PEOPLE v. JUAN QUIANZON, GR No. 42607, 1935-09-28 (firebrand - kahoy nga nagbaga)

 PEOPLE v. JUAN QUIANZON, GR No. 42607, 1935-09-28

Facts:

On February 1, 1934, a novena for the suffrage of the soul of a deceased person was being held in the house of Victorina Cacpal in a barrio, near the poblacidn, of the municipality of Paoay, Ilocos Norte, with the usual attendance of relatives and friends. The incident that led... to the filing of these charges took place between 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Andres Aribuabo, one of the persons present, went to ask for food of Juan Quianzon, then in the kitchen, who, to all appearances, had the victuals in his care. Aribuabo was a sexagenarian and so... was Quianzon. It was the second or third time that Aribuabo approached Quianzon with the same purpose whereupon the latter, greatly peeved, took hold of a firebrand and applied it to the neck of the man who so pestered him. Aribuabo ran to the place where the people were... gathered exclaiming that he was wounded and was dying. Raising his shirt, he showed to those present a wound in his abdomen below the navel. Aribuabo died as a result of this wound on the tenth day after the incident.

Victim's statement immediately after receiving the wound, naming the accused as the author of the aggression, and the admission forthwith made by the accused that he had applied a firebrand to Aribuabo's neck and had wounded him, besides, with a bamboo spit

"wound of the deceased was very serious and it was difficult... to determine whether he could survive or not."

Issues:

It is contended by the defense that even granting that it was the accused who inflicted the wound which resulted in Aribuabo's death, he should not be convicted of homicide but only of serious physical injuries because said wound was not necessarily fatal and the deceased would... have survived it had he not twice removed the drainage which Dr. Mendoza had placed to control or isolate the infection.

The possibility, admitted by said physician, that... the patient might" have survived said wound had he not removed the drainage, does not mean that that act of the patient was the real cause of his death. Even without said act the fatal consequence could have followed, and the fact that the patient had so acted in a paroxysm of... pain does not alter the juridical consequences of the punishable act of the accused.

Ruling:

"One who inflicts an injury on another is deemed by the law to be guilty of homicide if the injury contributes mediately or immediately to the death of such other. The fact that other causes contribute to the death does not relieve the actor of responsibility.

accused is wrong in imputing the natural consequences of his criminal act to an act of his victim.

Inasmuch as the mitigating circumstances of lack of instruction and of intention to commit so grave a wrong as that committed should be taken into consideration in favor of the appellant, without any aggravating circumstances adverse to him

Principles:

When a person dies in consequence of an internal hemorrhage brought on by moving about against the doctor's orders, not because of carelessness or a desire to... increase the criminal liability of his assailant, but because of his nervous condition due to the wound inflicted by said assailant, the crime is homicide and not merely slight physical injuries, simply because the doctor was of the opinion that the wound might have healed in seven days... one who inflicts an injury on another will be held responsible for his death, although it may appear that the deceased might have recovered if he had... taken proper care of himself, or submitted to a surgical operation, or that unskilled or improper treatment aggravated the wound and contributed to the death, or that death was immediately caused by a surgical operation rendered necessary by the condition of the wound.

The principle on which this rule is founded is one of universal application, and lies at the foundation of all criminal jurisprudence. It is, that every person is to be held to contemplate and to be responsible for the natural consequences of his own acts.