G.R. No. L-14569 Case Digest

G.R. No. L-14569 November 23, 1960

Benito Codilla, et al., petitioners

vs Jose Martinez, etc., et al., respondents

Ponente: Bautista Angelo

Facts:

January 24, 1956, Mayor Baloyo of Tagum, Davao left for Negros Occidental to attend to a sick brother. Thereupon, he designated the vice mayor to act in his place until advice on his part. The vice mayor in turn fell sick of certain lung trouble which led the vice mayor to designate councilor Macario Bermudez as acting mayor until notice of the contrary. Bermudez was not also in good health so he designated the 3rd ranking councilor Martinez.

Martinez accepted the designation and assumed office, his first official act was to separate the petitioners as policemen of the municipality. Petitioners immediately filed their protest invoking the right to continue in office under RA 557. But acting mayor Martinez appointed Duaso municipal policemen in lieu of Codilla who immediately qualified by taking his oath of office. The appointment was approved by the President of the Philippines and Commission of Civil Service among other appointments.

February 15, 1956, Codilla and his companions filed a petition for mandamus before the CFI of Davao against Martinez and Mayor Baloyo alleging that their separation from the service was illegal because civil service employees cannot be terminated except for cause.

Respondents in their answer set up the defense that the appointments having been made in a temporary capacity, because they are not civil service eligibles, that the same were valid even assuming that Martinez does not have the authority because their office have expired nonetheless.

The RTC dismissed the petition on the ground that the separation was made in accordance with the law. Hence the present appeal.

Issue: Martinez, being a 3rd ranking councilor is the lawful designate to be the acting mayor.

Held:

The trial court did not consider the designation of Martinez as acting mayor entirely void, or one that would make him a usurper, but at most a de facto officer whose acts maybe given validity in the eye of the law. Thus, the trial court said: "Although his designation was irregular, still he was acting under a color of authority, as distinguished from a usurper who is "one who has neither title nor color of right of an office." . . . The acts of Jose L. Martinez are therefore official acts of a de facto officer. If they are made within the scope of the authority vested by the law in the office of the mayor of Tagum, such acts of a de facto office are here present.

To constitute a de facto officer, there must be an office having a de facto existence, or at least one recognized by law and the claimant must be in actual possession of the office under color of title or authority.

Another factor that may be invoked in favor of the validity of the official actuation of Acting Mayor Martinez is the fact that his entire official acts done under his designation were subsequently endorsed and ratified by the incumbent mayor when he returned to office. This ratification served to cure any legal infirmity the acts of Acting Mayor Martinez may have suffered because of his irregular designation.

The fact that they were merely given temporary appointments for the reason that they do not have civil service eligibility thus making their status as employee wholly dependent upon the grace of the ruling power. And this we say because, as we ruled in a series of cases, "A temporary appointment is similar to one made in acting capacity, the essence of which lies in its temporary character and its terminability at the pleasure of the appointment power."