Certificate of non-forum shopping is not necessary in criminal cases and distinct causes of action.
PEOPLE vs. FERRER
G.R. No. 121907. May 27, 1997
FACTS:
In 1993, Norma Ferrer was charged with "Illegal Recruitment on a Large Scale" before the RTC Dagupan City. Three (3) other informations were filed with the same court, charging her with the crime of Estafa. The court convicted her of Illegal Recruitment. She was absolved from estafa but was ordered to reimburse the placement fees and to pay temperate damages. Ferrer appealed.
Ferrer avers that former Assistant Prosecutor, in filing eight different estafa and illegal recruitment cases against her in different branches of the RTC and the MTC in Dagupan City, has openly violated the Supreme Court's Administrative Circular No. 04-94, dated 08 February 1994, on forum-shopping.
HELD:
Administrative Circular No. 04-94 concerns only the subject of additional requisites for civil complaints, petitions and other initiatory pleadings filed in courts and other agencies. Paragraph 1 thereof is explicit; it states:
"The complaint and other initiatory pleadings referred to and subject of this Circular are the:
- original civil complaint
- counterclaim
- cross-claim
- third (fourth, etc.) party complaint, or
- complaint-in-intervention
- petition, or
- application wherein a party asserts his claim for relief."
Parenthetically, the criminal cases filed against appellant in different courts appear to have distinct causes of action involving different offended parties who are said to have all been victimized by appellant.
- original civil complaint
- counterclaim
- cross-claim
- third (fourth, etc.) party complaint, or
- complaint-in-intervention
- petition, or
- application wherein a party asserts his claim for relief."
Parenthetically, the criminal cases filed against appellant in different courts appear to have distinct causes of action involving different offended parties who are said to have all been victimized by appellant.
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