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  • CORONEL Vs CUNANAN

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    Markus Tran Moralde
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    The complainant hired attorney Nelson Cunanan to transfer the title of land registered under her grandparents' names to her name and co-heirs. Cunanan advised using the illegal process of "direct registration" which would bypass legal procedures and cost P50,000, paid upfront. When the transfer did not occur, the complainant demanded their money back but Cunanan refused. The court found Cunanan guilty of malpractice, deceit, and gross misconduct for proposing and accepting payment for the unlawful direct registration process. Cunanan was suspended from practicing law for one year.

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    legal ethics

    Original Title

    CORONEL vs CUNANAN

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    The complainant hired attorney Nelson Cunanan to transfer the title of land registered under her grandparents' names to her name and co-heirs. Cunanan advised using the illegal process of "direct registration" which would bypass legal procedures and cost P50,000, paid upfront. When the transfer did not occur, the complainant demanded their money back but Cunanan refused. The court found Cunanan guilty of malpractice, deceit, and gross misconduct for proposing and accepting payment for the unlawful direct registration process. Cunanan was suspended from practicing law for one year.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    171 views2 pages

    CORONEL Vs CUNANAN

    Uploaded by

    Markus Tran Moralde
    The complainant hired attorney Nelson Cunanan to transfer the title of land registered under her grandparents' names to her name and co-heirs. Cunanan advised using the illegal process of "direct registration" which would bypass legal procedures and cost P50,000, paid upfront. When the transfer did not occur, the complainant demanded their money back but Cunanan refused. The court found Cunanan guilty of malpractice, deceit, and gross misconduct for proposing and accepting payment for the unlawful direct registration process. Cunanan was suspended from practicing law for one year.

    Copyright:

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

    CORONEL vs.

    CUNANAN

    FACTS:

    Complainant (Coronel) filed a disbarment case against Atty. Nelson A. Cunanan (Cunanan) for
    advising and convincing her to engage him to transfer Title registered to the name of the former’s
    grandparents to her name and her co-heirs by direct registration, which is a violation of the proper legal
    procedure.

    The respondent advised the complainant that the registration of title may be effected by two (2)
    means namely: first by way of “ordinary procedure”; and second, by way of “direct registration”. The
    respondent outlined both the ordinary procedure and direct registration. In direct registration, however,
    as subject matter of this case, involves preparing documents upon advised of the Register of Deeds with
    an estimated cost to be negotiated with the officials or employees of ROD and will involve an estimated
    flat amount of P50,000.00 and transfer will take only one (1) month or less. It seems that the
    complainant agreed on the direct registration, when the respondent billed him for 70,000.00, the
    amount for direct transfer of title is P50,000.00; P5,000.00 for litigation expenses and P15,000.00 as
    professional fees.

    The complainant paid P70,000.00 to respondent. However, to no avail, the respondent did not
    made contact with complainant. This prompt the former to demand from the latter the return of
    P70,000.00 and the owner’s duplicate copy of TCT No. T-72074. When the respondent refused,
    complainant institute this disbarment case.

    In his Comment, the respondent admitted most of the complaint, however, denied that there
    were deceit on his part insisting the he clearly outlined the available procedure for the transfer of title
    and afforded complainant the opportunity to think about the options.

    ISSUE: WON the actions of the respondent constituted malpractice, deceit or gross misconduct.

    HELD:

    Yes, the actions of the respondent constituted malpractice, deceit or gross misconduct.

    A lawyer shall uphold the constitution, obey the laws of the land and promote respect for law
    and legal processes. He shall not engage in unlawful, dishonest, immoral or deceitful conduct; or counsel
    or abet activities aimed at a defiance of the law or at a lessening of confidence in the legal system. A
    lawyer should advise his client to uphold the law, not to violate or disobey it. Conversely, he should not
    recommend to his client any recourse or remedy that is contrary to law, public policy, public order, and
    public morals.

    In this case, although the respondent outlined the “ordinary procedure” of an extrajudicial
    settlement of estate as means of transferring title, he also proposed the option of “direct registration”
    despite fully aware that such option was actually a shortcut intended to circumvent the law, and thus
    patently contrary to law. Hence, would bypass the immediate heirs of their grandparents (i.e. her
    parents and her co-heirs parents). The proposal of direct registration was unquestionably unlawful,
    immoral, and deceitful all at once. Likewise, he made the proposal despite its patent illegality in order to
    take advantage of the complainant’s limited legal knowledge of the regular procedures for the transfer of
    title under circumstances of intestacy.

    Hence, by reason of the foregoing, the respondent is suspended from practice of law for one (1)
    year.

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