Rogelio
Bayotas y Cordova was charged with Rape and eventually convicted thereof.
Pending appeal of his conviction, Bayotas died. Consequently, the Supreme Court
dismissed the criminal aspect of the appeal. However, it required the Solicitor
General to file its comment with regard to the civil liability of Bayotas
arising from his commission of the offense charged.
ISSUE:
Whether or not
the death of the accused pending appeal of his conviction extinguish his civil
liability.
Article 89 of
the Revised Penal Code provides that by death of the convict personal
liabilities are extinguished, as to pecuniary penalties liability therefore is
extinguished only when the death of the offender occurs before final judgment.
Thus the
court made a ruling as follows:
1. Death
of the accused pending appeal of his conviction extinguishes his criminal
liability as well as the civil liability based solely thereon;
2. Corollarily,
the claim for civil liability survives notwithstanding the death of the
accused, if the same may also be predicated on a source of obligation other
than delict. Aricle 1157 of the Civil Code enumerates these other sources of
obligation from which the civil liability may arise as a result of the same act
or omission: Law, Contracts, Quasi-contracts, Delicts…,Quasi-delicts;
3. Where
the civil liability survives, an action for recovery therefore may be pursued
but only by way of separate civil action and may be enforced either against the
executor/administrator of the estate of the accused, depending on the source of
obligation aside from delicts;
4. Finally,
the private offended party need not fear a forfeiture of his right to file this
separate civil action by prescription, in cases where during the prosecution of
the criminal action and prior to its extinction, the private offended party
instituted together therewith the civil action. In such case, the statute of
limitations on the civil liability is deemed interrupted during the pendency of
the criminal case, conformably with provisions of Article 1155 of the Civil
Code, that should thereby avoid any apprehension on a possible privation of
right by prescription.
In the case
at bar, the death of Bayotas extinguished his criminal and civil liability
based solely on the act of rape. Hence, his civil liability also extinguished
together with his criminal liability upon his death.
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