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Ruling of the Court
Atty. Gacott states in his complaint for damages before the RTC that Supreme Court’s remand of his case to the IBP Board is an affirmation of the latter’s arbitrary abuse of its investigatory power. The IBP Board recommended his disbarment based on the Commissioner’s report rendered to it without the benefit of exhaustive hearing. This made its members personally liable for actual, moral, and corrective damages. Essentially, therefore, Atty. Gacott anchored his complaint for damages on the result of the Court’s assessment of the IBP Board’s report and recommendation and its remand of the case against him for further proceedings.
The petitioner IBP Board members are correct in claiming that Atty. Gacott’s complaint states no cause of action. The IBP Commissioner and Board of Governors in this case merely exercised delegated powers to investigate the complaint against Atty. Gacott and submit their report and recommendation to the Court. They cannot be charged for honest errors committed in the performance of their quasi-judicial function. And that was what it was in the absence of any allegation of specific factual circumstances indicating that they acted maliciously or upon illicit consideration. If the rule were otherwise, a great number of lower court justices and judges whose acts the appellate courts have annulled on ground of grave abuse of discretion would be open targets for damage suits.
Parenthetically, Atty. Gacott submitted the disbarment case against him for resolution based on the position papers that he and the complainants presented, without reservation, to the IBP along with the affidavits of their witnesses. The IBP Board prepared its report and recommendation to the Court based on these papers and documents.
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