Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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What is Evidence?
Election cases
Land registration cases
Cadastral proceedings
Insolvency proceedings
Naturalization proceedings
Other cases such as labor and impeachment cases
Hierarchy of Evidence
Preponderance of Evidence
(quantum of evidence required in civil cases)
Substantial Evidence
(quantum of evidence required in administrative cases)
Kinds of Admissibility
Conditional admissibility – where the evidence at the time of its offer appears
to be immaterial or irrelevant, unless it is connected with the other facts to be
subsequently proved, such evidence may be received on condition that the other facts
will be proved thereafter, otherwise the evidence already given will be stricken out.
Multiple admissibility – where the evidence is relevant and competent for two
or more purposes, such evidence should be admitted for any or all the purposes for
which it is offered provided it satisfies all the requirements of law for its admissibility.
Admissibility of evidence refers to the duty of the court to receive or allow the
evidence.
Note:
It is a rule of evidence that any objection against the admission of any piece of
evidence must be made at the proper time and that if not so made it will be
understood to have been waived.
Objections to the admissibility of evidence cannot be raised for the first time on
appeal when a party desires the court to reject the evidence offered, he must so
state in the form of objection.
Exclusionary rule states that evidence illegally obtained and confiscated on the
occasion of an unreasonable search and seizure is tainted and should be excluded for
being the proverbial “fruit of the poisonous tree”. In the language of the
fundamental law, it shall be inadmissible in evidence for any purpose in any proceeding.
Note:
The test of relevancy is whether an item of evidence will have any value, as
determined by logic and experience, in proving the proposition for which it is
offered, or whether it would reasonably and actually tend to prove or disprove
any matter of fact in issue, or corroborate other relevant evidence. The test is
satisfied if there is some logical connection either directly or by inference
between the fact offered and the fact to be proved.
Evidence on collateral matters shall not be allowed, except when it tends in any
reasonable degree to establish the probability or improbability of the fact in
issue.
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Judicial notice means that “What is known need not be proved.” It means no
more than the court will bring to its aid and consider without proof of the facts, its
knowledge of those matters of public concern which are known by all well-informed
persons.
1. Taking the place of proof in connection with the issue in the case; and
2. It will abbreviate the proceedings.
Where a foreign law is not pleaded or, even if pleaded, is not proved, the
presumption is that foreign law is the same as ours.
Note:
Senses include:
1. Sense of vision;
2. Sense of hearing (auditory);
3. Sense of touch (tactile);
4. Sense of taste (gustatory);
5. Sense of smell (olfactory)
1. Exhibited;
2. Examined; or
3. Viewed by the court.
What are the instances where a document is considered as object or real evidence?
Under Best Evidence Rule or Primary Evidence Rule, when the subject of inquiry
is the contents of a document, no evidence shall be admissible other than the original
document itself.
Original of document. —
(a) The original of the document is one the contents of which are the subject
of inquiry.
(b) When a document is in two or more copies executed at or about the same
time, with identical contents, all such copies are equally regarded as originals.
(c) When an entry is repeated in the regular course of business, one being
copied from another at or near the time of the transaction, all the entries are likewise
equally regarded as originals.
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Instances where Best Evidence Rule or Primary Evidence Rule shall not
apply:
1. When the original has been lost or destroyed, or cannot be produced in court,
without bad faith on the part of the offeror;
2. When the original is in the custody or under the control of the party against
whom the evidence is offered, and the latter fails to produce it after reasonable
notice;
3. When the original consists of numerous accounts or other documents which
cannot be examined in court without great loss of time and the facts sought to
be established from them is only the general result of the whole;
4. When the original is a public record in the custody of a public officer or is
recorded in a public office.
When the original document has been lost or destroyed, or cannot be produced
in court, the offeror, upon proof of its execution or existence and the cause of its
unavailability without bad faith on his part, may prove its contents by a copy, or by a
recital of its contents in some authentic document, or by the testimony of witnesses in
the order stated.
Note:
However, a party may present evidence to modify, explain or add to the terms of
written agreement if he puts in issue in his pleading:
(b) The failure of the written agreement to express the true intent and
agreement of the parties thereto;
(c) The validity of the written agreement; or
(d) The existence of other terms agreed to by the parties or their successors
in interest after the execution of the written agreement.
Who is a witness?
All persons who can perceive, and perceiving, can make known their perception
to others, may be witnesses.
Note:
Religious or political belief, interest in the outcome of the case shall not be a
ground for disqualification to be a witness.
Neither conviction of a crime shall disqualify a person to be a witness, except he
was previously convicted of the following crimes:
1. Perjury;
2. Falsification of public or private documents;
3. False testimony
(a) Those whose mental condition, at the time of their production for
examination, is such that they are incapable of intelligently making known
their perception to others;
(b) Children whose mental maturity is such as to render them incapable of
perceiving the facts respecting which they are examined and of relating
them truthfully.
cannot testify as to any matter of fact occurring before the death of such
deceased person or before such person became of unsound mind.
(a) The husband or the wife, during or after the marriage, cannot be
examined without the consent of the other as to any communication
received in confidence by one from the other during the marriage except
in a civil case by one against the other, or in a criminal case for a crime
committed by one against the other or the latter's direct descendants or
ascendants;
(b) An attorney cannot, without the consent of his client, be examined as to
any communication made by the client to him, or his advice given thereon
in the course of, or with a view to, professional employment, nor can an
attorney's secretary, stenographer, or clerk be examined, without the
consent of the client and his employer, concerning any fact the knowledge
of which has been acquired in such capacity;
(c) A person authorized to practice medicine, surgery or obstetrics cannot in a
civil case, without the consent of the patient, be examined as to any
advice or treatment given by him or any information which he may have
acquired in attending such patient in a professional capacity, which
information was necessary to enable him to act in capacity, and which
would blacken the reputation of the patient;
(d) A minister or priest cannot, without the consent of the person making the
confession, be examined as to any confession made to or any advice
given by him in his professional character in the course of discipline
enjoined by the church to which the minister or priest belongs;
(e) A public officer cannot be examined during his term of office or
afterwards, as to communications made to him in official confidence,
when the court finds that the public interest would suffer by the
disclosure.
Parental and filial privilege where it states that no person may be compelled to
testify against his parents, other direct ascendants, children or other direct
descendants.
Kinds of witnesses:
Child witness – is any person who at the time of giving testimony is below the
age of eighteen (18) years.
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Direct Evidence – is the kind of evidence if believed proves the fact in issue.
Cumulative Evidence – is the kind of evidence which is of the same kind and
character tending to prove the same proposition.
Negative Evidence – is a testimony that a certain fact did not exist. It may
either be alibi or denial. It is a settled rule that alibi and denial are inherently weak
defenses. Alibi and denial cannot prevail over the positive and categorical testimony and
identification of an accused by the complainant.
Relevant Evidence – is the kind of evidence which has a relation to the fact in
issue.
Secondary Evidence – is any evidence other that the document itself like a
copy, recital of its contents in some authentic document or recollection of the witness.
- nothing follows -
Convultion- sudden, violent, irregular movement of a limb or of the body, caused by involuntary
contraction of muscles and associated especially with brain disorders such as epilepsy, the
presence of certain toxins or other agents in the blood, or fever in children.
diatoms- a single-celled alga that has a cell wall of silica. Many kinds are planktonic, and
extensive fossil deposits have been found.
The Durham Rule, sometimes referred to as the “product test,” provides that the defendant is
not “criminally responsible if his unlawful act is the product of a mental disease or defect.”
Ecchymosis-a discoloration of the skin resulting from bleeding underneath, typically caused by
bruising.
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Eclampsia -a condition in which one or more convulsions occur in a pregnant woman suffering
from high blood pressure, often followed by coma and posing a threat to the health of mother
and baby.
endemic-of a disease or condition) regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.
Epedural -on or around the dura mater, in particular (of an anesthetic) introduced into the space
around the dura mater of the spinal cord.
Hemorage -an escape of blood from a ruptured blood vessel, especially when profuse.
Erythrocytes -a red blood cell that (in humans) is typically a biconcave disc without a nucleus.
Erythrocytes contain the pigment hemoglobin, which imparts the red color to blood, and
transport oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the tissues.
Erythroderma is the term used to describe intense and usually widespread reddening of the
skin due to inflammatory skin disease.
Eunuchs -a man who has been castrated, especially (in the past) one employed to guard the
women's living areas at an oriental court.
Euthanasia -the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in
an irreversible coma.
Exoskeleton -a rigid external covering for the body in some invertebrate animals, especially
arthropods, providing both support and protection.
Gangrene -localized death and decomposition of body tissue, resulting from either obstructed
circulation or bacterial infection.
Glaucoma -a condition of increased pressure within the eyeball, causing gradual loss of
sight.