DIGEST/IMMANUEL GRANADA/FELIPE FERRER, ARTURO FERRER AND SERAFIN FERRER VS. JUDGE ADORADO S. LIM/1981
FERRER
v. JUDGE LIM
FACTS
Ferrer’s father filed a
forcible entry case against Galanga before Judge Lim. The trial was terminated
in 1962 but the judge failed to render his decision.
Judge Lim countered that a
decision is dispensable since the Ferrers had voluntarily withdrew their administrative
case against him; the CFI of Ilagan, Isabela, has already issued, in another
civil case, a writ of possession in favor of Galanga over the parcel of land
which is the subject matter of the case pending before him, thus rendering the
latter case moot and academic; that of
his own knowledge, a case was also filed in the Bureau of Lands involving the
same subject matter; that because of the flood which occurred in 1966, the
records of cases in his court were destroyed, for which reason the records of
the forcible
entry cannot now be located.
ISSUE
Is Judge
Lim guilty of misconduct in office?
RULING
Yes. Judge Lim is guilty of
misconduct in office by unexcusably delaying
the disposition of a forcible entry case which ought to
be summary and speedy.
Forcible entry is a summary proceeding, entitled to
provide an expeditious means of protecting actual possession or right to
possession of property.
The
fact that there was flood in 1966 is of no moment considering that he should
have decided the case long before it occurred. Likewise, a civil
case filed later in the Court of First Instance is no excuse for respondent to
have disposed the forcible entry case much earlier.
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