Case Digest (G.R. No. 4960)
Facts:
The United States v. Ciriaco Herrera, G.R. No. 4960, July 17, 1909, the Supreme Court En Banc, Arellano, C.J., writing for the Court. The plaintiff-appellee is the United States; the defendant-appellant is Ciriaco Herrera.The factual background shows that Herrera and Silvestre Bautista engaged in a personal affray in which they wrestled together without weapons. After they had been separated for the third time, Bautista recovered his hat and was getting into his carretela (vehicle). As Bautista entered the vehicle, Herrera followed and wounded him in the right sacrolumbal region with a penknife, inflicting a lesion that required medical attendance for more than eight days. Bautista testified that he was struck while already in the vehicle and that he saw Herrera running away with a penknife.
The Court of First Instance of the city of Manila found Herrera guilty of lesiones menos graves and sentenced him to three months of arresto mayor, ordered him to indemnify Bautista P37 for medical expenses (or suffer subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency), and imposed costs. Herrera appealed to the Supreme Court. On appeal Herrera argued that because Bautista was not incapacitated for work for more than eight days the wound should not be classified as lesiones menos graves but only as a simple misdemeanor, and alternatively urged application of mitigating circumstance No. 7 of Article 9 of the Penal Code (that he acted under such powerful excitement as to produce entire loss of reason and self-control).
The Supreme Court considered the evidence that the injury requi...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Whether the wound inflicted by Herrera constitutes the crime of lesiones menos graves under the Penal Code.
- Whether mitigating circumstance No. 7 of Article 9 of the Penal Code (action under powerful excitement producing entire loss of reason and self-control) applies ...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)