ManilaFIRST
DIVISION
THE
UNITED STATES,
Complainant-Appellee,
G.
R.
No. 390
October
22, 1901
-versus-
FLORENTINO
NARVAES,
Defendant-Appellant.
D
E C I S I
O N
TORRES,
J :
It
appears that this case
was instituted in order to prosecute the defendant for the crime of
official
dereliction with which he is charged. The alleged crime consisted in
that
the defendant, Florentino Narvaes, being a justice of the peace of the
town of Bulusan, permitted the game of monte to be played in his house,
in which the justice court was installed, on the nights of August 15
and
20 and November 27, 1892; and likewise in that monte was played in
another
house belonging to the said Narvaes situated in the township of San
Isidro
on the occasion of a holiday which was there celebrated. These facts
appear
proved by the testimony of several witnesses, some of whom participated
in those prohibited games.
Although the crime
which is the subject of this case is that of official dereliction
provided
for and penalized in Article 355 of the Penal Code, and not that of
unlawful
gambling embraced in Article 343 of the said Code, nevertheless this
decision
must be directed to the question of whether or not the crime of
unlawful
gambling was committed by the individuals who played monte in the house
of the defendant, who was at that time a justice of the peace, in order
to determine whether or not there existed the crime of official
dereliction.
In other words, it must be determined whether the defendant, as justice
of the peace, in violation of his duties willfully omitted to institute
proceedings for the prosecution and punishment of the players who, with
his knowledge and consent, played monte on three occasions at the house
of the defendant.
Article 343 of the
Penal Code imposes criminal responsibility upon, and designates the
respective
penalties incurred by, the bankers, the owners of the gambling house,
and
the players who assemble in such houses kept for playing games of
chance
or hazard. And as it does not appear from the record that the house of
the defendant, Narvaes, was reputed to be a gambling house, it must be
held that the offense punished by the law has not been committed,
notwithstanding
the fact that certain individuals had there played the prohibited game
of monte, for the reason that said house was not known as one devoted
to
gambling and dedicated exclusively to the harboring of this repugnant
vice.
Under this view of
the matter it follows that the accused has not committed the crime of
official
dereliction, nor has he incurred the criminal responsibility of having
consented to the commission of a punishable act and having willfully
failed
to institute proceedings to prosecute and punish offending gamblers.
WHEREFORE, since the
crime of official dereliction does not exist, the defendant should be
acquitted
with costs de oficio and the court below should proceed in
accordance
with law in the matter of the attachment of his property. It is so
ordered.
Arellano, C.J.,
Cooper, Willard, Mapa and Ladd, JJ., concur. |