Three of the Court of Appeals Justices Jose L. Sabio Jr., Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal and Jose C. Reyes Jr. were sued before the Supreme Court by a private law practitioner for gross neglect of duty tantamount to gross ignorance of the law.

Lawyer Dennis Pangan, in a complaint he filed last Dec. 23, claimed that the three justices violated their constitutional mandate to conduct deliberation of the case submitted to them before reaching any conclusion.

The three justices also figured in the Meralco bribery case which resulted in the suspension of Sabio and the dismissal of another associate justice.

Sabio, Reyes and Vidal, who composed the 6th Division of the Court of Appeals, merely signed the decision prepared by the staff of Sabio without reading the contents of the decision especially the dispositive portion of the decision, Pangan said.

The case stemmed from a civil case for right of way filed by the clients of Pangan before the Regional Trial Court of Malolos, Bulacan Branch 84. When the case reached the Court of Appeals on appeal, the three associate justices promulgated a decision in the Malolos case but instead of discussing and deciding the Malolos case on the merits, the three decided a totally different case from the Regional Trial Court of Irosin, Sorsogon Branch 55.

Pangan claimed that the three justices grossly neglected their constitutional duty when they delegated the preparation of the decision to the staff of the ponente, Sabio.

If only the three justices read the final copy of the decision, they could have easily noticed that instead of disposing of the Malolos case raised on appeal, they decided on a totally different case from Sorsogon, Pangan said.

Pangan also alleged that of the 13 pages of the decision, 10 and 1/3 pages thereof were devoted to just copying the facts of the case from the records, and one and 2/3 pages thereof or three short paragraphs were used to summarily dismiss the well-ventilated arguments of the parties. The remaining page was left for the signatures of the three justices.

The three justices also figured in the Meralco bribery case, which resulted in the suspension of Sabio and the dismissal of another associate justice.