PHILIPPINE LAW JOURNAL

Published monthly, August to April inclusive. during the academic year, by the alumni and students of the College of Law, University of the Philippines.

Jorge Bocobo, Acting Dean of the College of Law.

Quintin Paredes, Professorial Lecturer on Criminal Law.

Enrique Altavas, Lecturer on Land Registration and Mortgages.

We open the eighth academic year of the College of Law, University of the Philippines, with more changes in the faculty than have taken place since the College was founded.

We lose the valuable services of Professor Conant, Judge Goldsborough, and Professor Hilado. Professor Conant, who has been at the Harvard Law School working for his Doctor's Degree in Law, will join the teaching staff of an American Law School. Judge Goldsborough, having finished his work on the Code Committee, is retiring from the service after about eighteen years with the Philippine Government. Professor Hilado resigns to engage in practice in Negros and Iloilo. The last

two named, Judge Goldsborough and Professor Hilado, have been with the College of Law since its inception. Professor Conant was with it for practically three years. The College also loses, at least temporarily, the services of Judge Abreu and Judge Villareal because of their assignment to the provinces.

There have been a number of new appointments and promotions in the faculty. First and foremost, Associate Professor Bocobo has been promoted to Professor of Civil Law and Acting Dean of the College of Law. Mariano H. de Joya, Assistant Fiscal of the City of Manila and Lecturer on Evidence in the College of Law, has been named Associate Professor of Remedial Law. José A. Espiritu has been promoted from Instructor in Mercantile Law to Assistant Professor of Mercantile Law as partial reward for his painstaking and conscientious work. H. Lawrence Noble, a graduate of the College of Law with the class of 1914 and Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the College of Engineering, has been transferred to the College as Associate Professor of Jurisprudence. Pedro Ylagan, who graduated last April, has been named as Assistant in Law and Secretary of the Law Faculty. Outside of the permanent faculty, there have also been a number of valuable acquisitions. Thus, Enrique Altavas, Chief of the Land Registration Office, has been appointed Lecturer on Land Registration and Mortgages; Anacleto Diaz, Fiscal, City of Manila, as Professorial Lecturer on Trial Practice; Victoriano Yamzon, well-known for his prowess in Oratory, as Instructor in Public Speaking; Dr. Y. Mikami, the scholarly Japanese businessman, as Lecturer on Japanese Government and Law; Albino Z. SyCip, the brilliant young Chinese lawyer, as Lecturer on Chinese and Mercantile Law; Conrado Benitez, Associate Professor of Economics in the College of Liberal Arts, as Lecturer on Taxation; while Maximo Kalaw, Instructor in Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts, has been promoted to Assistant Professor of Political Science and Chief of the Department of Political Science with work in the College of Law.

The remaining members of the faculty continue in their present positions. President Villamor is Lecturer on Penology and Criminology; Justice Carson, Professorial Lecturer on International Law; Mr. Ortigas, Chairman of the Code Committee, Lecturer on Civil Law; Judge Sumulong of the Manila Bar, Lecturer on Legal Ethics; Attorney-General Paredes, Professorial Lecturer on Criminal Law; Dr. Angeles of the College of Medicine, Lecturer on Legal Medicine; and Mr. Santos of the Bureau of Justice, Lecturer on Jurisprudence. We especially rejoice in the merited promotion of one who, in the opinion of the writer, is one of the most valuable members of the Law Faculty, namely, of Quintin Paredes to be AttorneyGeneral of the Philippine Islands.

We inaugurate one new feature in connection with the law faculty which we hope to make permanent. Eugene A. Gilmore-Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School, has been named non-resident Professor of Law for the academic year 1917-1918, and is expected to arrive in Manila shortly after the Christmas vacation. We expect to persuade others, such as Dean Pound, Dean Wig ore,

Dean Bates, and Dean McGovney to come to the Philippines as non-resident Professors of Law. We feel that we will gain greatly because of their advice and teaching, while on the other hand, the trip through the Orient should prove of interest to men of such studious and progressive character.

The attendance of the College of Law will be the largest in its history. At the present time the figures are as follows:

With the addition of about ten more who will enroll during the year, the gross attendance will be about 263, or omitting duplications, about 248. The graduating class should prove to be one of the best equipped in the history of the School for all, with one or two exceptions, are college graduates. The freshman class is impressive both in the number and in the quality of the students.

Good reports come from the alumni all over the Islands. It is impossible even to mention a few of the successes of the alumni of the College of Law. Properly, however, I can invite attention to the trip to the United States of Elpidio Quirino as Secretary to President Quezon, of the appointment of Pablo Lorenzo as member of the Board of Regents, University of the Philippines, of the appointment of José Gil as Secretary of the University of the Philippines, and of the excellent reputation which Alejandro de Guzman has won in the House of Representatives.

This is a brief summary of the College of Law as it opens the new academic year. Is it too much to hope that through the guidance of Dean Bocobo and of the law faculty, through the loyalty of the alumni, and through the spirit of the students, that this and succeeding years will be even more successful than the past?

Gratefully and finally,

GEORGE A. Malcolm,

Dean, College of Law.

RECENT CASES

(Decided by the Supreme Court of Porto Rico.)

LAWYERS: OFFICERS OF THE COURT; NOTICE OF ORDER.-The lawyer is an officer of the court and as such he is presumed to assist the court; and it is also his duty to keep track of the progress of the cases entrusted to his care. The

lawyer has no legal right to confide to a secretary or to a "marshal” information or notice concerning his case. (Guardian Assurance Co., Ltd. v. López Acosta, Dec., December, 1916.)

SLANDER: PRESUMPTION OF MALICE. Every slanderous statement publicly made shall be presumed to be malicious and may be prosecuted; the fact that the accused has made the statement as a result of information given him does not affect the presumption of malice. (El Pueblo v. Rivera, Decision of December 1916.)

ID.; COMPLAINT; MOTION TO MAKE THE COMPLAINT MORE SPECIFIC; DEFENSE.-Generally, a complaint charging a person with slander is sufficient if it gives the date and place in which the words were pronounced; and it therefore follows that a motion asking that the complaint be made more specific by stating what kind of meeting or act was being carried out and what its object was, when said motion is not sustained by affidavits, or is not necessary for a defense, will be overruled. (Id.)

PURCHASE AND SALE: DELIVERY OF THE THING PURCHASED; DAMAGES AND LOSSES; INDEMNITY; GAIN LOST.-When a vendor fails to deliver the thing sold according to the terms of the contract, even though no payment for the goods has yet been made, the purchaser has the right to be placed in the same condition that he would have been in had the thing been duly delivered to him in time. The indemnity in this case shall, according to article 1073 of the civil code, (corresponding to Art. 1106 of the civil code in force in the Philippine Islands), consist of the amount of the gain which the purchaser has ceased to obtain, or, according to the circumstances of the present case, in the difference which exists between the price of the goods in the contract and the value of the same at the time. agreed for the delivery. (Quiñones v. Ana María Sugar Co., Decided December, 1916.)

PHARMACY: BOARD OF PHARMACEUTICAL EXAMINERS; ASPIRANT PHARMACISTS; DIPLOMA; REGISTRATION.-An aspirant for the profession of pharmacist does not come to acquire a right of property whatever to the license which authorizes him to exercise the profession by the mere fact that he has been examined and approved by the board of medical examiners in all the subjects required by law, when, at the time of the registration, he did not possess a diploma or a document crediting him with having passed all the subjects prescribed in the scientific or literary course of a high school or of an institution of equal or analogous standing in the United States or in any foreign country. The board, at any time before the issuance of the certificate, may correct its own errors and thus inspire its last act with a strict compliance with the law. (Vives v. La Junta de Farmacia. Decided, December, 1916.)

NON SUIT: DISMISSAL; PROOF BY THE ACCUSED; RENUNCIATION. -When after the overruling of a motion for dismissal, the accused presents his evidence, it is understood that he renounces or gives up his motion. (El Pueblo v. Gonzalez, et al. Decided, January, 1917.)

MANDAMUS: MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES; DISCHARGE OF EMPLOYES; NOTICE AND HEARING; JUST CAUSE.-An inspector of municipal charity has just as much right to a notice as to a hearing, before he can be separated from the service by the mayor for just cause, although it is neither necessary that the charges against him be formulated with that technical ability which a prosecuting attorney usually shows in framing an information nor that all the formalities of a trial be observed. (Cintrón v. Berríos. Decided, January, 1917.)

ID.: HEARING; DEFENSE; RENUNCIATION OR ABANDONMENT.— A hearing means, and the dictates of justice require, that the employee who is to be separated from the service be given a due notice of the specific acts or omissions with which he is charged, giving him a reasonable opportunity to defend himself, that is, to answer all the charges and to present his proofs, and, if he desires, to allow him to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him, although he may, if he desires, renounce or abandon any or all of these privileges. (Id.)

ID.: RIGHT TO BE HEARD.-When the employee with the right to be heard is, after the charge against him are made, deprived of that right without any just cause, he should be allowed the right to ask for a writ of mandamus for his reinstatement. (Id.)

WITNESSES: DEFENDANT AS A WITNESS OF THE PLAINTIFF— When the plaintiff presents the defendant as his witness to prove a part of his case, it is understood that he is to answer for him, and he can not thereafter allege that his testimony be received with caution. (Morales et al. v. Díaz et al., Decided, January, 1917.)

PLEADING AND PRACTICE: DECISION; PRESUMPTION OF QUESTIONS DECIDED.-It is presumed, until the contrary is proven, as an elementary principle of pleading and practice, that the court decides in its sentence all the questions between the parties; and that those which do not appear as decided, have been decided against the petitioner. (Belalaval v. Todd, Alcalde de San Juan. Decided, February, 1917.)

PARAPHERNAL PROPERTY; ACQUISITION BY A SINGLE WOMAN; INSCRIPTION BY MEANS OF INFORMATION OF OWNERSHIP IN FAVOR OF THE WIFE; PRESUMPTION THAT IT IS CONJUGAL PROPERTY; CURABLE DEFECT.-Real estate having been inscribed in favor of the wife through an information of ownership made and approved for the effect, without it having been shown by any of the methods recognized by law that it is a paraphernal property, nor her age and condition at the time of acquisition, it is to be presumed that such real property is conjugal property; the simple statement at the execution