755 Phil. 225
DEL CASTILLO, J.:
WHEREFORE, premises considered, judgment is hereby rendered ordering respondents, M.A. Mercado Construction and Maximo and Aida Mercado to reinstate the complainants to their former position[s] without loss of seniority rights and to pay jointly and severally, their full backwages from October 28, 2000 up to the date of this decision plus ten (10%) percent attorney’s fees of the total monetary award.The respondents in the labor case, namely the Spouses Mercado, doing business under the name and style of M.A. Mercado Construction, interposed an appeal which was dismissed for failure to post an appeal bond. Thus, an Alias Writ of Execution was issued to implement the Decision.
The Research and Information Unit of this Office is hereby directed to compute complainants[’] monetary award which shall form part of this decision.
The complaint for damages is dismissed. The complaint against Shoemart, Inc., is likewise DISMISSED for lack of merit.
SO ORDERED.[4]
RESOLUTION NO. XIX-2011-110
Adm. Case No. 7158
Yolanda A. Andres, et al. vs. Atty. Salimathar V. Nambi
RESOLVED to ADOPT and APPROVE, as it is hereby unanimously ADOPTED and APPROVED, with modification the Report and Recommendation of the Investigating Commissioner in the above-entitled case herein made part of this Resolution as Annex “A”; and, finding the recommendation fully supported by the evidence on record and the applicable laws and rules, considering respondent[’s] contumacious disregard of the lawful Order of Supreme Court and the Commission on Bar Discipline of the IBP, and for his failure to appear despite due notices, Atty. Salimathar V. Nambi is hereby SUSPENDED from the practice of law for six (6) months.[12] (Emphasis in the original).
As culled from the case record, there is substantial evidence that respondents Maximo A. Mercado and Aida A. Mercado, who are doing business under the name and style of M.A. Mercado Construction put up a corporation in the name of M.A. Block Works, Inc. where individual movants are one of the incorporators. We give credence to the argument of the complainants that the incorporators therein are relatives of Maximo A. Mercado and Aida Mercado as shown by the Articles of Incorporation adduced by the former. The incorporators listed have similar family names of the Mercados and the Andreses and common address at Gen. Hizon, Quezon City and 50 Daisy St., Quezon City, and Maximo A. Mercado is the biggest stockholder. Aside from the Articles of Incorporation, complainants also submitted a Letter of Intent/Notice To Proceed where respondents, despite their representation that they have already ceased their business operation, are still continuing their business operation. The documents submitted by the complainants were corroborated by certification issued by Maggie T. Jao, AVP-Assistant Controller of SM Prime Holdings, Inc. that based on their records, an amount of P3,291,300.00 representing a sum total of all goods, effects, money and credit that was garnished belong to M.A. Mercado Construction and/or Maximo Mercado and/or Aida Mercado and/or M.A. Block Works, Inc. and/or Gertrudes Casilda A. Mercado, Yolanda A. Andres, Minette A. Mercado and/or Elito P. Andres.It is apparent from the foregoing disquisition that respondent’s conclusion had some bases and was not plucked from thin air, so to speak. Clearly, respondent did not act whimsically or arbitrarily; his ruling could not in any manner be characterized as imbued with malice, fraud or bad faith. To reiterate what we have already stated above, we are not here to judge in this present administrative proceeding whether respondent’s ratiocination on the application of the piercing of corporate veil is correct; our only concern here is to decide whether respondent’s error was so gross as to amount to fraud and dishonesty. Based on the above-quoted disquisition, it cannot be said, by any stretch of imagination, that respondent’s error, if any, was so gross or that he was actuated by malice when he issued the above orders. His conclusion was reached after an examination of the documents presented and evaluation and assessment of the arguments raised by the parties. He did not capriciously rule on the issues presented; on the contrary, he exerted efforts to weigh the positions of the contending parties.
This Office has therefore, enough reason to conclude that respondents Maximo A. Mercado and Aida Mercado and the movants herein are one and the same. Movants are alter egos or business conduits to defraud the complainants and to consequently evade payment of judgment award. x x x As respondents are duly notified and aware of the execution proceedings, the argument of denial of due process is untenable.[15]
Well-settled is the rule that unless the acts were committed with fraud, dishonesty, corruption, malice or ill-will, bad faith, or deliberate intent to do an injustice, respondent judge may not be held administratively liable for gross misconduct, ignorance of the law or incompetence of official acts in the exercise of judicial functions and duties, particularly in the adjudication of cases.Based on the foregoing, we have no basis to hold respondent administratively liable for gross ignorance of the law.
Further, to hold a judge administratively accountable for every erroneous rule or decision he renders would be nothing short of harassment and would make his position doubly unbearable. To hold otherwise would be to render judicial office untenable, for no one called upon to try the facts or interpret the law in the process of the administration of justice can be infallible in his judgment.[17]
Sec. 27. Disbarment or suspension of attorneys by Supreme Court; grounds therefor. – A member of the bar may be disbarred or suspended from his office as attorney by the Supreme Court for any deceit, malpractice, or other gross misconduct in such office, grossly immoral conduct, or by reason of his conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude, or for any violation of the oath which he is required to take before admission to practice, or for a willful disobedience of any lawful order of a superior court, or for corruptly or willfully appearing as an attorney for a party to a case without authority so to do. The practice of soliciting cases at law for the purpose of gain, either personally or through paid agents or brokers, constitutes malpractice. (Emphasis supplied)Considering that this appears to be respondent’s first infraction, we find it proper to impose on him the penalty of reprimand with warning that commission of the same or similar infraction will be dealt with more severely.