OBUSAN v. OBUSAN
A.C. No. 1392
128 SCRA 485
April 2, 1984
FACTS: Respondent Generoso B.
Obusan, Jr. was working in the Peoples Homesite and Housing Corporation, and
became acquainted with Natividad Estabillo presented to be a widow, in which
they had a child named John. Later, it was known Natividad’s marriage was still
subsisting.
Four
days after the birth of John, Generoso married Preciosa (petitioner) and lived
for more than a year. Respondent took a vacation in Camarines Norte but he has
never returned.
Preciosa
looked for him and discovered that he was living and cohabiting with Natividad
in Quezon City.
The
housemaid, neighbors and several other persons known to Natividad and Obusan
testified and confirmed their relationship.
He
answered that his relationship with Natividad was terminated when he married
Preciosa and he only goes to Quezon City to provide financial support to Jun-Jun.
He also denied the testimonies of the maid, the plumber and several other
persons and contended that he does not live together with Natividad.
He
also contended that he only left the conjugal home for he cannot contain the
nagging of his wife and her interference with his professional obligations.
ISSUE: Whether or not Atty. Obusan
should be disbarred.
RULING: Yes. He failed to maintain the highest degree of morality expected and
required of a member of the bar
Respondent
was not able to overcome the evidence of his wife that he was guilty of grossly
immoral conduct. Abandoning one's wife and resuming carnal relations with a
former paramour, a married woman, fails within "that conduct which is
willful, flagrant, or shameless, and which shows a moral indifference to the
opinion of the good and respectable members of the community"
Thus,
lawyer shall be disbarred when he abandoned his lawful wife and cohabited with
another woman who had borne him a child.
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