CIRCULAR
NO. 2-90[*]
TO: COURT
OF APPEALS, REGIONAL TRIAL COURTS, METROPOLITAN TRIAL COURTS, MUNICIPAL
TRIAL COURTS, MUNICIPAL CIRCUIT TRIAL COURTS, SHARI’A DISTRICT COURTS
AND
SHARI’A CIRCUIT COURTS, ALL MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNMENT PROSECUTION
SERVICE
AND ALL MEMBERS OF THE INTEGRATED BAR OF THE PHILIPPINES
SUBJECT: GUIDELINES
TO BE OBSERVED IN APPEALS TO THE COURT OF APPEALS AND TO THE SUPREME
COURT.
1. No Common Mode
of Appeal to Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. – The provisions
of
Rules 41 and 42 of the Rules of Court prescribing a common mode of
appeal
to the Court of Appeals and to the Supreme Court and a common procedure
for considering and resolving an appeal, are no longer in force. They
have
been largely superseded and rendered functus officio by certain
statutes which wrought substantial changes in the appellate procedures
in this jurisdiction, notably: Republic Acts Nos. 5433 and 5400 [both
effective
on September 9, 1968] and 6031 [effective August 4, 1969], and Batas
Pambansa
Blg. 129 [effective August 14, 1981].cralaw:red
2. Appeals From
Regional Trial Courts to the Supreme Court.- Except in criminal
cases
where the penalty imposed is life imprisonment or reclusion
perpetua,
judgments of regional trial courts may be appealed to the Supreme Court
only by petition for review on certiorari in accordance with
Rule
45 of the Rules of Court in relation to Section 17 of the Judiciary Act
of 1948, as amended,[1]
this being the clear intendment of the provision of the Interim Rules
that
"(a)ppeals to the Supreme Court shall be taken by petition for certiorari
which shall be governed by Rule 45 of the Rules of Court."[2]
3. Appeals
to
the Court of Appeals. – On the other hand, appeals by certiorari
will not lie with the Court of Appeals.[2a]
Appeals to that Court from Regional Trial Courts may be taken:chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary
(a) By
writ
error [ordinary appeal] – where the appealed judgment was rendered
in a civil or criminal action by the Regional Trial Court in the
exercise
of its original jurisdiction; or
(b) By
petition
for review – where the judgment was rendered by the Regional Trial
Court in the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction.cralaw:red
The mode of
appeal in
either instance is entirely distinct from an appeal by certiorari
to the Supreme Court.
4. Erroneous Appeals.
– An appeal taken to either the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals
by
the wrong or inappropriate mode shall be dismissed.cralaw:red
(a) Appeal
to
the Supreme Court by notice of appeal. – No appeal may be taken to
the Supreme Court from a judgment of a Regional Trial Court by notice
of
appeal under Rule 41 of the Rules of Court, regardless of any statement
in the notice that the Supreme Court is the court of choice; and no
judge
or clerk of a Regional Trial Court, shall elevate, or cause to be
elevated,
to the Supreme Court the records of a case thus erroneously appealed[3]
under pain of disciplinary action, said officials, no less than the
attorney
taking the appeal, being chargeable with knowledge that the appellate
jurisdiction
of the Supreme Court may properly be invoked only through petitions for
review on certiorari.
(b) Raising
factual
issues in appeal by certiorari. – Although submission of issues of
fact in an appeal by certiorari taken to the Supreme Court from
the Regional Trial Court is ordinarily proscribed, the Supreme Court
nonetheless
retains the option, in the exercise of its sound discretion and
considering
the attendant circumstances, either itself to take cognizance of and
decide
such issues or to refer them to the Court of Appeals for determination.cralaw:red
(c) Raising
issues
purely of law in the Court of Appeals, or appeal by wrong mode. –
If
an appeal under Rule 41 is taken from the Regional Trial Court to the
Court
of Appeals and therein the appellant raises only questions of law, the
appeal shall be dismissed, issues purely of law not being reviewable by
said Court.[4]
So, too, if an appeal is attempted from the judgment rendered by a
Regional
Trial Court in the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction by notice of
appeal, instead of by petition for review, the appeal is inefficacious
and should be dismissed.cralaw:red
(d) No
transfer
of appeals erroneously taken. – No transfer of appeals erroneously
taken to the Supreme Court or to the Court of Appeals to whichever of
these
Tribunals has appropriate appellate jurisdiction will be allowed;[5]
continued ignorance or willful disregard of the law on appeals will not
be tolerated.cralaw:red
(e) Duty
of counsel.
– It is, therefore, incumbent upon every attorney who would seek review
of a judgment or order promulgated against his client, to make sure of
the nature of the errors he proposes to assign, whether these be of
fact
or of law; then upon such basis, to ascertain carefully which Court has
appellate jurisdiction; and finally, to follow scrupulously the
requisites
for appeal prescribed by law, ever aware that any error or imprecision
in compliance may well be fatal to his client’s cause.[6]
For strict
compliance.
March 9, 1990.
[Sgd.]
MARCELO
B. FERNANChief
Justice
_____________________________
Endnotes:
[*]
Based
on
the Resolution of the Court En Banc in UDK-9748 (Anacleto Murillo v.
Rodolfo
Consul), March 1, 1990
[1]
Limiting
the issues
appealable to errors or question of law, or questions involving
constitutionality
or validity of any treaty, executive agreement, law, ordinance, or
executive
order or regulation; or the leagality of any tax, impost, assessment,
or
toll, or penalty imposed in relation thereto; or the jurisdiction of an
inferior court, See, however, Sec. 54, R.A. No. 6657, in 2a, infra.
[2]
Par.
25, Sub-Head
F., Appeal to the Supreme Court; cf., Pars. 16-24, Sub-Head E,
Appellate
Procedure [in the Intermediate Appellate Court].
N.B.
Appeals from any decision, order or ruling of a Constitutional
Commission
[Civil Service Commission, Commission on Elections, or Commission on
Audit]
may, unless otherwise provided by law, be brought to the Supreme Court
on certiorari by the aggrieved party within thirty days from receipt of
a copy thereof [Sec. 7, ART. IX, 1987 Constitution].
[2a]
R.A.
No. 6657
[1988] provides, however, that appeals from the Agrarian Reform
Arbitration
Board of the Department of Agrarian Reform shall be taken to the Court
of Appeals by certiorari within 15 days from notice of final judgment
or
order [Sec. 54]
[3]
In
Service Specialists,
Inc. v. Sheriff of Manila, 145 SCRA 139, the difference in modes of
appeal
was once again emphasized, it being held that an appeal from the order
of the trial court which dismissed a petition for relief from judgment
"for lack of jurisdiction to hear and determine the same" "should have
been made this Court through a petition for review on certiorari in
accordance
with the Judiciary Act of 1948 as amended by Republic Act No. 5440 and
Section 25 of the Interim Rules," and not by "a notice of appeal to the
Intermediate Appellate Court."
[4]
See
fn. 2a, supra.
[5]
SEC. 13 [second par.], Rule 124, as amended, does speak of a transfer
of
a criminal case from the Court of Appeals to this Court, but it has no
relation to an erroneously appeal. The section pertinently reads:
"Whenever
the Court of Appeals should be of the opinion that the penalty of
reclusion
perpetua or higher should be imposed in a case, the Court after
discussion
of the evidence and the law involved, shall render judgment imposing
the
penalty of reclusion perpetua or higher as the circumstances warrant,
refrain
from entering judgment and forthwith certify the case and elevate the
entire
record thereof to the Supreme Court for review."
[6]
See, e.g., Circular No. 1-88, effective January 1, 1989.
|