CASE DIGEST: ABC Davao Auto Supply Inc vs Court of Appeals

G.R. No. 113296. January 16, 1998

ABC DAVAO AUTO SUPPLY, INC., petitioner vs. COURT OF APPEALS, ABUNDIO T. MERCED, doing business under the name and style of SOUTHERN ENGINEERING WORKS, respondents.

FACTS:

On October 6, 1980, a complaint for a sum of money, attorney’s fees and damages1 was filed by petitioner before the CFI of Davao City which was raffled to Branch XVI. The case was proceedings were conducted by several judges until cross examination on August 28, 1985 and the presentation of the parties’ rebuttal and sur-rebuttal evidences were heard by Judge Roque Agton, having assumed office on August 1, 1985. When the judiciary was reorganized under the Aquino administration, Judge Agton was transferred to another branch of the RTC but within the same Judicial Region. Meanwhile, Judge Romeo Marasigan, who assumed office on February 3, 1987, was assigned to Branch XVI.

Sometime on May 1987, Judge Marasigan acted on private respondent’s motion for extension of time to file memorandum. On June 9, 1987 a decision penned by Judge Agton was rendered in favor of petitioner. Private respondent moved to reconsider said decision, but the same was denied in an order dated March 1, 1988, issued by Judge Marasigan. Private respondent appealed to the Court of Appeals (CA) which nullified Judge Agton’s decision on the ground that at the time he rendered the judgment, he was neither the judge de jure nor the judge de facto of RTC Branch XVI, and correspondingly remanded the case to the lower court.

ISSUE:  

Whether or not the decision of Judge Agton is valid

RULING:

Branches of the trial court are not distinct and separate tribunals from each other; Jurisdiction does not attach to the judge but to the court.—Moreover, for a judgment to be binding, it must be duly signed and promulgated during the incumbency of the judge whose signature appears thereon. This is in line with the Court’s En Banc Resolution of February 10, 1983 implementing B.P. 129 which “merely requires that the judge who pens the decision is still an incumbent judge, i.e., in this case, a judge of the same court, albeit now assigned to a different branch, at the time the decision is promulgated.” Branches of the trial court are not distinct and separate tribunals from each other. Hence, contrary to private respondent’s allegation, Judge Agton could not have possibly lost jurisdiction over the case, because jurisdiction does not attach to the judge but to the court. The continuity of a court and the efficacy of its proceedings are not affected by the death, resignation, or cessation from the service of the judge presiding over it. To remand a validly decided case to the incumbent Presiding Judge of Branch XVI, as what the CA suggests, would only prolong this rather simple collection suit and would run counter to the avowed policy of the Court to accord a just, speedy and inexpensive disposition for every action