Seguisabal vs. Cabrera

Complainant: Abdon Seguisabal

Respondent: Hon. Jose R. Cabrera, City Judge of Toledo City

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTER in the Supreme Court.

FACTS

• 14 April 1978 - Judge Cabrera solemnized the marriage of Jaime Sayson and Marlyn Jagony without the requisite marriage license and failed to transmit a copy of the marriage contract to the Office of the Local Civil Registrar of Toledo City within 15 1

days 2

• Sayson and Jagony were accompanied by Sayson’s mother and Agony’s father • They said they could not issue the marriage license because the one in charge was not in his office, they were told to come back

in the afternoon with the marriage license • Marlyn Jagony was three months pregnant at the time • May 1979 - a crying girl, Marlyn Jagony, bringing her child came before Judge Cabrera’s office informing him that her husband

was drafted into the Philippine Army, and died in an encounter with the Muslim rebels in Maguindanao and had to prove that she was married to Sayson in order to collect benefits.

• Local Civil Registrar of Toledo City would not issue the license because the parties have not attended the Family Plannin Seminar required by law

• 5 June 1979 - Local Civil Registrar of Toledo City certification of the above issued • 18 June 1979 - Seguisabal charged Judge Cabrera with gross misconduct in office and gross ignorance of the law for above

mentioned acts • 22 Ocotber 1980 - Memorandum Report submitted by Deputy Court Administrator Leo D. Mendialdea, concurred by Court

Administrator Justice Lorenzo Relova—no need for investigation, administrative liability for solemnising marriage of Sayson and Jagony

ISSUES + RATIO

WON respondent Judge Cabrera was remiss in his duty by solemnising the marriage between Sayson and Jagony in spite of the absence of the marriage license (which he claims to have done it in good faith and in sympathy and in fairness), and by failing to transmit to the Local Civil Registrar of Toledo City a copy of the marriage contract 15 days after. (YES)

• SC: The defense of good faith is unavailing. As a judicial officer, he is expected to know the law on the solemnization of marriages, and his feeling of sympathy, etc. cannot serve as a license for him to deliberately transgress or dispense with legal requisites.

• Art. 53 (4) 58, NCC: Save marriages of an exceptional character authorized in Chapter 2 of this Title, but not those under article 75, no marriage shall be solemnized without a license first being issued by the local civil registrar of the municipality where either contracting party habitually resides. (7a)

• It was his duty to transmit a copy of the marriage license to the Local Civil Registrar of Toledo City, duly signed by him as the solemnising officer and by the contracting parties. See Art. 68, NCC in endnotes.

In view of, however, of the respondent’s 27 years and 7 months of service in the Judiciary, and considering that he has applied for retirement under R.A. 5095 due to schemic heart ailment, the SC has mitigated the corresponding administrative sanction. 3

WHEREFORE finding respondent Judge to be guilty of gross neglect of duty, he shall pay a fine equivalent to three (3) months salary, the same to be deducted from his gratuity upon his retirement from the service.

Article 53. No marriage shall be solemnized unless all these requisites are complied with: 1

(1) Legal capacity of the contracting parties;(2) Their consent, freely given;(3) Authority of the person performing the marriage; and (4) A marriage license, except in a marriage of exceptional character (Sec. 1a, art. 3613).

Article 68. It shall be the duty of the person solemnizing the marriage to furnish to either of the contracting parties one of the three 2

copies of the marriage contract referred to in article 55, and to send another copy of the document not later than fifteen days after the marriage took place to the local civil registrar concerned, whose duty it shall be to issue the proper receipt to any person sending a marriage contract solemnized by him, including marriages of an exceptional character. The official, priest, or minister solemnizing the marriage shall retain the third copy of the marriage contract, the marriage license and the affidavit of the interested party regarding the solemnization of the marriage in a place other than those mentioned in article 57 if there be any such affidavit, in the files that he must keep. (16a)

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR RETIREMENT BENEFITS OF MUNICIPAL AND CITY JUDGES, FURTHER AMENDING FOR THE 3

PURPOSE CERTAIN SECTIONS OF REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED NINE HUNDRED AND TEN, AS AMENDEDhttp://www.chanrobles.com/republicacts/republicactno5095.html#.VeIUQNOqqko