GR 46090; (August, 1938) (Digest)
G.R. No. 46090 ; August 8, 1938
MACARIO DE CHAVEZ, petitioner, vs. BUENAVENTURA OCAMPO, Judge of First Instance of Batangas, and JUAN BUENAFE, respondents.
FACTS
On December 21, 1937, respondent Juan Buenafe was proclaimed municipal mayor-elect of Batangas. Petitioner Macario de Chavez filed an election protest. At 11:40 p.m. on January 4, 1938—the last day of the two-week filing period—de Chavez personally submitted the protest and paid the docket fee to the Clerk of Court, E.S. Ilustre, at the latter’s house. The clerk noted the receipt on the documents. The following day, the clerk officially stamped the protest as received on January 5, 1938. Respondent Buenafe moved to dismiss the protest for being filed out of time. The trial court dismissed the protest, relying on the official stamp. De Chavez filed a petition for mandamus to compel reinstatement.
ISSUE
Whether an election protest filed with the clerk of court at his residence, shortly before midnight on the last day of the filing period, is considered filed within the period prescribed by law.
RULING
Yes. The Supreme Court granted the petition for mandamus. The protest was filed within the legal period. The two-week period under the Election Law expired at midnight of January 4, 1938. The clerk’s handwritten notation, made at the time of receipt, showing filing at 11:40 p.m. on January 4, is controlling over the subsequent official date stamp. The stamp merely reflected the clerk’s ministerial act of docketing the case the next business day. The filing was valid because the protest was delivered to and accepted by the clerk in his official capacity. The place of filing (the clerk’s house) was permissible under the circumstances, as it occurred outside office hours on the final day. The respondent’s failure to specifically deny the authenticity of the clerk’s notation in the lower court precluded him from challenging it later.
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