The Supreme Court Round Up as of January 20, 2010

The Supreme Court decided three election cases early this January concerning the following matters:

1. The effect of deficiency in docket fees in a COMELEC appeal.

2. What happens to a nuisance candidate's votes after he is declared as nuisance beyond election day.

3, Requisites of execution pending appeal in local election protests.

The SC also ruled on the jurisdiction of the DARAB which hinges on tenancy relations.

The Court rendered some key passages in a ruling on forgery in a deed of sale of land, the effect of mis-joinder and non-joinder of parties, mistake of counsel, fraud in consummating a contract of sale and undervaluation of the sale of real property to defraud the BIR.

The court also made pronouncements on misreading terms of an extra-judicial settlement and that mandamus will not be issued to compel the production of a will.

The Court ruled on how the government bungled a drugs buy bust case and how it succeeded in another.

The Court fined two judges for delay, PHP 11,000 for one and PHP 20,000 for another and dismissed court personnel for tampering with evidence.

Court reiterated previous rulings on forum shopping and receivership http://tinyurl.com/yjktvag and made pronouncements on liquidator's fees.

It also ordered the reduction of excessive penalty and other charges by a bank in a foreclosure proceeding.

On the Civil Service, the Court awarded damages to a Customs official for her superior's actions in preventing her from doing assigned tasks and for not allowing her to get official recognition. In another case, the Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals on the qualifications of a civil service employee.

The Court outlined the requisites for awarding damages in an action for malicious prosecution.

In Criminal Law, the Court affirmed doctrines on corpus delicti and extra-judicial confessions, and several points on rape here here, and here.

Noteworthy is this murder case with bizarre twists and turns.

Equally noteworthy is a ruling that almost ruled that an unauthenticated fax from abroad is sufficient to establish probable cause for Estafa. But, SC said that judges should be thorough in dismissing a case on the recommendation of the Secretary of Justice and remanded the case for proper determination of probable cause by the judge.