Case Digest (Adm. Case No. 225)
Facts:
Anita Cabrera v. Francisco Agustin y Garcia, Administrative Case No. 225, September 30, 1959, the Supreme Court En Banc, Padilla, J., writing for the Court. The petitioner, Anita Cabrera, filed an administrative complaint charging respondent Francisco Agustin y Garcia, a duly admitted member of the bar, with immorality and sought disciplinary action.Sometime in April 1953 the respondent courted the complainant and in July 1954 she accepted his proposal of marriage. On 27 November 1954 the couple went to obtain residence certificates in Pasay and then proceeded to the Office of the Local Civil Registrar in Manila to apply for a marriage license. In the room of Mr. Leoncio V. Aglubat both signed two sheets of paper (Exhibits A and B), underwent blood extraction, and thereafter the respondent told the complainant that they were already married. He took her to Grace Park (later learned to be the Venus Hotel), signed a guest book, took her into a closed room and, assuring her they were married, induced her to have sexual intercourse.
After that first encounter the parties had intercourse periodically (monthly for three consecutive months and in another hotel near Espiritu Santo Church). Three days after the first contact the respondent showed the complainant the blood test report and pointed out the handwritten word “bride” after the printed word “occupation” (Exhibit C) as evidence of their marriage. When the complainant inquired in January 1955 why they had not yet lived together, the respondent said he was awaiting the release of his bar examination results; after he passed, he gave her his diploma (Exhibit D).
In late April 1955 the parties revisited the Local Civil Registrar to obtain the marriage license they had earlier applied for (Exhibit E). The respondent gave the complainant the originals of the application forms, the marriage license, the notice of publication (Exhibit E-1), and the official receipt for the license fee (Exhibit E-2), and arranged for a church wedding on 15 May 1955 at Espiritu Santo Church (Exhibits F, G). Before the scheduled date the respondent withdrew his promise to marry. The complainant discovered she was not civilly married, revealed to her father that she was pregnant, and on 4 August 1955 delivered a daughter, Delia Agustin (Exhibit H). On 9 June 1955 the respondent married another woman, Asuncion Talan.
The respondent admitted the sexual relationship and paternity but defended that the complainant’s family insisted on a pompous wedding which he could not afford, and that the complainant was mentally...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the respondent, an attorney, commit acts of immorality and deceit that warrant disciplinary disbarment?
- Do the respondent’s defenses — that the complainant’s family demanded a pompous wedding, that the complainant was mentally deranged, or that her submission was voluntary — absolve him of ...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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