ABS-CBN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, EUGENIO LOPEZ, JR.,
AUGUSTO ALMEDA-LOPEZ, and OSCAR M. LOPEZ, petitioners, vs. OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN,
ROBERTO S. BENEDICTO, EXEQUIEL B. GARCIA, MIGUEL V. GONZALES, and SALVADOR
(BUDDY) TAN, respondents
G.R. No. 133347 | October 15, 2008
FACTS:
On April 18 and 26, 1994, petitioners Eugenio Jr., Oscar and
Augusto Lopez, on behalf of ABS-CBN, executed separate affidavits charging private
respondents of Execution of Deeds by Means of Violation or Intidmidation,
Estafa, Theft, Robbery, Occupation of Real Property or Usurpation of Real
Rights in Property, and Other Deceits.
On April 5, 1999 and June 13, 2000, the respective counsel
for respondents Tan and Benedicto informed the Court of their clients’ demise.
Benedicto’s counsel filed a Notice of Death with Prayer for Dismissal moving
that Benedicto be dropped as respondent in the case for the reason that the
pending criminal cases are actions which do not survive the death of the party
accused.
Petitioners opposed the move to drop Benedicto as respondent
citing Torrijos v. CA which held that “civil liability of the accused survives
his death: because death is not a valid cause for the extinguishment of civil
obligations.”
ISSUE:
Whether or not the death of an accused extinguishes civil
liabilities
RULING:
Death of an accused pending appeal of his conviction
extinguishes his criminal liability as well as the civil liability based solely
thereon. As opined by Justice Regalado, in this regard, “the death of the
accused prior to final judgment terminates his criminal liability and only the
civil liability directly arising from and based solely on the offense
committed, i.e., civil liability ex delicto in senso strictiore.”
Corollarily, the claim for civil liability survives
notwithstanding the death of accused, if the same may also be predicated on a
source of obligation other than delict. Article 1157 of the Civil Code
enumerates these other sources of obligation from which the civil liability may
arise as a result of the same act or omission:
a) Law
b) Contracts
c) Quasi-contracts
d) x x x
e) Quasi-delicts
Where the civil liability survives, an action for recovery
therefor may be pursued but only by way of filing a separate civil action and
subject to Sec. 1, Rule 11 of the 1985 ROC. The separate civil action may be
enforced either against the executor/administrator or the estate of the
accused, depending on the source of obligation upon which the same is based.
Finally, the private offended party need not fear a
forfeiture of his right to file this separate civil action by prescription, in
cases where during the prosecution of the criminal action and prior to its
extinction, the private-offended party instituted together therewith the civil
action. In such case, the statute of limitations on the civil liability is
deemed interrupted during the pendency of the criminal case, conformably with
provisions of Article 1155 of the Civil Code, that should thereby avoid any
apprehension on a possible deprivation of right by prescription.”
Applying the foregoing rules, ABS-CBN’s insistence that the
case at bench survives because the civil liability of the respondents subsists
is stripped of merit.
To begin with, there is no criminal case as yet against the
respondents. The Ombudsman did not find probable cause to prosecute respondents
for various felonies in the RPC. As such, the rule that a civil action is
deemed instituted along with the criminal action unless the offended party: (a)
waives the civil action, (b) reserves the right to institute it separately, or
(c) institutes the civil action prior to the criminal action, is not applicable.
In any event, the death of the accused necessarily calls for
the dismissal of the criminal case against him, regardless of the institution
of the civil case with it. The civil action which survives the death of the
accused must hinge on other sources of obligation provided in Article 1157 of
the Civil Code. In such a case, a surviving civil action against the accused
founded on other sources of obligation must be prosecuted in a separate civil
action. In other words, civil liability based solely on the criminal action is
extinguished, and a different civil action cannot be continued and prosecuted
in the same criminal action.
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