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Us vs. Abad Santos Case Digest

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Angel Monique Villapaz
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69 views2 pages

Us vs. Abad Santos Case Digest

Uploaded by

Angel Monique Villapaz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TOPIC: CONSTRUCTION OF PENAL LAWS

CASE DIGEST

US VS. ABAD SANTOS (1917)

Facts:

Antonio Abad Santos owned a printing establishment named "The Excelsior." On January 5, 1915, Santos
was accused of violating the Internal Revenue Law. The violation involved failing to make a required
entry in a day book as mandated by Circular No. 467 issued by the Collector of Internal Revenue. This
regulation required certain businesses to keep a day book where all cash receipts were recorded within
24 hours of receipt. The pages of this book had to be numbered serially and approved by an internal
revenue agent before use. Santos was convicted in the lower court and sentenced to pay a fine of P10.
Santos appealed, arguing that the omission was due to his bookkeeper's failure to make the entry, of
which he had no knowledge or involvement. The appellant was represented by Quirino Abad Santos,
while the appellee was represented by Attorney-General Avancea.

Issue:

1. WON a person be held criminally liable for the acts or omissions of another, specifically a
bookkeeper, committed without their knowledge or consent?

RULING.

1. NO.
The court ruled to reverse the judgment of conviction and acquitted Antonio Abad Santos. The
court ordered that the costs be de officio.

Criminal liability cannot be imposed on one person for the acts of another without clear
legislative intent. Criminal statutes must be strictly construed. There was no explicit provision in
the Internal Revenue Law or the circular that held a business owner criminally liable for the
omissions of an employee without the owner's knowledge or consent. Santos had employed a
bookkeeper to handle the entries and had no knowledge of the omission. There was no
evidence to suggest that Santos directed or connived with the bookkeeper to omit the entry.
The court cited the case of S. U. vs. Madrigal, 27 Phil. Rep., 347, to support its stance on the
strict construction of criminal statutes.

Penal laws are strictly construed against the Government and liberally in favor of the accused.
(U.S. vs. Abad Santos, 36 Phil. 243; People vs. Yu Hai, 99 Phil. 728) The rule that penal statutes
should be strictly construed against the State may be invoked only where the law is
ambiguous and there is doubt as to its interpretation. Where the law is clear and
unambiguous, there is no room for the application of the rule.
Section 185 of Act No. 2339 (now section 2727 of the Administrative Code) reads as follows:

A person who violates any provision of the Internal Revenue Law or any lawful regulation of
the Bureau of Internal Revenue made in conformity with the same, for which delinquency no
specific penalty is provided by law, shall be punished by a fine of not more than three
hundred pesos or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.

Pursuant to the authorization in the Internal Revenue Law, the Collector of Internal Revenue issued
Circular No. 467, the third section of which reads as follows:

3. Printers, publishers, contractors, common carriers, etc. — Each printer, publisher,


contractor, warehouseman, proprietor of a dockyard, keeper of a hotel or restaurant, keeper
of a livery stable or garage, transportation contractor and common carrier by land or water,
and so forth, subject to the tax imposed by sections 42, 43, and 44 of Act No. 2339, shall
keep a day book in which he shall enter in detail, in English or Spanish, each amount of
money received in the conduct of his business. Before being used for said purpose, the
pages of the book must be numbered serially in a permanent and legible manner, and the
book itself presented to an internal revenue agent or office for approval. In this book the cash
receipts of the owner thereof shall be entered under the corresponding date within the
twenty-four hours next following the date the money was received. If no money is received
on any day, then that fact shall be noted in the book within the said twenty-four hours under
the corresponding date.

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