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    US Vs Gregorio (Digest)

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    Stephen Michael Ben Cañete
    The court held that without the original document, the defendants could not be convicted of falsification. The case involved a memorandum of sale for a property that was attached in a debt collection case. Only a copy of the memorandum was presented, not the original. Additionally, it was unclear who had the original document and when it was actually written. The sheriff had only briefly seen the alleged original. Therefore, there was doubt as to whether the original document truly existed and whether the copy matched it. In criminal cases of falsification, the original document must be presented so the court can determine if a crime was committed and assess the degree of liability. Due to the lack of the original document, there was insufficient evidence to conclusively prove

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    US Vs Gregorio (Digest)

    Uploaded by

    Stephen Michael Ben Cañete
    336 views2 pages
    The court held that without the original document, the defendants could not be convicted of falsification. The case involved a memorandum of sale for a property that was attached in a debt collection case. Only a copy of the memorandum was presented, not the original. Additionally, it was unclear who had the original document and when it was actually written. The sheriff had only briefly seen the alleged original. Therefore, there was doubt as to whether the original document truly existed and whether the copy matched it. In criminal cases of falsification, the original document must be presented so the court can determine if a crime was committed and assess the degree of liability. Due to the lack of the original document, there was insufficient evidence to conclusively prove

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    US vs Gregorio (Digest)

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    The court held that without the original document, the defendants could not be convicted of falsification. The case involved a memorandum of sale for a property that was attached in a debt collection case. Only a copy of the memorandum was presented, not the original. Additionally, it was unclear who had the original document and when it was actually written. The sheriff had only briefly seen the alleged original. Therefore, there was doubt as to whether the original document truly existed and whether the copy matched it. In criminal cases of falsification, the original document must be presented so the court can determine if a crime was committed and assess the degree of liability. Due to the lack of the original document, there was insufficient evidence to conclusively prove

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    336 views2 pages

    US Vs Gregorio (Digest)

    Uploaded by

    Stephen Michael Ben Cañete
    The court held that without the original document, the defendants could not be convicted of falsification. The case involved a memorandum of sale for a property that was attached in a debt collection case. Only a copy of the memorandum was presented, not the original. Additionally, it was unclear who had the original document and when it was actually written. The sheriff had only briefly seen the alleged original. Therefore, there was doubt as to whether the original document truly existed and whether the copy matched it. In criminal cases of falsification, the original document must be presented so the court can determine if a crime was committed and assess the degree of liability. Due to the lack of the original document, there was insufficient evidence to conclusively prove

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    G.R. No.

    L-5791 December 17, 1910

    THE UNITED STATES


    vs.
    BERNARDO GREGORIO and EUSTAQUIO BALISTOY

    Facts:

     In the suit instituted by Pedro Salazar, as a creditor, against Eustaquio Balistoy, in the justice of the peace
    court of Libog, for the payment of a certain sum of money, judgment was rendered, on April 4, 1908,
    wherein the debtor was sentenced to pay to the plaintiff P275.92, with interest thereon, and the costs.
    For the execution of the said judgment, two rural properties belonging to the debtor were attached and
    the 27th of May, 1908, was set as the date for the sale and adjudication of the said attached properties to
    the highest bidder.
     Bernardo Gregorio requested the deputy sheriff to exclude the said realty from the attachment, alleging
    that he was the owner of the land situated in Tambogon, one of the properties levied upon. For the
    reason that he had acquired it by purchase from the judgment debtor, Balistoy, in 1905, prior to the filing
    of the complaint.
     In order that the claim of intervention presented to the sheriff might prosper, Bernardo Gregorio attached
    thereto the document Exhibit D, at the end of which and among other particulars appears the
    memorandum dated in Libog as of February 22, 1905, and signed by Eustaquio Balistoy in which Balistoy
    states that he bought the land referred to in the said document from Luis Balistoy and sold it to Bernardo
    Gregorio for P300, wherefore he signed as such vendor. The charge consists in that Balistoy, with intent to
    injure his creditor, Pedro Salazar, and for the purpose of avoiding the attachment and sale of one of the
    properties belonging to him, to secure the payment of the judgment obtained by his creditor in the
    aforementioned suit, did, with disregard of the truth in the narration of the facts, execute or write the
    said memorandum whereby, on February 25, 1905, he made or simulated a conveyance of one of the
    attached properties in favor of the said Bernardo Gregorio, according to the aforesaid copy, when in fact
    the said memorandum was written in April, 1908.

    Issue: Whether or not the lack of original document could convict a person of falsification?

    Held: No. The charge filed in this cause against the vendor and the vendee of the land in question, it is stated that
    these parties, the defendants, simulated the said memorandum of sale or conveyance of the land with the intent
    to injure the creditor, Pedro Salazar; but as the original document, setting forth the said memorandum, was not
    presented, but merely a copy thereof, and furthermore, as it could not be ascertained who had the original of the
    document containing the memorandum in question, nor the exact date when the latter was written; the said
    memorandum, presumed to be simulated and false, was not literally compared by the sheriff who testified that he
    had seen its original for but a few moments, nor by any officer authorized by law to certify to documents and
    proceedings such as are recorded in notarial instruments, nor even by two witnesses who might afterwards have
    been able to testify before the court that the copy exhibited was in exact agreement with its original; therefore, on
    account of these deficiencies, doubt arises as to whether the original of the document, Exhibit D, really existed at
    all, and whether the memorandum at the foot of the said exhibit is an exact copy of that alleged to have been
    written at the end of the said original document.

    In criminal proceedings for the falsification of a document, it is indispensable that the judges and courts have
    before them the document alleged to have been simulated, counterfeited, or falsified, in order that they may find,
    pursuant to the evidence produced in the cause, whether or not the crime of falsification was committed, and also,
    at the same time, to enable them to determine the degree of each defendant's liability in the falsification under
    prosecution. Through the lack of the original document containing the memorandum alleged to be false, it is
    improper to hold, with only a copy of the said original in view, that the crime prosecuted was committed; and
    although, judging from the testimony of the witnesses who were examined in the two consolidated causes, there is
    reason to entertain much doubt as to the defendants' innocence, yet, withal, this case does not furnish decisive
    and conclusive proof of their respective guilt as coprincipals of the crime charged. Defendants in a criminal cause
    are always presumed to be innocent until their guilt be fully proven, and, in case of reasonable doubt and when
    their guilt is not satisfactorily shown, they are entitled to a judgment of acquittal. In view of the evidence produced
    in both of the aforesaid criminal causes, said causes can only be terminated by such a finding.

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