RULE 130 RULES OF ADMISSIBILITY DEFINITIONS/REQUISITES/EXCEPTIONS

Question 1

Factum probandum

Answer 1

a. Factum probandum – ultimate fact or the fact sought to be established

Question 2

Factum probans

Answer 2

b. Factum probans – evidentiary fact or the fact by which the factum probandum is to be established

Question 3

Classification of evidence

Answer 3

a. Object (Real)
b. Relevant
c. Direct
d. Cumulative
e. Prima facie
f. Primary or Best

Question 4

Exceptions to Best Evidence Rule

Answer 4

A. Original is lost or destroyed, or cannot be produced in court without bad faith on the part of the offeror;

b. When the original is in the custody of the party against whom the evidence is offered, and the latter fails to produce it after reasonable notice;
c. When the original consists of numerous accounts or other documents which cannot be examined in court without great loss of time and the only fact sought to be established is the general result of the whole; and
d. When the original is a public record in the custody of a public officer or is recorded in a public office.

Question 5

Meaning of “original” document

Answer 5

a. The one the contents of which are the subject of an inquiry

b. If in 2 or more copies executed:
ii. At or about the same time; AND
iii. With identical contents
 Then all copies are originals

c. If entry is
i. Repeated in regular course of business, with
ii. One being copied from another;
iii. At or near the time of the transaction,
 Then all entries are originals

Question 6

If original COPY OF EVIDENCE is unavailable:

Answer 6

Order of proof (but can be changed at court’s discretion):

a. Existence

b. Execution: Established by
i. Person who executed it;
ii. The person before whom its execution was acknowledged
iii. Any person who was present and saw it executed, and recognized the signature;
iv. Any person to whom the parties to the instrument had previously confessed the execution thereof

c. Loss or Destruction
 If there are several original copies, all copies must be accounted for before secondary evidence may be received.

d. Contents

Question 7

Proof of Contents of Lost Original or Original in custody/control of adverse party (Secondary Evidence) – in order stated:

Answer 7

a. A copy
b. A recital of its contents in an authentic document
c. Testimony of witnesses

Question 8

What must be proven if original in possession of adverse party

Answer 8

a. Opponent’s possession of original
b. Reasonable notice to opponent to produce the original
c. Satisfactory proof of its existence

d. Failure or refusal of opponent to produce original in court
 By opponent’s failure to produce the document on demand, he is now forbidden to produce the document in order to contradict the other party’s copy/evidence of its contents

Question 9

Exceptions to the Parol Evidence Rule: when a party puts in issue in his pleadings: [FIVE]

Answer 9

a. Intrinsic ambiguity, mistake or imperfection in the written agreement
b. Failure of the written agreement to express the true intent of the parties;
c. Validity of the written agreement; OR
d. Existence of other terms agreed upon subsequent to the execution of the written agreement

NOTE: Parol = evidence aliunde whether oral or written which tends to deny or contradict documented agreement.

A “Receipt” or a “Deed” is not an exclusive memorial and facts contained therein may be shown irrespective of the terms of the document.

 Distinction must be made between “statements of fact” expressed in an instrument and the “terms” of the contractual act. The former may be varied by parol evidence.

Question 10

QUALIFICATION OF WITNESSES

Answer 10

Persons Disqualified from becoming witnesses due to mental incapacity or immaturity:

a. Those whose mental condition, at the time of their production for examination, is such that they are incapable of intelligently making known their perceptions to others; or
 A mental retardate is not, for this reason alone, disqualified from being a witness.

b. Children whose mental maturity is such as to render them incapable of perceiving the facts respecting which they are examined and of relating them truthfully.

Question 11

MARITAL DISQUALIFICATION RULE

Answer 11

. Marital Disqualification

 Wife may testify against the husband in a criminal case for falsification, where the husband made it appear that the wife gave her consent to the sale of a conjugal house (considered as a crime committed against the wife)

 If husband-accused defends himself by imputing the crime to the wife, he is deemed to have waived all objections to the wife’s testimony against him.

Question 12

DEAD MAN’S STATUTE

[PACO]

Answer 12

Requisites for Application of Dead Man’s Statute [PACO]

a. The witness is a Party or assignor of a party to a case, or of a person on whose behalf a case is prosecuted;
 Dead Man Statute not applicable to a corporation’s officers and stockholders in a suit instituted by the corporation. Thus, the officers and stockholders may testify.

b. The action is Against an executor, administrator or other representative of a deceased person, or against a person of unsound mind;
 Heirs of deceased person are considered “representatives” of a deceased person.

c. The subject matter of the action is a Claim or demand against the estate of such deceased person, or against such person of unsound mind;
d. The testimony refers to any matter of Fact occurring before the death of such deceased person, or before such person became of unsound mind.

Question 13

Kinds of Privileged Communications:

Answer 13

a. Marital privilege
b. Attorney-client
c. Doctor-patient
d. Priest-Penitent
e. Public Officer’s Privilege

Question 14

Requisites for Marital Privilege

Answer 14

a. Valid marital relation must have existed
b. Privilege is claimed with respect to a communication made by one spouse to another during the marriage;
c. Communication was made in confidence

Question 15

Attorney-Client Privilege

Answer 15

a. There is an attorney-client relationship
b. There is a communication made by the client to the attorney
c. Such communication was made in the course of, or with a view to, professional employment

 Extends to attorney’s secretary, stenographer or clerk; requires consent of both employer and the client to testify as to matters learned in their professional capacity

Question 16

Attorney-Client Privilege

 Exceptions:

Answer 16

i. Actions brought by client against his attorney
ii. Communications made in presence of third persons
iii. Communications regarding an intended crime

Question 17

5. Requisites for Physician-Patient privilege [CRANB]

Answer 17

a. The action is a Civil case
b. The Relation of physician-patient existed
c. The information was Acquired by the physician while attending to the patient in his professional capacity
d. The information was Necessary for the performance of his professional duty
e. The disclosure of the information would tend to Blacken the character of the patient

 A patient’s husband is not prohibited from testifying on a report prepared by his wife’s psychiatrist since he is not the treating physician (although it would be hearsay)

 A physician is not prohibited from giving expert testimony in response to a strictly hypothetical question in a lawsuit involving the physical or mental condition of a patient he has treated professionally.

Question 18

Requisites for Priest-Penitent Privilege

Answer 18

a. Confession was made or advice given by the priest in his professional character in the course of the discipline enjoined by the church to which the priest or minister belongs;
b. The confession must be confidential and penitent in character

Question 19

Requisites for Public Officer’s Privilege

Answer 19

a. Communication made to a public officer in official confidence
b. Public interest would suffer by the disclosure

Question 20

“Newsman’s privilege”

Answer 20

“Newsman’s privilege”

a publisher, editor, columnist or duly accredited reporter cannot be compelled to disclose the source of news report or information appearing in the publication which is related in confidence, the disclosure of which is not demanded by the security of the state.

Question 21

Requisites for admissibility of an admission

Answer 21

a. Involves a matter of fact, not of law
b. Categorical and definite
c. Knowingly and voluntarily made
d. Adverse to the admitter’s interest, otherwise, self-serving and inadmissible as hearsay

Question 22

Requisites for Admission by Silence (Adaptive Admissions)

Answer 22

a. The party heard and understood the statement
b. He was at liberty to interpose a denial
c. Statement was with respect to some matter affecting his rights or in which he was then interested, and calling, naturally, for an answer
d. Facts were within his knowledge
e. Facts admitted or inference to be drawn from his silence is material to the issue

Question 23

Res inter alios acta alteri nocero non debet
FIRST BRANCH
SECTION 20

Answer 23

Section 20, the rights of a party cannot be prejudiced by an act, declaration or omission of another

Question 24

Res inter alios acta alteri nocero non debet EXCEPTIONS TO SECTION 20

Answer 24

 EXCEPTIONS:

where the third person is a partner, agent, joint owner, joint debtor or has a joint interest with the party, or is a co-conspirator or a privy of the party, during the existence of the partnership, conspiracy, etc. as established by evidence other than such act or declaration, or while holding title to property in relation to such

Question 25

Res inter alios acta alteri nocero non debet

SECOND BRANCH
SECTION 34

Answer 25

 Sec. 34, evidence that one did or did not do a certain thing at one time not admissible to prove that he did or did not do the same/similar thing at another time

Question 26

Res inter alios acta alteri nocero non debet

SECOND BRANCH
SECTION 34
EXCEPTION

[KISSHICUP]

Answer 26

Exceptions: [KISSHICUP]

it may be received to prove a specific intent or knowledge, identity, plan, system, scheme, habit, custom, or usage

Question 27

Admission by a Co-Partner or Agent

Answer 27

a. Partnership, agency or joint interest is established by evidence other than the act or declaration
b. Act or declaration is within the scope of the partnership, agency or joint interest
c. Act or declaration must have been made during the existence of the partnership, agency or joint interest

Question 28

Admission by Co-conspirator

Answer 28

 Requisites apply only to extrajudicial acts or statements, and not to testimony during trial

a. Conspiracy is shown by evidence other than the act or declaration
b. Admission was made during existence of the conspiracy
c. Admission relates to the conspiracy itself

 An extra-judicial confession of an accused is not admissible in evidence against his co-accused when the latter had not been given the opportunity to hear him testify and cross-examine him. Such confession is not admissible as an Admission by co-conspirator because it was made after the conspiracy had ended and after the commission of the crime.

Question 29

Admissions by Privies

Answer 29

a. Must be a relation of privity between the party and the declarant
b. Admission was made while declarant as predecessor in interest, while holding title to the property
c. Admission is in relation to said property

 HOWEVER, such evidence is still not admissible to contradict the terms of the written instrument

Question 30

HEARSAY RULE

Exceptions to hearsay rule

Answer 30

a. Dying declaration – ante mortem or in articulo mortis
b. Declaration against interest
c. Act or declaration against pedigree
d. Family reputation or traditions regarding pedigree
e. Common reputation
f. Res gestae
g. Entries in course of business
h. Entries in official records
i. Commercial lists and the like
j. Learned treatises
i. Court takes judicial notice; or
ii. Testified to by an expert
k. Testimony or deposition at a former proceeding

 Newspaper clippings are hearsay and have no evidentiary value unless substantiated by persons with personal knowledge of the facts.

Question 31

Doctrine of independently relevant statements

Answer 31

Independent of whether the facts stated are true, they are relevant since they are the facts in issue or are circumstantial evidence of the facts in issue

 Not covered by the hearsay rule

 Example: The statements or writings attributed to a person who is not on the witness stand are being offered, not to prove the truth of the facts stated therein, but only to prove that such statements were actually made or such writings were executed, or to prove the tenor thereof.

Question 32

Requisites of Declaration Against Interest

Answer 32

A. Declarant dead or unable to testify
 Mere absence from jurisdiction does not make declarant “unable to testify.” Exception contemplates that the declarant is dead, mentally incompetent or physically incapacitated

b. Declaration was against his own interest
c. Reasonable man in declarant’s position would not have made the declaration unless he believed it to be true

 Declarations by accused against his interest are inadmissible if done in violation of his constitutional rights

Question 33

Requisites of Act or Declaration about Pedigree

Answer 33

a. Declarant dead or unable to testify
b. Declarant is related to the person whose pedigree is in question
c. Made ante litem motam
d. Relationship between declarant and person whose pedigree is in question showed by evidence other than the declaration

Question 34

Requisites of Family Reputation/Tradition regarding Pedigree

Answer 34

a. Reputation or tradition exists in family of person whose pedigree is in question
b. Reputation or tradition existed previous to the controversy
c. Witness testifying thereon is a surviving member of that family, by either affinity or consanguinity

 A person’s statement as to the date of his birth and age, as he learned of these from his parents or relatives, is an ante litem motam declaration of family reputation.

Question 35

Requisites of Common Reputation

Answer 35

a. Facts to which the reputation refers are of public or general interest
b. Reputation is ancient (or more than 30 years old)
c. Reputation must have been formed among a class of persons who were in a position to have some sources of information and to contribute intelligently to the formation of the opinion
d. Reputation must exist ante litem motam

 HOWEVER, if the reputation concerns marriage or moral character, the requisite that the reputation must be ancient does NOT apply

Question 36

Requisites of Dying Declarations

Answer 36

A. Declaration must concern cause and surrounding circumstances of declarant’s death
 Cannot be admitted to establish fact of robbery; strictly limited to criminal prosecutions for homicide/murder as evidence of the cause and surrounding circumstances of the death

b. Declaration was made under consciousness of impending death
c. Declaration was freely and voluntarily made
d. Declarant’s testimony, if alive, would have been competent (eg: dying declaration would not be admissible if it consisted of hearsay, or of the declarant’s opinion)

Question 37

Res gestae

 2 kinds/classes

Answer 37

Spontaneous statements;

Verbal acts

Question 38

Res gestae
Spontaneous statements;
 Requisites:

Answer 38

Spontaneous statements;
 Requisites:

i. There is a startling occurrence
ii. Statement must relate to the circumstances of the occurrence
iii. Statement is unconscious and unpremeditated

Question 39

Res gestae

Verbal acts:
 Requisites:

Answer 39

i. Res gestae or principal act must be equivocal
ii. Act material to issue
iii. Statements must accompany equivocal act
iv. Statements must give legal significance to equivocal act

Question 40

Requisites of Entries in the course of business

Answer 40

a. Entrant is deceased or unable to testify
b. Entries made at or near the time of the transaction to which they relate
c. Entries made by entrant in his professional capacity or in the performance of a duty
d. Entries were made in the ordinary or regular course of business
e. Entrant must have been in a position to know the facts therein stated

 Heirs of Conti vs. CA - baptismal certificates are admissible as entries in the ordinary course of business, even absent the testimony of the officiating priest or official recorder

Question 41

11. Requisites of Entries in official records

Answer 41

a. Entry was made by public officer of the Philippines or by a person especially enjoined by law to make such entry
b. Entry was made in the performance of entrant’s duty
c. Entrant must have been in a position to know the facts therein stated

 Baptismal certificates or parochial records are not public or official records and are not proof of relationship or filiation of the child baptized.

Question 42

Requisites of Testimony or Deposition in former proceeding

Answer 42

a. Witness whose testimony is offered is dead or unable to testify
b. Party against whom the evidence is offered, or his privy, was a party to the former case or proceeding, judicial or administrative
c. Testimony or deposition relates to the same subject matter
d. Adverse party had opportunity to cross-examine

 Testimony given during preliminary investigation where the defense had the opportunity to cross-examine the unavailable witness is admissible in the criminal case

Question 43

. Modes of Extra-judicial Identification of Accused

Answer 43

a. Show-ups
b. Mug shots
c. Line-ups

Question 44

. Modes of Extra-judicial Identification of Accused

a. Show-ups –

Answer 44

where accused alone is brought face-to-face with the witness for identification

Question 45

. Modes of Extra-judicial Identification of Accused

b. Mug shots

Answer 45

b. Mug shots – where photographs are shown to the witness for identification

Question 46

. Modes of Extra-judicial Identification of Accused

c. Line-ups –

Answer 46

c. Line-ups – where a witness identifies the suspect from a group of persons lined up for the purpose

Question 47

The SC approved an additional exception to the hearsay rule in its A.M. no. 00-4-07-SC approving the Proposed Rule on Examination of a Child Witness.*

Answer 47

A statement made by a child describing any act or attempted act of child abuse NOT otherwise admissible under the hearsay rule, may be admitted in evidence in any criminal or non-criminal proceeding subject to the following rules:

a. Before such statement may be admitted, its proponent shall make known to the adverse party the intention to offer such statement and its particulars to allow him an opportunity to object.

ii. If the child is available
 The court shall require the child to be present at the presentation of the hearsay statement for cross-examination by the adverse party.

iii. If the child is unavailable
 The fact of such circumstance must be proved by the proponent.

Question 48

DEAD MAN’S RULE

EXCEPTION

Answer 48

 Not covered by the Rule:

i. Counterclaim by defendant (plaintiff may testify in his defense)
ii. Deceased contracted with plaintiff thru an agent of the deceased/insane (in the contract which is the subject of the action) who is still alive and can testify (but the testimony is limited to the acts performed by the agent)
iii. If adverse party is called as a witness by the representative of the deceased/incompetent or if representative introduced evidence as to the transactions or communications with the deceased/incompetent
iv. To cadastral proceedings, where there is no defendant or plaintiff

Question 49

Kinds of Privileged Communications:

Answer 49

a. Marital privilege
b. Attorney-client
c. Doctor-patient
d. Priest-Penitent
e. Public Officer’s Privilege

Question 50

Factors to be considered in determining spontaneity of statement:

Answer 50

i. Time that elapsed between occurrence and the making of the statement

ii. Place where statement was made
iii. Condition of the declarant when he made the statement

iv. Presence or absence of intervening occurrences between the occurrence and the statement
v. Nature and circumstances of the statement itself

Question 51

The SC approved an additional exception to the hearsay rule in its A.M. no. 00-4-07-SC approving the Proposed Rule on Examination of a Child Witness.*

In ruling on the admissibility of such hearsay statement, the court shall consider the time, content and circumstances thereof which provide sufficient indicia of reliability. It shall consider the following factors:

Answer 51

i. Whether there is a motive to lie
ii. The general character of the declarant child
iii. Whether more than one person heard the statement
iv. Whether the statement was spontaneous
v. The timing of the statement and the relationship between the declarant child and witness.
vi. Cross-examination could not show the lack of knowledge of the declarant child.
vii. The possibility of faulty recollection of the declarant child;
viii. The circumstances surrounding the statement are such that there is no reason to suppose the declarant child misrepresented the involvement of the accused.

Question 52

The child witness shall be considered unavailable in the following situations:

Answer 52

i. Is deceased, suffers from physical infirmity, lack of memory, mental illness or will be exposed to severe psychological injury;
ii. Is absent from the hearing and the proponent of his statement has been unable to procure his attendance by process or other reasonable means.

Question 53

When the child witness is unavailable, his hearsay testimony shall be admitted only if

Answer 53

corroborated by other admissible evidence.