CASTANEDA vs.

AGO, GR NO L-28546, 7/30/1975

FACTS:

In 1955, petitioners Venancio Castaneda and Nicetas Henson filed a replevin suit against Pastor
Ago to recover certain machineries. Judgment was rendered ordering Pastor Ago (respondent) to deliver
personal properties or pay sums of money to the plaintiffs. Then, levy was made on Ago’s house and lots,
and auction was scheduled. Thereafter, sheriff was able to sell the house and lots and awarded them to
the petitioners as highest bidders. However, on May 2, 1964 Ago and his wife filed an action to annul the
sheriff’s sale on the ground that the obligation upon which judgment had been rendered against Ago
was his personal obligation that could not legally affect his wife’s half-share in their conjugal house and
lot levied upon and sold for the satisfaction of judgment. While the case was pending Agos filed a
petition for certiorari and prohibition with the Court under date of May 26, 1966, which was
subsequently denied. Thus, Ago filed on August 2, 1966 a similar petition for certiorari and prohibition
with the court of appeals. The Court of Appeals dismissed the petition.

ISSUES:

Whether or not respondent’s is liable for misconduct.

HELD:

Yes, the respondent is liable for misconduct because the respondents, with the assistance of
counsel, maneuvered for 14 years to doggedly resist execution of the judgement through manifold
tactics in and from one court to another. The courts are sanctuaries for those who seek justice, however,
they tried to use them to subvert the very ends of justice. Where counsel has allowed himself to become
an instigator of controversy and a predator of conflict instead of a mediator for concord and a conciliator
for compromise, a virtuoso of technicality in the conduct of litigation instead of a true exponent of the
primacy of truth and moral justice, he has forgotten his sacred mission as a sworn public servant and his
exalted position as an officer of the court. Hence, the respondent’s counsel Atty. Jose M Luison is liable
for misconduct.