Mariano Veloso v. Lucia Martinez

Summary

This 1914 Supreme Court case involved a dispute over jewelry ownership between Mariano Veloso and Lucia Martinez, widow of deceased Domingo Franco. Franco had allegedly pawned his wife's inherited jewelry to secure a P4,500 loan from Veloso without her knowledge. The Supreme Court applied Civil Code provisions on paraphernal property, ruling that a wife's separate property inherited from her mother could not be pledged by her husband without her consent and proper legal formalities. The Court affirmed the defendant's right to recover her jewelry or its P6,000 value, establishing important precedent on marital property rights and the protection of a wife's paraphernal property from unauthorized disposition by her spouse.