MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has suspended a lawyer for failing to return a payment he received from a foreign national when he backed out of the sale of beachfront property.
In its 11-page decision uploaded on March 23, the court en banc suspended Atty. Reynaldo A. Vitorillo for three years and sternly warned that a repetition of the same will be dealt with more severely.
The complaint had been filed by Swiss national Tony Peter Partsch, who in 2012 had transacted with Vitorillo for the purchase of an 800-square meter parcel of land which the latter claimed to own in Bayabas, Cagayan de Oro.
Vitorillo told Partsch that out of the 800 square meters, some 100 square meters were already titled under his name while the remaining 700 were still pending registration but said the paperwork would be completed in a few months.
He then offered to sell the property to Partsch for PHP2.5 million with 10 percent downpayment and the rest payable upon delivery of the titles.
Partsch in April 2012 then gave a total of PHP250,000 to the lawyer including PHP20,000 in cash. A receipt was issued by Vitorillo but no deed of absolute sale was executed. Instead, he promised Partsch to draw the sale deed along with the titles in the next months.
By September, Vitorillo was still unable to deliver the titles and other documents and now said that while he owned the 100-square meter parcel, the 700-square meter portion was given to him by his clients as compensation for legal services in a case under litigation before the courts. He further told the Swiss national that the pending case would soon be resolved.
By November, Vitorillo claimed that he is no longer interested in selling the land and asked Partsch if he would be interested in buying another land in another place. The foreigner rejected the offer and sought the reimbursement of his downpayment plus interest. After two years, Vitorillo still failed to reimburse the downpayment prompting the Swiss national to file a complaint against the lawyer.
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), in its report to the SC, said Vitorillo “was deemed to have seriously impaired his status as a member of the bar... in ignoring the constitutional prohibition against alienation of private lands to foreigners and by continuously refusing to return the money he received from Partsch.”
The SC, in sanctioning Vitorillo, said lawyers are duty-bound to “not engage in conduct that adversely reflects on his fitness to practice law,”.
“Public confidence in law and lawyers may be eroded by the irresponsible and improper conduct of a member of the bar. Thus, a lawyer should determine his conduct by acting in a manner that would promote public confidence in the integrity of the legal profession," the SC said. (PNA)
