Decision summaries
What each Supreme Court decision decided, in a sentence or two. Open one and use its Summary tab for the facts, issue and ruling in plain language or lawyer mode. These are study aids, not legal advice. Check the decision itself before you rely on it.
- G.R. 244027Apr 2023Jovit Buella y Abalain v. People of the PhilippinesThe Commission on Elections went beyond what the law allows when it treated all knives and other bladed instruments as deadly weapons banned during the election period, so people charged for carrying them were acquitted.
- A.M. 21-06-20-SCApr 2023Re: Disturbing Social Media Posts of Lawyers/law ProfessorsLawyers can be disciplined for homophobic and disrespectful Facebook comments even when they think the conversation is private, because posts on social media cannot be assumed to stay private.
- A.C. 13426Apr 2023Aaa v. Atty. Jon Michael P. AlamisA senior law partner who abuses his position over a junior associate through sexually charged conduct is guilty of immoral conduct and is suspended from law practice for two years.
- G.R. 240892-94Apr 2023Republic of the Philippines v. Manuel O. Gallego, JrA landowner who holds valid owner's duplicates of lost titles may have them reconstituted by the Register of Deeds for the property's location, even if that office never had the original titles in its records.
- G.R. 210984Apr 2023James Cua Ko v. Republic of the PhilippinesA man who is not the mother's husband cannot go to court to have himself recognized as the father of a child born during the mother's marriage, because that would attack the child's legitimacy, but the child herself remains free to prove who her real father is.
- OCA IPI 13-4069-PApr 2023Jocelyn B. Sorensen v. Orville G. Santos, Sheriff IV, Office of the Clerk of Court, Regional Trial Court, Pagadian City, Zamboanga del SurA court employee cannot be punished for not paying a private debt unless the failure is willful, and the current rules on court discipline no longer punish failure to pay an ordinary admitted debt.
- G.R. 252790Apr 2023Malayan Bank Savings and Mortgage Bank v. Holcim Philippines, IncOnce the Supreme Court has finally upheld an order declaring a party in default, the trial court cannot lift that order again on the same grounds, even if the judge who first ruled has been replaced.
- G.R. 260109Apr 2023Rochard Balsamo y Dominguez v. People of the PhilippinesPunching a police officer in the chest to break free and slamming a gate on his fingers while running away is not serious enough to be direct assault, so the offense is only resistance to an agent of a person in authority.
- G.R. 256091Apr 2023Icebergs Food Concepts, Inc. and Allan John T. Young v. Filipino Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, IncA restaurant that plays radio music over speakers without a license from the music collecting society is liable for copyright infringement, even though the Court urged protection for small businesses.
- G.R. 249715Apr 2023M.y. Intercontinental Trading Corporation, Tedwin T. Uy, and Allianz Marketing and Publishing Corporation v. St. Mary'S Publishing Corporation and Jerry Vicente S. CatabijanA forged document cannot transfer a copyright, so a company that imported and sold another publisher's textbooks on the strength of that forged deed committed copyright infringement and must pay damages.
- G.R. 240126Apr 2023Jamel M. Adoma v. People of the PhilippinesPolice can arrest someone without a warrant right after a crime only if they personally saw the facts pointing to that person and act immediately; arresting on tips hours later is not valid, and drugs found in such an arrest cannot be used as evidence.
- G.R. 206005Apr 2023Survivors of Agrichemicals in Gensan (Saging), Inc. With Its Chairperson Arturo G. Luardo and Its Members v. Standard Fruit Company, Standard Fruit and Steamship, Co., DOLE Food Company Inc., DOLE Fresh Fruit Company, Inc., del Monte Fresh Produce N.a. Inc., and del Monte Tropical Fruit CoA foreign company that says it was served court papers only by mail must prove it, and a complaint should not be thrown out over technicalities such as the members of an association not being named in its title.
- G.R. 257805Apr 2023Lee Saking y Anniban @ Lee Saking Sanniban v. People of the PhilippinesA person with no license who takes money for jobs abroad is guilty of both illegal recruitment and estafa (swindling), and the victim's lack of receipts does not save him.
- G.R. 248004Apr 2023Rosa a. Castañeto v. Sps. Ernesto Adame and Mercedes GansanganWhen two titles cover the same lot, the Court traces both back to their source, and the title that was regularly issued and traces to the true owner wins, even if the claimant presented no survey plan.
- G.R. 257697Apr 2023San Miguel Corporation v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue Commissioner of Internal Revenue Vs. San Miguel CorporationThe Court's earlier ruling that company advances recorded in memos and vouchers are taxable loans applies to past transactions too, because the Court only explained what the tax law already meant.
- G.R. 247002Apr 2023People of the Philippines v. Jun Villegas @ "Pedrito" Basigna, Udebs Gonzales, and Kenneth Matias y Anglo Kenneth Matias y AngloEven when a crime clearly happened, a person cannot be convicted unless the victim's identification of him is reliable, and an identification that was suggested by the police and contradicted by the victim's earlier statements is not enough.
- G.R. 213640Apr 2023Lucia Manuel y Cadiz v. People of the PhilippinesThe Supreme Court acquitted a woman of estafa for bad checks because the prosecution did not prove that the person named as payee was actually defrauded.
- G.R. 255324Apr 2023& 255353 Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Toledo Power CompanyA company that makes only zero-rated sales can claim back its unused input VAT without proving that each purchase was used directly and entirely for those sales.
- G.R. 265153Apr 2023Iloilo Grain Complex Corporation v. Hon. Ma. Theresa N. Enriquez-Gaspar, in Her Capacity as Presiding Judge of RTC-Iloilo City, Branch 33, and National Grid Corporation of the PhilippinesA court cannot automatically give a company the right to enter and take a landowner's property in an expropriation case when the landowner has questioned the company's authority to expropriate; the court must first hear and decide that question.
- G.R. 262473Apr 2023Marilou Palacio y Valmores v. People of the PhilippinesPeople who recruit women and offer them to customers for sexual exploitation, taking advantage of their need for money, commit trafficking in persons, even if the women thought they would only drink and party.