Supreme Court slams slow action on cases, repeated lapses

A 63-year-old judge in Cebu City and her clerk of court have been fired by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court (SC) ordered the judge dismissed from service for failing to resolve about 4,000 cases on time and mismanaging court records, among other infractions.

Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Judge Rosabella Tormis of Branch 4 briefly reported for office yesterday, but left soon after.

A court employee said the judge was attending to her ailing husband who is confined in a private hospital in Cebu City.

A posting in her Facebook account yesterday carried this observation: “Being a good person, bad happened.”

Tormis was found guilty of “gross inefficiency, violation of SC rules, directives, and circulars, as well as gross ignorance of the law.”

Her clerk of court, lawyer Reynaldo Teves, was also dismissed from service for two counts of simple neglect of duty.

Both forfeit “all benefits and priviledges, except accrued leave credits” and are barred from being rehired in any government office.

The Supreme Court said the judge failed to resolve 195 cases submitted for decision within a mandatory 90-day period.

There were 90 other cases not yet resolved, 223 cases filed in court with no action taken while 3,491 cases had no further action for a considerable length of time.

Tormis, in her defense, earlier said the backlog of cases was affected by her three previous suspensions in administrative cases, wherein she was denied access to her court room and case records.

However, the reason was not accepted by the court, which noted that many of the cases were already delayed before the suspensions.

In a March 12 decision, the SC en banc led by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno noted the work history of Tormis and Teves who were sanctioned for several administrative cases filed against them.

“Her conduct as a repeat offender exhibits her unworthiness to don the judicial robes and merits a sanction heavier than what is provided by our rules and jurisprudence,” the high court said.

It said her “repeated infractions seriously compromise efficiency and hamper public service which the court can no longer tolerate.”

The clerk of court, Teves, had been warned several times before about his lapses, but “Mr. Teves has not reformed. Thus, the penalty of dismissal from service is proper.”

“The honor and integrity of the judicial system is measured not only by the fairness and correctness of decisions rendered but also by the efficiency with which disputes are resolved,” the SC said.

In her explanation to the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA), Tormis said she faithfully conducted a semestral physical inventory of the case records except during the period she was suspended three times.

The OCA earlier recommended that Tormis be fined P100,000 for her delayed action on cases and failure to provide efficient court management system, aside from ordering the arrest of an accused without notice.

For his part, Teves said MTCC Branch 4 had no general docket book because the supplies were not provided by the SC.

He tried to explain errors in his reports citing a discrepancy in the procedure or in the appreciation in preparing the reports.

The OCA conducted a judicial audit on July 16 to 28, 2008 at MTCC Branch 4. Several irregularities were found by the audit team which prompted the filing of administative cases.

The High Court found Tormis liable for undue delay in the dispoition of cases, mismanagement of the court and case records, non-promulgation of decisions, and issuing a warrant of arrest without first apprising the acused of the charges against him. On the other hand, Teves was cited for mismanagement of case records and failure to set case for promulgation.

The court said it is the duty of the judge to make sure that the staff perform their duties.

“A judge cannot simply take refuge behind the inefficiency or mismanagement oh her court personnel.”