Cabrera V Agustin

EN BANC
[Adm. Case No. 225 . September 30, 1959.]
ANITA CABRERA , petitioner, vs . FRANCISCO AGUSTIN Y GARCIA ,

respondent.
Bienvenido A. Tan, Jr. for petitioner.

Francisco Agustin y Garcia in his own behalf.
Solicitor General Ambrosio Padilla and Solicitor Federico V. Sian for the
Government.
SYLLABUS
1. DISBARMENT; FICTITIOUS MARRIAGE; ACTS THAT CONSTITUTE

IMMORALITY. — When a member of the bar, bent on satisfying his lust, lures an
innocent woman, who does not have an exact notion of a legal and valid marriage, into
going through the different stages of a stimulated marriage, and inveigled her into
beleiving that they were from that moment, husband and wife, and because of the
deceit succeeds in his evil desire that brought about the birth of a child, and later on
marriews another woman, he has failed to maintain that degree of morality and integrity
which at all times is expected of, and must be possessed by, members of the bar.
Therefore, he is disbarred from the practice of law and his name stricken from the roll
of attorneys.
DECISION
PADILLA , J : p
This is a complaint led by Anita Cabrera charging Francisco Agustin y

Garcia, a member of the bar, with immorality.
Sometime in April 1953 the respondent courted the complainant and
proposed marriage. In July 1954 she accepted his proposal. On 27 November
1954 the a anced couple proceeded to Pasay City to obtain their respective
residence certi cates and thereafter repaired to the O ce of the Local Civil
Registrar at the City Hall of Manila to apply for a marriage license and in the room
of Mr. Leoncio V. Aglubat both signed two sheets of paper (Exhibits A and B). Mr.
Aglubat asked them whether they were willing to marry each other and in answer
they said they were. From the room of Mr. Aglubat they entered another room and
there a lady doctor took blood from them. After coming from the lady doctor's
room, the respondent told the complainant that as they were already married they
would go to Grace Park and call on his uncle to introduce her to him. He called a
taxi to go there. In Grace Park they went to a house which she later on learned was
the Venus Hotel. After the respondent had signed a book, he and the complainant
went inside a room the door of which he closed. The respondent asked the
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complainant to have sexual intercourse with him for they were already married.
Because of his insistence and assurance that they were already married, she gave
in to his desire. From then on they continued to have sexual intercourse in the
same place once a month for three consecutive months and in another hotel near
the Espiritu Santo Church. Three days after the rst contact, the respondent
showed to her the report of her blood test and drew her attention to the fact that
after the printed word "occupation" the handwritten word "bride" appears, which
shows, according to him, that they were already married (Exhibit C). Sometime in
January 1955 she asked the respondent why despite their marriage they had not
yet lived as husband and wife. The respondent excused himself by saying that he
was still waiting for the release of the result of the bar examinations. After he
passed the bar examinations, the respondent gave her his diploma issued by the
Clerk of the Supreme Court (Exhibit D) to show his affection to her. She then told
him to settle down and he agreed to talk to her parents. Sometime in March he
spoke to her father and the latter told him that as they were Catholics it would be
better for them to be married in the Catholic Church. He agreed. On 26 April 1955
both went to the O ce of the Local Civil Registrar at the City Hall in Manila to get
the marriage license which they had applied for previously (Exhibit E). The
respondent handed to the complainant the original copies of their applications for
marriage license (Exhibits A & B); the marriage license (Exhibit E); a copy of the
notice of publication of their applications for marriage license (Exhibit E-1); and
the o cial receipt for the marriage license fee of P2.00 paid by the respondent
(Exhibit E-2), with instructions to bring them to the Espiritu Santo Church after two
weeks. On 2 May 1955 they went to the Espiritu Santo Church to make
arrangement for their wedding, where the respondent lled out the blanks in a
mimeographed questionnaire (Exhibit F), and set the date of the wedding on 15
May 1955, for which the fee charged was P22 (Exhibit G.) However, before the
date set, the complainant received a letter from the respondent withdrawing from
their agreement to marry. She showed to her father the documents in her
possession and he found out that they had not been married civilly. She confessed
to him that she was on the family way. On 4 August 1955 she delivered at the Saint
Mary's Hospital a baby girl whom she named Delia Agustin (Exhibit H). On 9 June
1955 the respondent married Asuncion Talan.
The respondent admits his relationship with the complainant and
acknowledges the child Delia Agustin as his own. His defense in breaching his
promise to marry the complainant was that her family insisted on a pompous
wedding, the expenses of which he had to defray; and that he noticed she was
mentally deranged because she often smiled for no cause at all. He denies that he
deceived her into believing that they had been married civilly to satisfy his carnal
desire and insist that she submitted to his desire voluntarily.
The respondent's defense cannot be believed. If it were true that the
complainant's family was insisting on a pompous wedding, then why should she
choose a wedding at the Espiritu Santo Church for which the fee was P22?
Moreover, the complainant knew that she was on the family way and any undue
demand for a pompous wedding would thwart their plans. For that reason, she
would be the rst to oppose such a demand and prevail upon her family not to
insist on it. Likewise, the respondent's claim that when the complainant's family
insisted on a pompous wedding he suggested to her to elope cannot be true. In
the condition the complainant found herself she would jump at the idea and grab
the opportunity to save her from embarrassment.
The respondent's suspicion that the complainant was mentally deranged
cannot withstand scrutiny, because if it were true that he suspected her to be so,
why did he persist on having sexual intercourse with her? The truth is that all along
he never intended to redeem the complainant's honor. He had inveigled her into
believing that they had been married civilly to satisfy his carnal desire. He himself
admits that what prompted him to offer and propose marriage to her was to
satisfy such desire. On the other hand, the complainant has not gone far in
educational attainment, having reached the rst year of high school only, and does
not have the slightest idea of a legal and valid marriage. Thus she fell an easy prey
of a man like the respondent, a lawyer who knows the intricacies of the law and the
way to extricate himself from the mess that he has brought about.
The respondent has not maintained the highest degree of morality and
integrity, which at all times is expected of, and must be possessed by, members of
the bar. 1 He is, therefore, disbarred from the practice of law and his name in the
roll of attorneys stricken out.
Paras, C.J., Bengzon, Montemayor, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion,
Endencia, Barrera and Gutiérrez David, JJ., concur.
Footnotes
1. In re Pelaez, 44 Phil., 567; Balinon vs. De Leon, 94 Phil., 277; 50 Off. Gaz., 583.

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EN BANC

[Adm. Case No. 225 . September 30, 1959.]

ANITA CABRERA , petitioner, vs . FRANCISCO AGUSTIN Y GARCIA ,

Bienvenido A. Tan, Jr. for petitioner.

1. DISBARMENT; FICTITIOUS MARRIAGE; ACTS THAT CONSTITUTE

This is a complaint led by Anita Cabrera charging Francisco Agustin y

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