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People V Ledesma
People V Ledesma
Solicitor General Crispin V Bautista, Solicitors Enrique M. Reyes and Pedro A. Ramirez
for plaintiff-appellant.
The main issue in this appeal is whether or not the Court of First Instance of Negros
Occidental, Branch I, Silay City, committed an error in holding that the conviction of the
accused Vicente Ledesma in Criminal Case No. 439 constituted as a bar to the
prosecution of the same accused in Criminal Case No. 627 which was appealed to the
Court of Appeals (CA-G.R. No. 09562 CR).
On December 18, 1963, accused Vicente Ledesma, a sales agent of the Conpinco
Marketing Company with authority to sell appliances and to receive payments for them,
sold one Avegon radio for the amount of P230.00 which he failed to turn over to the
company despite repeated demands. As a result, he was charge with estafa before the
Municipal Court of Victories, Negros Occidental in Criminal Case No. 439 and after trial
was found guilty as charged.
On June 4, 1964, accused Vicente Ledesma was again charged with estafa in the
Municipal Court of Victorias, Negros Occidental in Criminal Case No. 1592 for having
misappropriated to installments of P19.00 each or a total of P38.00 which he received
from Flaviana Bernardas as payments due on serving machine, and for his failure to turn
over said amount to Conpinco Marketing Company notwithstanding repeated demands.
He was sentenced to suffer three (3) months and one (1) day imprisonment of arresto
mayor and the indemnity of the offended party the sum of P38.00 and to suffer subsidiary
imprisonment of fifteen (15) days in case of insolvency and to pay costs. Accused
Vicente Ledesma then appealed said decision to the Court of First Instance of Negros
Occidental. In said court the Provincial Fiscal filed the corresponding information against
the accused which was Rocketed as Criminal Case No. 627. Upon arraignment, he
entered a plea of not guilty. Later upon order of the trial court, the Provincial Fiscal filed
an amended information.
On January 29, 1968, the accused Vicente Ledesma filed a motion to dismiss the
amended information against him on the ground that he has previously been convicted of
estafa in Criminal Case No. 439 for having failed to turn over to Conpinco Marketing
Company the proceeds of the sale of one (1) Avegon radio and that therefore his
conviction in said Criminal Case No. 439 constituted as a bar to his subsequent
prosecution in the present case (Criminal Case No. 627) under the so-called principle of
continued or continuing crimes.
On January 13, 1969, the trial court granted the motion to dismiss and cancelled the
bond of accused Vicente Ledesma From said order of dismissal, the offended party
Conpinco Marketing Company appealed to the Court of Appeals which appeal the latter
has certified to this Court on a pure question of law.
The Court of Appeals 1 in its resolution of May 28, 1974, by a vote of 4 to 1 ruled that after a
delay of five years from the time this case was elevated to the Court of Appeals the case was
still not ready for decision because both the offended party Conpinco Marketing Company
and the Solicitor General who filed separate briefs failed to furnish a cot thereof to the
accused-appellee and his counsel. Associate Justice Ramon C. Fernandez dissented and
voted to certify the case to this Court as it involves question of law and so that accused-
appellee may have a chance to file his own brief. The records, however, show that the
Solicitor General subsequently furnished a copy of his brief to the counsel for accused.-
appellee. In certifying the case to this Court, the Court of Appeals said: "In the above
resolution of May 28, 1974, this Court refused to order the forthright certification of this case
to the Supreme Court the issues raised being purely question of law on the ground that
accused-appellee's brief may raise factual issues. No appellee's brief having been filed there
is no hindrance to such certification."
The legal issue now before Us is whether or not the trial court erred in holding that the
conviction of accused-appellee Vicente Ledesma for the crime of estafa in Criminal Case
No. 439 committed in 1963 is a bar to the prosecution of the same accused for the crime
of estafa in Criminal Case No. 627 committed in 1964 as it would place him in double
jeopardy.
Under Section 9, Rule 117 of the Rules of Court 2 in order that the Ii protection against
double jeopardy may inure to the benefit of an accused, the following requisites must be
present in the first prosecution: (a) it vain complaint of information; (b) a competent court; (c)
the defendant had pleaded to the charge; (d) the defendant as acquitted, or convicted, or the
case against him was dismissed or otherwise terminated without his consent.: 3 In the case
before Us, accused- appellee was with estafa in Criminal Case No. 439 before a competent
court under a valid information and was duly committed as charge He was therefore placed in
legal jeopardy for the crime of estafa in Criminal Case No. 439 for having to turn over the
proceeds of the sale of an Avegon radio in the amount of P230.00 to the offended party.
When later the accused-appelle was charged and prosecuted for estafa, this time for having
failed to turn over to the offended party two installments of 19.00 each or a total of P38.00
paid buyer of a selling machine belonging to the offended party, accused-appellee cannot
invoke double jeopardy because he was not being prosecution for the same offense of estafa
for which he has been convicted hut for another and distinct offense. The first offense of the
accused-appellee cannot be treated as a continuous crime. A "continuous crime" is a single
crime consisting of a series of acts arising from a single criminal resolution or intent not
susceptible of division. According to Cuello Calon when the actor, there being unit. of purpose
and of right violated commits diverse acts each of which, although of which although of a
delictual character merely constitutes a partial execution of a single particular delict, such
concurrence of delictual acts is a delito continuado." 4 For it to exist there should be plurality
of acts performed separately during a period of time; unity of penal provision infringed upon or
violated; unity of criminal intent or purpose, which means that two or more violations of the
same penal provision are united in one and the same intent leading to the perpetration of the
same criminal purpose or aim., 5 In the case before Us, there is no unity of criminal intent or
purpose because while both offenses committed by accused- appellee consisted of
conversion of sums of money belonging to the offended party, they took place on different
dates and under different circumstances. The offense in Criminal Case No. 439 occurred on
December 18, 1963, while the offense in Criminal Case No. 627 took place on June 4, 1964.
Criminal Case No. 627 refers to a conversion of two installment payments in the amount of
P38.00 on a sewing machine which accused-appelle failed to turn over to the offended party.
In one case 6 where the acts of misappropriation were committed on two different occasions,
the first in January 1955 to December 1955 to and the second in January 1956 to July 1956,
the Court held that it cannot be pretended that when the accused disposed of the palay
deposit in January 1955 to December 1955, he already had the criminal intent of disposing
what was to be deposited in January 1956 to July 1956. In People vs. Cid. 7 the Court ruled
that the malversation imputed to the accused as well as the falsification in the months of May,
June, July and August 1936 were not the result or only one resolution to embezzle and falsify,
but of four or as many abstractions or misappropriations had of the funds entrusted to his
care, and of as many falsifications also committed to conceal each of said acts because there
is nothing in the record to justify the inference that the intention of the accuse when he
committed the malversation in May 1936 was the same intention which impelled him to
commit the other malversation in June, July and August. In a more recent case where 75
informations for estafa were filed by the City of Manila against the accused for having
collected and received from customers of the Units Supply Company of which the accused
was an employee sums of money in payment of good purchased from it and misappropriated,
misapplied and converted the amounts to his own personal use and benefits, the Court
upheld the action taken by the City Fiscal's Office in filing the 75 informations against the
accused. Said the Court. +.wph!1
WHEREFORE, the Order of the court a quo dated January 13, 1969 dismissing Criminal
Case No. 627 against accused appelle Vicente Ledesma is set aside. Let the records of
Criminal Case No. 627 be remanded to the lower court for further proceedings without
delay. Without cost.
SO ORDERED.
Teehankee (Chairman), Makasiar, Muos Palma and Concepcion Jr. JJ., concur. 1wph1.t
Footnotes +.wph!1
4 Gamboa, et al. vs CA, et al., G.R. No. L-41054, Nov 28, 1975, citing
Cuello Calon, Derecho Penal II, 520-21.