Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas

Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas
GR No. L-45358, January 29 1937

FACTS:

The chief of the secret service of the Anti-Usury Board, of the Department of Justice, presented to Judge Eduardo Gutierrez David, an affidavit alleging that according to reliable information, the petitioner kept in his house, books, documents, receipts, lists, chits and other papers used by him in connection with his activities as a money-lender charging usurious rates of interest in violation of the law. Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas

He did not swear to the truth of his statements upon his own knowledge of the facts but upon the information received by him from a reliable person.

Upon the affidavit in question the Judge, on said date, issued the warrant which is the subject matter of the petition.



With said warrant, several agents of the Anti-Usury Board entered the petitioner's store and residence at seven o'clock on the night, and seized and took possession of the following articles:

• internal revenue licenses for the years 1933 to 1936,
• one ledger,
• two journals,
• two cashbooks,
• nine order books,
• four notebooks,
• four checks stubs,
• two memorandums,
• three bankbooks,
• two contracts,
• four stubs,
• forty-eight stubs of purchases of copra,
• two inventories,
• two bundles of bills of lading,
• one bundle of credit receipts,
• one bundle of stubs of purchases of copra,
• two packages of correspondence,
• one receipt book belonging to Luis Fernandez,
• fourteen bundles of invoices and other papers many documents and loan contracts with security and promissory notes,
• 504 chits,
• promissory notes and stubs of used checks of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Read: People vs. Montilla
Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas
The search for and a seizure of said articles were made with the opposition of the petitioner who stated his protest below the inventories on the ground that the agents seized even the originals of the documents.



As the articles had not been brought immediately to the judge who issued the search warrant, the petitioner, through his attorney, filed a motion, praying that the agent, be ordered immediately to deposit all the seized articles in the office of the clerk of court and that said agent be declared guilty of contempt for having disobeyed the order of the court. Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas

ISSUE:

Whether or not there was a valid search and seizure. Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas
HELD:

No. Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas

That the search and seizure made are illegal for the following reasons:

(a) Because the warrant was based solely upon the affidavit of the petitioner who had no personal knowledge of the facts of probable cause, and

(b) because the warrant was issued for the sole purpose of seizing evidence which would later be used in the criminal proceedings that might be instituted against the petitioner, for violation of the Anti-Usury Law. Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas

Read: Prudente vs. Judge Dayrit

That as the warrant had been issued unreasonably, and as it does not appear positively in the affidavit that the articles were in the possession of the petitioner and in the place indicated, neither could the search and seizure be made at night. Alvarez vs. Court of First Instance of Tayabas

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