325 Phil. 1
PANGANIBAN, J.:
"That I am one of the plaintiff (sic) in Civil Case No. 115265 of the Court of First Instance of Manila, Branch XXXIX, entitled Salvador T. Castillo, et al(.) versus Dolores Licup, et al(.), a copy of the complaint is here to (sic) attached as Annex ‘A’ and made integral part hereof;The complainant alternatively prayed that the respondent be either "reprimanded, suspended or disbarred for acts unbecoming of (sic) a lawyer."
That sometime in the second of (Sic) week of December 1978, a settlement of the case was agreed upon between the plaintiff and the defendant which was submitted in court and as a consequence of which the case was dismissed;
That in the settlement, defendant Mrs(.) Dolores Licup, represented by her counsel, Atty. Pablo Taguin es (sic) has to pay me the amount of P500.00 as full payment of the consideration for dismissing the case against the defendant;
That as per agreement, Mrs. Dolores Licup will give the P500.00 to her counsel Atty(.) Pablo Taguin es (sic) who will in turn give said amount to me or my counsel;
That while the case against the defendant was already dismissed, and while Mrs. Licup has already given the P500.00 to Atty. Pablo Taguine s (sic) and received by him, said Atty(.) Pablo Taguines, for reasons known only to himself for his personal benefit, and violation of our agreement, the trust and confidence of his client, Mrs(.) Licup and me as plaintiff, did not give to (sic) me the P500.00 which was legally due me even as the case against his client was already dismissed;
That it was only sometime in the second week of January, 1979 when I discovered from Mrs. Dolores Licup herself that as of December 16, 1978 she had already given the P500.00 to her counsel Atty. Pablo Taguines and she showed to me a certification signed by Atty. Taguines which is self(-) explanatory, a xerox copy of which is hereto attached as Annex ‘B’ of this affidavit complaint;
That I went personally several times to the address of Atty. Taguines at 55-B Scout Castor, Quezon City to demand for my money, but I was informed that he was in Tarlac, Tarlac, his home province; when I failed to contact, I even went to complain in Malacañang at Malacañang Assistance Center for confrontation but despite notices to him, he did not appear in said office;
That Atty. Taguines knows the office of my counsel, he knows the telephone number, but despite that knowledge he did not even called (sic) up or see my lawyer about the P500.00 which he received from Mrs. Licup to be paid to me;
That the act of Atty. Taguines is undeserving and unethical as a lawyer for having embezzled the P500.00 which does not belongs (sic) to him, considering that the case against his client has been dismissed by me already, and for which I can no longer re-file in court";[1]
"xxx xxx xxxIn his reply to respondent’s Comment, complainant further contended, among other things:
"2. That at the outset, I wish to deny vehemently as I hereby deny vehemently that I have neither (sic) embezzled the amount of P500 which I received from my client, Mrs. Dolores Licup in connection with Civil Case No. 115265 of the Court of First Instance of Manila, Branch XXXIX nor refused to give the same to complainant Salvador Castillo in the aforementioned I.S. No. 79-11822 for estafa;
3. That I wish also to deny vehemently as I hereby deny vehemently, for lack of knowledge and awareness as well as for lack of notice, the alleged confrontation at the Malacañang Assistance Center in connection with the amount of P500 that is the subject matter of said preliminary investigation;
4. That I admit having received from Mrs. Dolores Licup the amount of P500 to be given to Mr. Salvador Castillo but I never bound or committed myself to go out of my way to personally deliver the said amount to the (sic) Mr. Castillo or to his lawyer; I do not know personally Mr. Castillo his address or residence in Silang, Cavite; I do not also know where he holds office here in Metro Manila, if he ever holds office here;
5. That, per our agreement, Mr. Castillo or his lawyer will call, or visit me to (sic) my office at Room 451, Republic Supermarket Bldg., Manila to inquire whether I was able to get some money from Mrs. Licup for Mr. Castillo in connection with the above-mentioned Civil Case; at that time a joint motion to dismiss signed by all the counsels (sic) has already been filed in said civil case after the parties have agreed to settle it amicably among themselves. Mr. Castillo has already received some money from my other client, Mr. Alex Sy, and he is requesting me to ask some money from Mrs. Licup as additional consideration for the settlement of the said case;
6. That both Mr. Castillo and his lawyer knew where I hold office at the time for they once held their office also at the same building: Room 430;
7. That his lawyer never called me or went to my office to get the money for Mr. Castillo;
8. That, however, I recall that, a few days after I received the P500 from Mrs. Licup, when I was out of the office, according to Mr. Angelito B. Yabut, who is the Treasurer of Philwide Cinema Corporation where I hold office at the said Room 451, a big man(,) by his description(,) came looking for me and introduced himself as Buddy but because I was out at the time, he left with a message that he will return after lunch or late in the afternoon;
9. That, having received the message when I came to the office that day, I wanted (sic) for this ‘Buddy’ who, however, never returned that day;
10. That, although I have never seen the man, I surmissed (sic) that he was complainant Mr. Castillo because of Mr. Yabut’s description, his name ‘Buddy’ - I have heard his lawyer call him by that nickname - and because I have been expecting him to be dropping by my office anytime in connection with the P500;
11. That I waited for him the following day as I was in the office preparing and finalizing some pleadings and other paper works in connection with some of my cases; but Mr. Castillo never came that day;
12. That, in view thereof, I gave to Mr. Angelito B. Yabut the P500 because he is the employee of Philwide Cinema who is always at the office and instructed him to give the money to one Mr. Salvador Castillo or his lawyer, Atty. Diosdado Dapucanta and to issue a receipt therefor; Mr. Yabut was in possession of the money for more than a week;
13. That from that time up until the end of January 1979, neither Mr. Castillo nor his lawyer called or went to the office to get the money given by Mrs. Licup to me;
14. That beginning February 1979, we (Philwide Cinema Corporation) transferred our office from Room 451 Republic Supermarket to Room 312, Regina Bldg., Escolta, Manila; up to the present time, I still hold my law office at the said office address;
15. That I transferred to the above office address in good faith and without any intention to abscond with the money;
xxx xxx xxx
20. That if only Mr. Castillo or his lawyer took the pains of contacting me or coming to my office to get the P500 or if only Mr. Castillo exercised some degree of prudence of leaving a message regarding the date and time of his coming back to get the money, such unfortunate incident like as (sic) this one would have been avoided;
21. That the mere fact that I executed and signed the certification acknowledging receipt of the money is evidence that will regate (sic) any criminal intent to abscond with the money for, as a lawyer, if ever I had the intention of embezzling or misappropriating the same, I would not have made said certification;
22. That I am not too miserable a lawyer as not to be able to produce, upon demand, the measly sum of P500; but the truth of the matter is that neither complainant nor his lawyer came to my office at Room 451, Republic Supermarket Bldg., Sta Cruz Manila to get the money although both knew that I was holding office there;
23. That I have, likewise, not received any letter from either complainant or his lawyer, demanding delivery of the said amount to either of them"; (Italics supplied)
"1. That I vehemently deny for being false, the allegation of Atty. Pablo Taguines contained in paragraph 2 of his counter-affidavit attached to his comment x x x, the truth of the matter being, that sometime in July, 1979, before the dismissal of my complaint for estafa by the fiscal, Atty. Taguines had a talk with my lawyer in (sic) the telephone, my lawyer telling him that I am willing to accept the P500.00, and that I am ready to execute affidavits of desistance for all the cases I filed against him. Atty. Taguines agreed and even set a day, a Wednesday, for us to meet, but he failed to see or call my lawyer, instead, a woman from his office at Rm. 312, Regina Building, Escolta, Manila, called up my lawyer that Atty. Taguines was in Tarlac and would not be able to see us, but he would do so the coming Monday. Come Monday, he did not see us nor call my lawyer.
2. On August 13, 1979, I sent a letter addressed to his office at Rm-312 Regina Building, Escolta, Manila, requesting him to remit the amount to me or to my lawyer, but he did not remit or even answer my letter, or even called (sic) us up despite the fact that my said letter was duly received by his office that same day. A xerox copy of said letter is hereto attached as Annex ‘A’ of this reply. Again I sent him two more letters dated September 17, 1979 and October 1, 1979, but he did not claim them so they were returned to me. Xerox copy of my said two letters are hereto attached as Annex ‘B’ and ‘C’ of this reply."[3]
"However, from the documentary exhibits offered by the complainant himself, it appears that the respondent has not paid or turned over the P500.00 to the complainant despite repeated demands. Respondent even fooled the complainant by paying the P500.00 with BPI Check No. 193489 (Exh. ‘B’) payable to Cash dated January 20, 1981, with the respondent as drawer or maker x x x, but the same bounced for the reason ‘ACCOUNT CLOSED’ (Exh. ‘C’). When respondent’s check was dishonored, the complainant made two formal demands on the respondent to make good his dishonored check. The first demand letter dated January 20, 1981 (Exh. ‘D’) was received by the respondent on January 23, 1981 (Exhs. ‘D-1’ and ‘D-2’) and the second one dated February 9, 1981 (Exh. ‘E’) was received by the respondent on February 19, 1981 (Exhs. ‘E-1’ and ‘E-2’). But still the respondent refused to pay."[5]
The Board concluded as follows:
"From all the foregoing, it could be safely concluded that the respondent misappropriated the P500.00, a trust property, to the damage and prejudice of the complainant. However small is the amount misappropriated by him, the respondent just the same has shown his unfitness to continue as a member of the Bar.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Board of Governors hereby recommends that ATTY. PABLO M. TAGUINES be SUSPENDED from the practice of law for a period of one (1) year."[6]