Professional Documents
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Ramirez v. Bagayang-Margallo
Ramirez v. Bagayang-Margallo
Bagayang-Margallo
A.C. No. 10537
February 3, 2015
Facts:
Complainant Reynaldo Ramirez (Ramirez) engaged Atty. Margallos services as
legal counsel in a civil case for Quieting of Title entitled Spouses Roque v. Ramirez.
According to Ramirez, Atty. Margallo contacted him as per a referral from a friend of
Ramirezs sister. He alleged that Atty. Margallo had offered her legal services on the
condition that she be given 30% of the land subject of the controversy instead of
attorneys fees. It was also agreed upon that Ramirez would pay Atty. Margallo
P1,000.00 per court appearance.
On October 19, 2006, the Regional Trial Court promulgated a Decision adverse
to Ramirez. Atty. Margallo advised him to appeal the judgment. She committed to file
the Appeal before the Court of Appeals. The Appeal was perfected and the records were
sent to the Court of Appeals sometime in 2008. On December 5, 2008, the Court of
Appeals directed Ramirez to file his Appellants Brief. Ramirez notified Atty. Margallo,
who replied that she would have one prepared.
On January 8, 2009, Ramirez contacted Atty. Margallo to follow up on the
Appellants Brief. Atty. Margallo informed him that he needed to meet her to sign the
documents necessary for the brief. On several occasions, Ramirez followed up on the
status of the brief, but he was told that there was still no word from the Court of Appeals.
On August 26, 2009, Atty. Margallo informed Ramirez that his Appeal had been
denied. She told him that the Court of Appeals denial was due to Ramirezs failure to
establish his filiation with his alleged father, which was the basis of his claim. She also
informed him that they could no longer appeal to this court since the Decision of the
Court of Appeals had been promulgated and the reglementary period for filing an Appeal
had already lapsed. Ramirez went to the Court of Appeals. There, he discovered that
the Appellants Brief was filed on April 13, 2009 with a Motion for Reconsideration and
Apologies for filing beyond the reglementary period.
Ramirez alleged that Atty. Margallo had violated Canon 17 and Canon 18, Rules
18.03 and 18.04 of the Code of Professional Responsibility.
By way of defense, Atty. Margallo argued that she had agreed to take on the
case for free, save for travel expense of P1,000.00 per hearing. She also claimed that
she had candidly informed Ramirez and his mother that they only had a 50% chance of
winning the case. She denied ever having entered into an agreement regarding the
contingent fee worth 30% of the value of the land subject of the controversy. Atty.
Margallo asserted that she would not have taken on the Appeal except that the mother
of Ramirez had begged her to do so. She claimed that when she instructed Ramirez to
see her for document signing on January 8, 2009, he ignored her. When he finally
showed up on March 2009, he merely told her that he had been busy. Her failure to
immediately inform Ramirez of the unfavorable Decision of the Court of Appeals was
due to losing her clients number because her 8-year-old daughter played with her
phone and accidentally erased all her contacts.
The Board of Governors of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines adopted and
approved the recommendation of the Commission on Bar Discipline. The Board of