My frustrations with SCRA guys and Rex

The SCRA guys are professors who cite only the SCRA number after the names of the parties to the case instead of the G.R. number in the cases they list in their syllabus. Another group of SCRA guys are the law book authors who do the same in their citations.

When I first went to law school ages ago - when Constitutional Law meant the Marcos constitution - the main source of jurisprudence would be the SCRA.

Since I went to a non-"Ivy League" law school it meant there were, at most, only one copy for each volume of SCRA. And you can imagine the queue for that one volume in order to hand-copy the assigned reading. Or another queue to have it xeroxed at the lone copier in the law school.

When I went back to law school - this time at an almost-"Ivy League" school - Lawphil and ChanRobles were the new game in town for sourcing jurisprudence. The virtual library of the Supreme Court is also a good source but its database is sparse. The new game is game changing indeed. 

One caveat, though, about Lawphil and ChanRobles: their copies of jurisprudence are riddled with typos in almost the same places which make one think that they have outsourced their transcription from the same people. Or their source simply OCRed their printed cases as can be judged by the kinds of typos usually resulting from OCR softwares.

Of course, if you miss the Same, same format of the SCRA you can always go to the library because nowadays the queue is not there anymore. It seems everyone would rather go to Lawphil or ChanRobles while keeping tab with friends via FB.

If the professor only cites the SCRA number and the names of the parties to the lawsuit are commonplace, you're in trouble. You'll end up bringing and reporting in class the wrong case. 

A major source of frustration for me is when the book I am reading at home cites only the SCRA. My reading flow is interrupted when I can't get back immediately to the book because of the time googling the jurisprudence. 

Now I can understand if Justice Isagani Cruz in his  fine books  refers only to SCRA in most of his citations because his publisher is also the publisher of the SCRA. But I am disappointed when books published by Rex also in many places only cite the SCRA. 

Pp vs Lawas: a metamorphosis

In my last post I mentioned in passing the problem  of referring to an unreported SC decision.

Such is the case of People vs Lawas which is listed down as G.R. Nos. L-7618-7620 and supposedly to be found in 97 Phil. 975 but which is nowhere to be found in Lawphil or in Chan Robles.

The earliest citation available on the internet would be Pp vs Remollino, GR No. L-14008 which was decided by Justice Paredes on Sept. 30, 1960. The citation does not mention any personalities:

In Pp vs Caldito, GR 78432-33, Feb. 9, 1990 the characters involved in the case emerged:

In Pp vs Palomar, GR 108183-85, Aug 21, 1997, Justice Panganiban provided additional identification of the Home Guards:

But in Pp vs Elarcosa, GR No. 186539, June 29, 2010 even Justice Velasco seemed to be confused by the personalities:

Such is the problem with unreported decisions.

Boado vs SC: conspiracy or no

On page 262 of Notes and Cases on the Revised Penal Code, 2012 Ed. by Leonor Boado, we find the following passage:

The author was discussing an example of separate acts that constitute a complex crime. Unfortunately she chose the case of Lawas, 97 Phil. 975. Lawas is a tough case to follow as there is no complete text available. It is only mentioned as unreported yet many SC decisions advert to it and a few problem may have resulted which will be a subject of a future post.

I think Boado quoted the above passage from Pp. vs Caldito, G.R. 78432-33. What's interesting is that she ended parenthetically by saying that it should have been a conspiracy. But the SC in Pp. vs Hon. Pineda, GR L-26222  said it was not:

Note: A typo in the above passage is courtesy of Lawphil.

Fell while lying

From Pp. vs Hon. Pineda:

Either Mendoza was sleep-walking or sleeping on his feet when hit. Or he was lying on the edge of a bed when he fell dead.