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VOL. 253, FEBRUARY 20, 1996 699

Zulueta vs. Court of Appeals

*
G.R. No. 107383. February 20, 1996.

CECILIA ZULUETA, petitioner, vs. COURT OF APPEALS

and ALFREDO MARTIN, respondents.

Evidence; Illegally Obtained Evidence; Constitutional Law;

Privacy of Communication and Correspondence; Privacy of
communication and correspondence is inviolable. The only
exception in the Constitution is if there is a “lawful order [from a]
court or when public safety or order requires, otherwise, as
prescribed by law.”—Indeed the documents and papers in
question are inadmissible in evidence. The constitutional
injunction declaring “the privacy of communication and
correspondence [to be] inviolable” is no less applicable simply
because it is the wife (who thinks herself aggrieved by her
husband’s infidelity) who is the party against whom the
constitutional provision is to be enforced. The only exception to
the prohibition in

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* SECOND DIVISION.

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700 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

Zulueta vs. Court of Appeals

the Constitution is if there is a “lawful order [from a] court or

when public safety or order requires otherwise, as prescribed by
law.” Any violation of this provision renders the evidence obtained
inadmissible “for any purpose in any proceeding.”
Same; Same; Same; Same; A person by contracting marriage
does not shed his/her integrity or his right to privacy as an
individual and the constitutional protection is ever available to
him or to her.—The intimacies between husband and wife do not
justify any one of them in breaking the drawers and cabinets of
the other and in ransacking them for any telltale evidence of
marital infidelity. A person, by contracting marriage, does not

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shed his/her integrity or his right to privacy as an individual and

the constitutional protection is ever available to him or to her.
Same; Same; Same; Same; The law insures absolute freedom
of communication between the spouses by making it privileged.—
The law insures absolute freedom of communication between the
spouses by making it privileged. Neither husband nor wife may
testify for or against the other without the consent of the affected
spouse while the marriage subsists. Neither may be examined
without the consent of the other as to any communication received
in confidence by one from the other during the marriage, save for
specified exceptions. But one thing is freedom of communication;
quite another is a compulsion for each one to share what one
knows with the other. And this has nothing to do with the duty of
fidelity that each owes to the other.

PETITION for review on certiorari of a decision of the

Court of Appeals.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.

          Leonides S. Respicio & Associates Law Office for
petitioner.
     Galileo P. Brion for private respondent.

MENDOZA, J.:

This is a petition to review the decision of the Court of

Appeals, affirming the decision of the Regional Trial Court
of Manila (Branch X) which ordered petitioner to return
docu-

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Zulueta vs. Court of Appeals

ments and papers taken by her from private respondent’s

clinic without the latter’s knowledge and consent.
The facts are as follows:
Petitioner Cecilia Zulueta is the wife of private
respondent Alfredo Martin. On March 26, 1982, petitioner
entered the clinic of her husband, a doctor of medicine, and
in the presence of her mother, a driver and private
respondent’s secretary, forcibly opened the drawers and
cabinet in her husband’s clinic and took 157 documents
consisting of private correspondence between Dr. Martin
and his alleged paramours, greeting cards, cancelled
checks, diaries, Dr. Martin’s passport, and photographs.
The documents and papers were seized for use in evidence
in a case for legal separation and for disqualification from
the practice of medicine which petitioner had filed against
her husband.
Dr. Martin brought this action below for recovery of the
documents and papers and for damages against petitioner.
The case was filed with the Regional Trial Court of Manila,
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Branch X, which, after trial, rendered judgment for private

respondent, Dr. Alfredo Martin, declaring him “the
capital/exclusive owner of the properties described in
paragraph 3 of plaintiff’s Complaint or those further
described in the Motion to Return and Suppress” and
ordering Cecilia Zulueta and any person acting in her
behalf to immediately return the properties to Dr. Martin
and to pay him P5,000.00, as nominal damages; P5,000.00,
as moral damages and attorney’s fees; and to pay the costs
of the suit. The writ of preliminary injunction earlier
issued was made final and petitioner Cecilia Zulueta and
her attorneys and representatives were enjoined from
“using or submitting/admitting as evidence” the documents
and papers in question. On appeal, the Court of Appeals
affirmed the decision of the Regional Trial Court. Hence
this petition.
There is no question that the documents and papers in
question belong to private respondent, Dr. Alfredo Martin,
and that they were taken by his wife, the herein petitioner,
without his knowledge and consent. For that reason, the
trial court declared the documents and papers to be
properties of

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Zulueta vs. Court of Appeals

private respondent, ordered petitioner to return them to

private respondent and enjoined her from using them in
evidence. In appealing from the decision of the Court of
Appeals affirming the trial court’s decision, petitioner’s
1
only ground is that in Alfredo Martin v. Alfonso Felix, Jr.,
this Court ruled that the documents and papers (marked as
Annexes A-1 to J-7 of respondent’s comment in that case)
were admissible in evidence and, therefore, their use by
petitioner’s attorney, Alfonso Felix, Jr., did not constitute
malpractice or gross misconduct. For this reason it is
contended that the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the
decision of the trial court instead of dismissing private
respondent’s complaint.
Petitioner’s contention has no merit. The case against
Atty. Felix, Jr. was for disbarment. Among other things,
private respondent, Dr. Alfredo Martin, as complainant in
that case, charged that in using the documents in evidence,
Atty. Felix, Jr. committed malpractice or gross misconduct
because of the injunctive order of the trial court. In
dismissing the complaint against Atty. Felix, Jr., this Court
took note of the following defense of Atty. Felix, Jr. which it
2
found to be “impressed with merit:”

On the alleged malpractice or gross misconduct of respondent

[Alfonso Felix, Jr.], he maintains that:

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....
4. When respondent refiled Cecilia’s case for legal separation
before the Pasig Regional Trial Court, there was admittedly an
order of the Manila Regional Trial Court prohibiting Cecilia from
using the documents Annex “A-1 to J-7.” On September 6, 1983,
however having appealed the said order to this Court on a
petition for certiorari, this Court issued a restraining order on
aforesaid date which order temporarily set aside the order of the
trial court. Hence, during the enforceability of this Court’s order,
respondent’s request for petitioner to admit the genuineness and
authenticity of the subject annexes cannot be looked upon as
malpractice. Notably, petitioner

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1 163 SCRA 111 (1988).

2 Id. at 120-121, 126.

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Zulueta vs. Court of Appeals

Dr. Martin finally admitted the truth and authenticity of the

questioned annexes. At that point in time, would it have been
malpractice for respondent to use petitioner’s admission as
evidence against him in the legal separation case pending in the
Regional Trial Court of Makati? Respondent submits it is not
malpractice.
Significantly, petitioner’s admission was done not thru his
counsel but by Dr. Martin himself under oath. Such verified
admission constitutes an affidavit, and, therefore, receivable in
evidence against him. Petitioner became bound by his admission.
For Cecilia to avail herself of her husband’s admission and use
the same in her action for legal separation cannot be treated as
malpractice.

Thus, the acquittal of Atty. Felix, Jr. in the administrative

case amounts to no more than a declaration that his use of
the documents and papers for the purpose of securing Dr.
Martin’s admission as to their genuineness and
authenticity did not constitute a violation of the injunctive
order of the trial court. By no means does the decision in
that case establish the admissibility of the documents and
papers in question.
It cannot be overemphasized that if Atty. Felix, Jr. was
acquitted of the charge of violating the writ of preliminary
injunction issued by the trial court, it was only because, at
the time he used the documents and papers, enforcement of
the order of the trial court was temporarily restrained by
this Court. The TRO issued by this Court was eventually
lifted as the petition for certiorari filed by petitioner
against the trial court’s order was dismissed and, therefore,

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the prohibition against the further use of the documents

and papers became effective again.
Indeed the documents and papers in question are
inadmissible in evidence. The constitutional injunction
declaring “the privacy of communication and
3
correspondence [to be] inviolable” is no less applicable
simply because it is the wife (who thinks herself aggrieved
by her husband’s infidelity) who is the party against whom
the constitutional provision is to be enforced. The only
exception to the prohibition in the Consti-

_______________

3 1973 CONST., Art. IV, §4(1); 1987 CONST., Art. III, §3(1).

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Zulueta vs. Court of Appeals

tution is if there is a “lawful order [from a] court or when

public safety or order requires otherwise, as prescribed by
4
law.” Any violation of this provision renders the evidence
5
obtained inadmissible “for any purpose in any proceeding.”
The intimacies between husband and wife do not justify
any one of them in breaking the drawers and cabinets of
the other and in ransacking them for any telltale evidence
of marital infidelity. A person, by contracting marriage,
does not shed his/her integrity or his right to privacy as an
individual and the constitutional protection is ever
available to him or to her.
The law insures absolute freedom of communication
between the spouses by making it privileged. Neither
husband nor wife may testify for or against the other
without the consent of the affected spouse while the
6
marriage subsists. Neither may be examined without the
consent of the other as to any communication received in
confidence by one from the other during the marriage, save
7
for specified exceptions. But one thing is freedom of
communication; quite another is a compulsion for each one
to share what one knows with the other. And this has
nothing to do with the duty of fidelity that each owes to the
other.
WHEREFORE, the petition for review is DENIED for
lack of merit.
SO ORDERED.

          Regalado (Chairman), Romero and Puno, JJ.,

concur.

Petition denied.

Note.—The documents are inadmissible in evidence for

the reason that there was no showing that appellant was
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then

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4 Id.
5 1973 CONST., ART. IV, §4(2); 1987 CONST., Art. III, §3(2).
6 Rule 130, §22.
7 Rule 130, §24.

705

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Navale vs. Court of Appeals

assisted by counsel nor his waiver thereto put into writing.

(People vs. De Lara, 236 SCRA 291 [1994])

——o0o——

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