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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

SECOND DIVISION

[G.R. No. 30280. March 25, 1929. ]

NICANOR CARAG, Petitioner, v. THE WARDEN OF THE PROVINCIAL JAIL, TUGUEGARAO, CAGAYAN, and Honorable CATALINO SEVILLA, Judge of First Instance of Cagayan, Respondents.

Alfonso Ponce Enrile for Petitioner.

Attorney-General Jaranilla for Respondents.

SYLLABUS


1. CONTEMPT OF COURT; "HABEAS CORPUS;" SECTIONS 231 AND 132 OF THE CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE CONSTRUED. — After a case was called for trial, Attorney C appearing for the contestee in an election contest was ordered by the presiding judge to read the answer, but the attorney refused to do so and was found in contempt of court. Held, That the action of the Judge in fixing the appropriate punishment should be sustained, and that the petition for habeas corpus should be dismissed.

2. ID.; ID.; ID. — When the court acting in conformity with the provisions of section 132 of the Code of Civil Procedure directed the attorney to read his answer as his statement of defense, and when the attorney refused to do so, the attorney was guilty of direct contempt in violation of section 231 of the Code of Civil Procedure, because of misbehavior in the presence of the court.

3. ID.; ID.; ID. — The justice or propriety of the commitment for contempt is not open to review. If the court in committing a person for contempt acted within its jurisdiction, its action is final and the writ of habeas corpus will not lie.

4. ID.; ID.; ID. — The court to whom the contempt was offered and in whose presence it arose is the best judge of its nature.


D E C I S I O N


MALCOLM, J.:


This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. It has been instituted by Nicanor Carag, an attorney-at-law residing in the Province of Cagayan. The respondents are the warden of the provincial jail at Tuguegarao, Cagayan, and the Honorable Catalino Sevilla, Judge of First Instance of Cagayan.

On the morning of September 5, 1928, in the court presided over by Judge Catalino Sevilla, the case of Manuel Guzman v. Francisco Turingan Et. Al., an election contest, was called for trial. Attorneys Baldomero Pobre and Angel Hernando appeared for the contestant and Attorney Nicanor Carag appeared for the contestee. Before proceeding with the trial of the case, the Judge asked the attorneys for the contestant what were the grounds of the protest. In reply, the attorneys for the contestant briefly explained their side of the case. Thereupon, the Judge asked the attorney for the contestee what was the nature of his counter-protest and defense. He replied that it consisted of a general denial and special defenses. What then took place in court was not written down in stenographic form by the court stenographer, but has been gathered by the stenographer from the recollections of those present. As the record is thus reconstructed, and as to this we do not think there can be any real dispute, it consists of the following:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"COURT. Please state in a few words of what the answer consists. - Mr. CARAG. It only consists of a general denial of all the facts alleged in the protest and certain special defenses.

"COURT. What are those special defenses? — Mr. CARAG. Your Honor, I don’t remember now; they are in the record.

"COURT. Read your answer. — Mr. CARAG. Let the clerk of court read it.

"COURT. Read it; you can read it better because you are the lawyer who drafted it. — Mr. CARAG. It is better, Your Honor, if the clerk reads it.

"COURT. That is the duty of the attorney and not the clerk. — Mr. CARAG. Your Honor, due to the speech of yesterday, I am somewhat tired, and would request that the clerk or someone be ordered to read the answer.

"COURT. You have a good voice, and I believe that you can read it better than the clerk; it is not necessary that you do so in a loud voice; you can read in a low voice just as you are talking now. — Mr. CARAG. I have a hoarse voice, and I will lose my voice if I read. I cannot read now.

"COURT. The court orders you to read the answer. — Mr. CARAG. I cannot read.

"COURT. Your attention is called to the fact that the court orders you to read that answer, and if you do not obey, it will impose a punishment upon you. — Mr. CARAG. I am disposed to suffer that punishment.

"COURT TO SHERIFF. Sheriff, the court orders you to confine Attorney Nicanor Carag in jail for disobediene and insubordination to the order of the court. — Mr. CARAG. Right now I am going to the jail; but also I would like to make it known that right now I am going to present a writ of habeas corpus to the Supreme Court for my liberty.

(Afterwards came the sheriff, Mr. Modesto Calimag.)

"COURT TO SHERIFF. Have you confined Mr. Carag in the jail? — SHERIFF. Yes, sir.

"COURT. Outside or inside? — SHERIFF. No sir; inside."cralaw virtua1aw library

In view of Attorney Carag’s alleged defiant and disrespectful attitude toward the court, Judge Sevilla issued the following order:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"Attorney Nicanor Carag having committed during the trial of this election contest, case No. 1484, a manifest disobedience and insubordination to the order of this court, consisting in not reading the answer of the protestee whom he represents, and it not being true that his voice was hoarse as stated by him, and said fault having been committed in facie curi
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