LOLITA HERNANDEZ LOY, COMPLAINANT, VS. DEPUTY SHERIFF WILLIAM BADEN, RESPONDENT.

On October 21, 1991, the Executive
Judge of the Regional Trial Court at Baguio City, Hon. Ruben C. Ayson, brought
to this Court’s attention the letter dated September 12, 1991 of Ms. Lolita
Hernandez Loy, accusing Deputy Sheriff William Baden, RTC, Branch III, Baguio
City, of serious irregularities in the auction sale, conducted in her absence,
of her real property covered by Transfer Certificate of Title No. T-23372.

It appears that in Civil
Case No. 9611-R of Branch III of the Regional Trial Court at Baguio City,
judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, Viola Macario, against the
defendants, the spouses Lolita Hernandez Loy and Johnny Loy. The decision commanded payment by the latter
to the former of the sum of P29,000.00. The judgment became executory and the property of Lolita Hernandez Loy
above described, covered by TCT No. T-­23372, was levied on to satisfy the
judgment.

At the execution sale
conducted by respondent Sheriff Baden on November 21, 1988, the highest bid was
submitted by one Clemente Gomoyod, in the amount of P242,000.00. Gomoyod’s written bid, addressed to Deputy
Sheriffs Baden and Alfonso V. Melgar, pertinently reads as follows:

“Please accept my Offer to Bid in the above Public Auction Sale in
the amount of P242,000.00, representing:

P 29,000.00 –          due to Viola Macario;

P203,000.00             –           as
payment of interest of Carmen Daclan of the property subject of the sale;

P 10,000.00             –           for expenses necessary in the auction
sale as publication, capital gains tax, etc.”

Submitted with this bid was another letter,
ostensibly from Carmen Daclan, also dated November 21, 1988, also addressed to
Sheriffs Baden and Melgar, and appearing on cursory examination to have been
typed on the same
typewritter as Gomoyod’s written bid, pertinently reading as follows:

“Relative to that Public Auction Sale of the above case, please be
informed that undersigned have pecuniary interest (sic) of the property subject
thereof in the sum of Two Hundred Three Thousand Pesos (P203,000.00),
Philippine currency.

The above sum represent and broken as follows, to wit (sic):

1. P 53,000.00 – representing amount paid to debt of
above-respondents;

2. P130,000.00 – representing amount
paid by undersigned to respondents for the execution of Conditional Sale of the
same property;

3. P 20,000.00 – representing arrears of city services
chargeable to the property which undersigned paid in behalf to respondent. (sic)

Please include the amount in the consideration of the above Public
Auction Sale so as for me to waive my rights over the property.” (sic)

Gomoyod
gave to Sheriff Baden the sum of P39,000.00 in cash, and as mentioned in his
written bid, undertook to deliver the balance of P203,000.00 to Carmen Daclan
whom he represented to be a creditor of Lolita Hernandez. Carmen Daclan confirmed that she indeed had
a money claim against Lolita Hernandez and promised to present the
corresponding documents to Baden. Baden
then executed a certificate of sale in favor of Gomoyod on the following day,
November 22, 1988. Out of the
P39,000.00 accepted by him from Gomoyod, Baden paid P29,000.00 to the judgment
creditor, Viola Macario, and retained P10,000.00 apparently for “expenses
incurred in the publication, posting, registration and other miscellaneous
expenses” (respondent’s Comment dated October 19, 1991).

For
some reason, it was not until almost three (3) years later that Lolita
Hernandez complained to Executive Judge Ayson. As stated in this Resolution’s opening paragraph, Lolita Hernandez’s
letter-complaint was presented in September, 1991. Be this as it may, on the same day that he received Lolita
Hernandez’s complaint, Judge Ayson required Baden and Clerk of Court Delilah
Muñoz, Ex-Officio City Sheriff, to comment thereon within five (5) days. Judge Ayson also required Deputy Sheriff
Alfonso Melgar to “comment on the circumstances of your signing as a witness to
the Sheriff’s Certificate of Sale.”

Clerk
of Court Muñoz’s comment made clear her lack of complicity in the transactions
in question, since she commenced to discharge her duties and functions as Clerk
of Court and Ex-Officio City Sheriff only on September 12, 1990. In his own comment, Sheriff Melgar asserted
that his participation in the auction sale was limited to being attestor,
because physically present at said sale, of Sheriff Baden’s signature on the
Certificate of Sale, and that he had “no personal knowledge as to the
disposition of the proceeds of the auction sale ** (nor) as to the remittance
by the highest bidder of the bid amount **.”

In
the Comment submitted by him under date of 19 October 1991, respondent Baden
admitted all the foregoing facts, and further stated the following:

“Thereafter (i.e., after the sale on November 21, 1988), the
claimant Carmen Daclan submitted a Deed of conditional Sale dated 27 June 1986
between herself as the Buyer and Lolita Hernandez as the Seller, of a parcel of
land covered by TCT No. T-23372, the same parcel of land subject of the auction
sale. Coupled therewith is a Certification
execut(ed) by Tommy Fernandez, Mary
Ligawen, Theresa Cadangen, and Corazon Ahyin Wong, dated 18 November 1988,
allegedly witnessing the delivery of FIFTY THREE THOUSAND (P53,000.00) PESOS
cash, by Carmen Daclan to Lolita Hernandez on 22 August 1984.

A perusal of the said documents presented however, would show that
it is Carmen Daclan who seems to be indebted to Lolita Hernandez, considering
that she is the installment buyer and has to pay the balance within a certain period of time. It appears that there is no formal nor
implied rescission of the same. The
Certificate only states, in essence, that they saw the delivery of money from Carmen Daclan to Lolita
Hernandez, who, in the same instance, handed it over to Corazon Ahyin Wong,
without stating for what purpose is the money for or what it its relation to
the case at bar. Thus, despite the
repeated insistence of Clemente Gomoyod and/or Carmen Daclan, their agents and
representatives to issue a Writ of Possession and/or Sheriff’s Final
Certificate of Sale, the undersigned refused, and the same has not yet been
issued to the present.

To the knowledge of the undersigned, there is a pending case in the
Regional Trial Court of baguio City, seeking the nullification of the
above-stated Sheriff’s Certificate of Sale.

The undersigned would like to make it of record that while he had
been employed with the Regional Trial Court for some time prior to the
above-stated auction sale, this was his first auction sale conducted as he was newly appointed as a Deputy Sheriff at said
time. Thus, he was assisted by one of
the veteran Deputy Sheriffs of the same Court, whose advise on the proceedings
was duly followed. Whatever lapses in
the procedure and in the documentation thereof may be taken as due to mistake
and excusable negligence, considering that he had no experience nor actual working knowledge thereof at said
time. Let it also be known, as I swear
to the truth hereof, that I have not in any way nor in any manner, received any
of the moneys that were remitted by virtue of said proceeding, nor any other
money in consideration thereof, except the legal sheriff’s expenses incurred in
the publication, posting and miscellaneous expenses thereon, duly supported by
the corresponding receipts.

In my present opinion, I sincerely believe that the above-described
auction sale be rendered nugatory due to the failure of the highest bidder to
tender in cash his bidded amount to the undersigned, and for the failure of
Carmen Dcalan to duly support her alleged claim on the property subject
thereof.”

The case is now before this Court, having as aforestated been
officially referred to it by Executive Judge Ayson.

The admissions of respondent Baden satisfactorily establish the
truth of the allegations of the letter-complaint of Ms. Lolita Hernandez. They make plain his deviation from the
procedure prescribed by the Rules of Court for execution sales. Said rules require sheriffs conducting
execution sales to demand payment in full of the price offered by the highest
bidder, and do not grant sheriffs any authority whatever to ascertain the
validity of claims thereon by third parties, much less to make dispositions
thereof according to their personal or unilateral discretion and judgment. Baden’s plea that the sale of November 21,
1988 was the very first conducted by him, and that after discovering his error,
he had spurned the repeated requests of Clemente Gomoyod and/or Carmen Daclan,
their agents and representatives that he execute a Writ of Possession and/or
Sheriff’s Final Certificate of Sale, and that actually, he has consistently
refused up to the present to issue said documents, may be deemed as mitigatory
or extenuating circumstances, but may not absolve him from liability for his
ignorance of the law governing execution sales and his reckless exercise of
functions as deputy sheriff.

As regards Clerk of Court Delilah Muñoz and Deputy Sheriff
Alfonso Melgar, the record discloses no cause for proceeding against either of
them, administratively or otherwise.

WHEREFORE, Deputy Sheriff William Baden, RTC Branch 6,
Baguio City, is found guilty of serious neglect of duty and is hereby sentenced
to suffer the penalty of SUSPENSION for one (1) month.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Cruz, Feliciano, Padilla, Bidin, Griño-Aquino, Regalado,
Davide, Jr., Romero, Nocon, Bellosillo, Melo, and
Quiason, JJ., concur.