THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, v. RESTITURO FALLER (alias R.

AGUILAR) -- April 26, 1939

A) Restituto Faller: charged with the crime of damage caused to anothers property maliciously and willfully.

B) CFI of Rizal found that the damage was not caused maliciously and willfully, but through reckless imprudence.
- sentenced under paragraph 3 of article 365 of the RPC
- as principal in the crime of damage through reckless imprudence
-to pay a fine of P38 to offended party Diokno, with imprisonment in case of insolvency.

C.) From this decision, an appeal was taken.
-Appellant: a crime maliciously and willfully committed is different from that committed through reckless imprudence

ISSUE: Whether court erred in its decision?

DECISION: No. The court has not committed this error.

-The appellant: convicted of the same crime of damage to property with which he is charged.
-Reckless imprudence is not a crime in itself WAY of committing it & determines a lower degree of criminal liability.
-Negligence being a punishable criminal act when it results in a crime,
-being charged unlawfully and criminally includes the charge that he acted with negligence.
- the appealed judgment is affirmed, with the costs to the appellant.

*ART 3: CULPABLE FELONY. Freedom, Intelligence + IMPRUDENCE (instead of malice/deliberate intent: intentional
felony)
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS vs. MARCELINO ACOSTA Y RIVERA | April 28, 1934
A) This is an appeal by the defendant from judgment rendered by the CFI, Manila: Finding him guilty of the crimes of rape and
homicide (and sentencing him for the first crime to 17yrs, 4mos, 1 day of prision correccional and for the second, to 14ys, 8 mos, 1
day of reclusion temporal, with the accessory penalties of the law to indemnify the heirs of the offended party in the sum of P1,000,
and to pay the costs.)
A1) Between July, 1933- October 22, 1933, in Manila: the said accused, with force, intimidation, did then and there willfully,
unlawfully and feloniously have sexual intercourse with Magdalena Asegurado (14 yrs). Magdalena was infected with venereal
diseases (std) and caused physical injures which resulted her death on October 22, 1933.

-Marcelino Rivera and the widow Gregoria Buenvenida lived together with the latter's 2 daughters: Magdalena (14 yrs) and Virginia
(8 yrs) Asegurado.
- One day in July, 1933, at midnight: te defendant approached Magdalena, entering the mosquito net and, threatening to kill her with
the open penknife which he carried, if she did not accede to his lewd designs, succeeded in having sexual intercourse with her.
- defendant was suffering from gonorrhoea and naturally he infected party with the said disease.
-The offended party did not complain to her mother nor did she suffer from the serious consequences of the infection

- until the beginning of the month of September when she complained of intense pains in the abdomen.
-he and Gregoria brought the offended party for treatment to the General Hospital.
-She had high fever, was suffering from intense pains and felt that she was about to die.
-She examined by Dr. Pavio: discovered that she was suffering from gonorrhoea and had been raped.
-Asked by him who had raped her, the man who was outside the hall and who later turned out to be the defendant. The latter asked by
the doctor, denied the accusation.
- Dr. Calderon operated on her but he had to desist from his intention to cut off her appendix because she was found to be suffering
from peritonitis.
-Dr. Calderon declared that the MAGDALENA died of peritonitis CAUSED by the gonorrhoea with which she had been
infected through sexual intercourse.
-Although the direct and immediate cause of death was peritonitis determining cause traced to the sexual intercourse with
defendant.
A2) On the afternoon of October 3, 1933, Consuelo de Rosario, a friend of Magdalena, visited her at the General Hospital
Magdalena believed that she was going to die and that the cause of her illness was the Marcelino Rivera who had raped her.

A3). On the following day, Gregorio Buenvenida, accompanied by Consuelo, went to the office of the secret service of the Manila
and reported the case.
-Detectives Quintos and Gallardo, went to the hospital and conversed with the patient.
-Agents of the law reduced the offended party again reiterated her statement that the Marcelino Rivera had raped her and that it was he
who had infected her with the venereal disease.
-Magdalena died on October 22, 1933, eighteen days after she had made her ante mortem statement.
ISSUE: Whether the proven facts should be considered as independent crimes of rape and homicide, or as the complex crime of
rape with homicide.
B) The trial court convicted the defendant otherwise of the crimes of rape and homicide.
-Both crimes, rape and homicide, were result of a single act sexual intercourse. This court declares that such acts should be held
as constituting the complex crime of rape with homicide, in accordance with the provisions of article 48 of the Revised Penal
Code, as amended by Act No. 4000.
-Penalty of reclusion temporal = should be imposed in its maximum degree,
- nocturnity and abuse of superior strenght should be taken into consideration as aggravating circumstances is compensated by the
mitigating circumstance of lack of intention on the part of the defendant to commit so grave a crime as that produced, which this
court takes into consideration in his favor.
-Applying Indeterminate Sentence Law: 12 years of prision mayor to twenty years of reclusion temporal.
DECISION: Wherefore, and reversing the judgment appealed from, the defendant is declared guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the
complex crime of rape with homicide and is hereby sentenced to the penalty the duration of which is from 12 years, of prision
mayor to twenty years of reclusion temporal, with the accessory penalties of the law, and to indemnify the heirs of the offended
party in the sum of P1,000, with the costs of both instances de oficio. So ordered.
*Art 4, RPC: PROXIMATE CAUSE: That cause, which in natural and continuous sequence, UNBROKEN by any
EFFICIENT INTERVENING CAUSE, produces the injury without which the result would not have occurred! Death of
victim must be DI RECT, NATURAL, LOGI CAL CONSEQUNCE OF I NJ URY I NFLI CTED UPON HER by accuse.
*EFFICIENT INTERVENING CAUSE: new & independent actwhich itself is the proximate cause of injuryand which
BREAKS the causal connection between ORIGINAL WRONG and INJURY.

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, v. GERARDO CORNEL, Defendant-Appellant.
A) This is an appeal from a judgment of the CFI Albay sentencing the defendant, for the crime of homicide, to an indeterminate prison
term ranging from 8 years and 1 day of prision mayor to 14 years, 8 months and 1 day of reclusion temporal, with corresponding
accessory penalties, to indemnify the heirs of the deceased, Fabian Burac, in the sum of P2,000, and to pay the costs.

A1) alleged inadequacy of the evidence for the prosecution establishing appellants identity (TIME OF ATTACK)

-BUT, Trinidad Coral, personally saw GERARDO CORNEL (1) suddenly assault her deceased husband (Fabian Burac) with a
bolo as the latter was descending the stairs of his house (2) after Fabian Burac (then wounded in the forehead) fell, the appellant
threw a stone which hit Fabians right clavicle, and (3) the appellant thereafter led in the direction of his house.



Testimony of another witness for the government (Caspara Bendicio) to the effect that when she asked Fabian not long after the
incident in question as to what had happened, Fabian replied that he had been boloed by the appeal which testimony (alleged by the
appellant to be inadmisible) was accepted by the trial.

-Moreover, it should be remembered that the appellant was prosecuted, though only for physical injuries even before Fabians
death which occurred several days after June 8, 1945.

-Dr. Mariano Cruel, a government witness, as "an incised vertical wound extending from a little above the middle of the
eyebrows down to the lower root of the nose. This contention may be tenable in forensic medicine, but it is still conjectural and
cannot be accepted where a criminal assault is proved through an eyewitness.

-Contrary to appellants pretension, the death of Fabian Burac is established by the testimony of his wife and mother-in-law. The
certificate of the civil registrar of Tabaco dated August 3, 1945, to the effect that the matter had not been registered in his office

Fabian Burac died, as certified by Dr. Mariano Cruel, "of tetanus secondary to the infected wound."

-Appellants surmise that Fabian might not have died of tetanus, because there are other diseases sometimes exhibiting symptoms of
tetan... The appellant must of course be held responsible for the natural consequences of his
unlawful act.

Appellants defense of alibi that between 5 p. m. of June 8, 1945 and the morning of June 9, 1945, he was in Tabaco, Albay,
may be worth inquiring into, if Trinidad Coral (already found to be truthful) was not an eyewitness to appellants criminal attack. The
motive for the offense is undoubtedly supplied by the circumstance that Fabian ones arrested and threatened the appellant during the
Japanese occupation.

The appealed judgment is hereby affirmed, with costs against the appellant. So ordered.