealment of Sterility and Annulment of Marriage

A party sought to annul a marriage by claiming the respondent had fraudulently concealed their sterility at the time of the union, asserting that the true intent of the marriage, in part, was the procreation of children, which was rendered impossible by the undisclosed condition. The court rejected the appeal, reasoning that while sterility can be a ground for annulment if it prevents the fulfillment of a fundamental marital obligation, the concealment of sterility does not inherently constitute the fraud or error regarding the essential qualities of the spouse necessary to invalidate the consent required for a valid marriage, as sterility itself is not an essential quality in the strict legal sense for the validity of the matrimonial bond.