file:cvpro_part_3_ij.htm

10.  Contempt

Contempt of court is a defiance of the authority, justice or dignity of the
court, such conduct as tends to bring the authority and administration of the
law into disrespect of, to interfere with, or prejudice parties litigant or
their witnesses during litigation. It is defined as a disobedience to the court
by setting up an opposition to its authority, justice and dignity. It signifies
not only a willful disregard or disobedience to the court’s order but such
conduct as tends to bring the authority of the court and the administration of
law into disrepute or in some manner to impede the due administration of
justice.486

1. Two (2) kinds of Contempt

(Refer to the Table of Differences Between Direct and Indirect Contempt, infra)

2. Two (2) Aspects of Contempt

2.1 Civil Contempt is the failure to do something
ordered to be done by a court or a judge for the benefit of the opposing party
therein.487

2.2 Criminal Contempt is conduct directed against
the authority and dignity of a court or of a judge, as in unlawfully assailing
or discrediting the authority and dignity of a court or a judge or in doing a
forbidden act.488

Note: A criminal contempt proceeding is in the
nature of a criminal or quasi-criminal action and, therefore, punitive in
nature. A civil contempt proceeding is remedial and civil in nature.

3. Decisions

3.1 The violation of a TRO issued by the SEC or
any quasi-judicial tribunal is criminal contempt so that acquittal of the
respondents is unappealable.489

3.2 A writ of execution issued by a court after
five (5) years from entry of final judgment is void and disobedience thereto
does not constitute indirect contempt.490

4. Necessity of Hearing

Previous hearing is required under Rule 71, Section 3 of the Revised Rules
of Court, where an arrest and the subsequent detention of petitioner for her
failure to appear at a hearing set by the trial judge is based on the
commission of an indirect contempt. Without that hearing, the order violated
the rules and deprived the petitioner of her liberty without due process.491

Where a lawyer fails to obey a subpoena and likewise committed direct
contempt for having disturbed the preliminary examination being conducted by
the judge by repeatedly driving his jeep and honking its horn in the vicinity
of the court session hall for which the lawyer was ordered arrested and
confined in jail, the judge should issue a separate order for such direct
contempt, and another order requiring the lawyer to show cause why he should
not be punished for disobedience to its process, to give the lawyer a chance to
explain his failure to appear as a witness.492

5. Contempt by non-party

Generally, no contempt is committed by one not a party to the case. The
remedy against such person is either a civil or criminal action.493 However, persons who are not parties in
a proceeding may be declared guilty of contempt for willful violation of an
order issued in a case if said persons are guilty of conspiracy with any one of
the parties in violating the Court’s order.494

6. Power to punish for contempt to be exercised in
preservative not vindictive principle; what constitutes
disobedience

Only in cases of
clear and contumacious refusal to obey should the power be exercised. A bona
fide misunderstanding of the terms of the order or of the procedural rules
should not immediately cause the institution of contempt proceedings. ‘The
power to punish for contempt of court should be exercised on the preservative
and not on the vindictive principle. Only occasionally should the court invoke
its inherent power in order to retain the respect without which the
administration of justice must falter or fail. Such power being drastic and
extraordinary in its nature xxx should not be resorted to xxx unless necessary
in the interest of justice.495