STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION NOTES
MODULE 6 REVIEWER: LITERAL INTERPRETATION AND DEPARTURE
A. Literal Interpretation
1. Verba Legis
Literal meaning or plain-meaning rule
• If statute is clear, plain, and free from ambiguity, it must
be given its literal meaning and applied without
attempted interpretation.
• Maxim: index animi sermo – speech is the index of
intention
o Words employed by the legislature in a statute
correctly express its intent or will.
o Preclude the court from construing it
differently.
• Maxim: verbal legis non est recedendum – from the
words of a statute there should be no departure.
o When the words and phrases of a statute are
clear and unequivocal, their meaning must be
determined from the language employed and
the statute must be taken to mean exactly
what it says.
o What is not clearly provided in the law cannot
be extended to those matters outside its
scope.
o Courts must administer the law, not as they
think it ought to be but as they find it and
without regard to consequences.
• Maxim: Maledicta est exposition quae corrumpit
textum – dangerous construction which is against the
text.
2. Dura Lex Sed Lex
• The law may be harsh, but it is still the law.
• Maxim: absoluta sententia expositore non indiget –
when the language of the law is clear, no explanation
of it is required.
o When the law is clear, it is not susceptible of
interpretation. It must be applied regardless of
who may be affected, even if it may be harsh
or onerous.
• Maxim: Hoc quidem perquam durum est, sed ital ex
scripta est – it is exceedingly hard but so the law is
written.
o If the law is clear and free from doubt, it is the
sworn duty of the court to apply it without fear
or favor, to follow its mandate, and not to
tamper with it.
• Law is law. If there is a need to change the law, amend
or repeal it, remedy may be done through a legislative
process, not by judicial decree.
• If law is clear, appeals to justice and equity as
justification to construe it differently are unavailing.
o Equity is available only in the absence of law
and not its replacement.
 Equity is described as justice outside
legality - it cannot supplant but may
supplement the law.
 Maxim: Aequitas nunquam
contravenit legis – equity never
acts in contravention of the law
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B. Departure from Literal Interpretation
1. Statutes must be capable of interpretation
Statute must be capable of interpretation,
otherwise inoperative.
• The court must use every authorized means. to
ascertain the intent of the statute and give it an
intelligible meaning.
• May depart from the language of the statute to
enable it to effectuate legislative intent and
purpose.
• If no judicial certainty can be had as to its
meaning, the court is not at liberty to supply nor
to make one.
2. Ratio Legis Et Anima
What is within the spirit is within the law.
• Maxim: reason of the law is its soul
• Don’t literally construe the law if it will render it
meaningless, lead to ambiguity, injustice, or
contradiction.
• The spirit or intent of the law prevails over the letter.
o The court looks less to its words and more to
its context, subject matter, consequence, and
effect.
• Intent of the statute is the law.
o Intent is the spirit which gives life to a
legislative enactment.
o Follow the true intent of the legislature and
adopt that sense which harmonizes best with
the context.
• Presumption: Undesirable consequences were never
intended by a legislative measure.
3. Literal import must yield to intent
• The intention of the legislature and its purpose or
object, being the fundamental inquiry in judicial
construction, control the literal interpretation of
particular language of a statute.
• Maxim: verba intentioni, non e contra, debent
inservire – words ought to be more subservient to the
intent and not the intent to the words
• Provisions of a statute that are difficult to harmonize –
it is the duty of the court to choose between conflicting
theories that which best accords with the spirit or intent
of the law.
• Guide in ascertaining intent: conscience and equity
• Where the interpretation of a statute in exact and literal
import would lead to mischievous results or contravene
the clear purpose of the legislature, it is construed
based on its spirit and reason.
Limitation to Rule.
• Construe intent over letter rule: only when there is
ambiguity in the language employed in the law.
• Law is clear and free from ambiguity; the letter of the
law is not to be disregarded on the pretext of pursuing
its spirit.
 STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION NOTES
MODULE 6 REVIEWER: LITERAL INTERPRETATION AND DEPARTURE
Construction to accomplish purpose.
• Purpose or Reason: key to open the door of the
legislative has intended.
• Statutes should be construed in the light of the object
to be achieved and the evil or mischief to be
suppressed.
• Statutes with more than one construction: the one that
gives effect to evident purpose sought to be attained
by the enactment of the statute must be followed.
4. Cessante ratione legis, cessat et ipsa lex
• Maxim: When the reason for a law ceases, the law itself
ceases
• The reason which induced the legislature to enact a law is
the heart of the law.
• A lifeless law is a dead law.
• A subsequent statute may render a prior law devoid of
reason. The later law will operate to repeal the prior law,
even though the two laws contain no conflicting provisions.
5. Supplying Legislative Omission
• Court may supply the omission to conform to the obvious
intent of the legislature or to prevent the act from being
absurd.
• The court cannot supply what it thinks the legislature would
have supplied had its attention been called to the omission,
as that would be judicial legislation.
Correcting Clerical Errors
• To carry out the intent of the legislature, the court may
correct clerical errors, mistakes, or misprints which, if
uncorrected, would render the statute meaningless,
empty, or nonsensical or would defeat or impair its
intended operation.
• If the meaning intended is apparent on the face of the
whole enactment and no specific provision is
abrogated.
• This is not judicial legislation.
Qualification of Rule
• Courts may correct: clearly clerical errors or obvious
mistakes, omissions, and misprints
• Judicial legislation in the guise of interpretation: to
rewrite the law and invade the domain of the
legislature.
6. Construction to avoid absurdity
• Courts may:
o Not to give a statute a meaning that would
lead to absurdities.
o supply or omit the words from a statute in
order to prevent an absurd result.
• Reason: it is always presumed that the legislature
intended exceptions to its language which would avoid
consequences of this character.
• Maxim: Interpretation talis in ambiguis simper
fienda est ut evitetur inconveniens et absurdum –
where there is ambiguity, such interpretation as will
avoid inconvenience and absurdity is to be adopted.
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• Courts test the law by its results – if law appears to be
arbitrary, courts are not bound to apply it in slavish
disobedience to its language.
• Courts should construe a statute to effectuate, and not
to defeat, its provisions; nor render compliance with its
provisions impossible to perform.
7. Construction in favor of the right and justice
• Art. 10 CC: In case of doubt in the interpretation or
application of laws, it is presumed that the law-making
body intended right and justice to prevail.
• Art. 9 CC: The fact that a statute is silent, obscure, or
insufficient with respect to a question before the court
will not justify the latter from declining to render
judgment thereon.
• Maxim: Jure naturae aequum est ne'minem cum
alterius detrimento et injuria fieri locupletiorem - It
is the law of nature that one should not be enriched by
the loss or injury to another.
• In balancing conflicting solutions, that one is perceived
to tip the scales which the court believes will best
promote the public welfare is its probable operation as
a general rule or principle.
8. Law does not require the impossible
• Maxim: Nemo tenetur ad impossible – the law
obliges no one to perform an impossibility.
• Maxim: Impossibilium nulla obligatio est – no
obligation to do an impossible thing.
• A statute may not be so construed as to require
compliance with what it prescribes cannot, at the time,
be legally accomplished.
• It should instead be construed in such a way that
substantial compliance with what the law requires is
sufficient.
• Impossible compliance versus Substantial compliance
(as required by law).
9. Number and Gender of Words
• When the context of a statute so indicates, words in
plural include the singular, and vice versa.
• A plural word in a statute may thus apply to a singular
person or thing, just as a singular word may embrace
two or more persons or things.
• Art. 996 CC (law on succession): such article also
applies to a situation where there is only one child
because “children” includes “child.”
• Election Code: “candidate” comprehends “some
candidates” or “all candidates.”
• On gender: the masculine, but not the feminine,
includes all genders, unless the context in which the
word is used in the statute indicates otherwise.