An Act Amending Act Numbered One Hundred and Thirty-Six as Amended, by Creating the Office of Reporter of the Supreme Court and for Other Purposes

July 23, 1907

ACT NO. 1675

AN ACT AMENDING ACT NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX AS AMENDED, BY CREATING THE OFFICE OF REPORTER OF THE SUPREME COURT AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

SECTION 1. Sections thirty, thirty-one, and thirty-two of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, entitled "An Act providing for the organization of courts in the Philippine Islands," as amended, are hereby further amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 30. Reporter of decisions. — The Governor-General, with the advice and consent of the Philippine Commission, and upon nomination by the Supreme Court, shall appoint a reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court, who shall receive a salary at the rate of seven thousand pesos per annum. The reporter shall have such clerical and other assistants as from time to time may be authorized by law. He shall be provided with a suitable office and office facilities. cSEDTC

"SEC. 31. Reporter a ministerial officer. — The reporter shall be a ministerial officer, subject to the orders of the Supreme Court. He shall prepare and publish with each case a concise synopsis of the facts necessary to a clear understanding of the decision, and shall state the names of counsel, and concisely the material and controverted points made, and the authority therein cited by them, and shall prefix to each case a syllabus, which shall be confined, as near as may be, to points of law decided by the court on the facts of the case, without a recital therein of the facts. He shall make all necessary translations of the decisions from the Spanish into the English language, and shall verify all translations of the decisions made from the English into the Spanish language. He shall also edit and publish the Official Gazette in its present form, shall compile the annual volumes of the public laws, and shall perform such other duties as may be assigned to him by the court: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That in the editing and publishing of the Official Gazette, and in the designation of such matter as shall be published therein, and in the compilation of the annual volumes of the public laws, the reporter shall be subject to the general direction and supervision of the Governor-General: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That the printing, sale, and distribution of the Gazette shall be performed by the Director of Printing in accordance with existing law.

"SEC. 32. What cases reported, and how reported. — The judges shall prepare and furnish to the reporter reports of the opinions by them severally given, embracing such decisions of the court as may be deemed by the court of sufficient importance to be printed and published, as rapidly as such decisions are promulgated. Dissenting opinions may be published with the majority opinions if the dissenting judge or judges so direct."

SECTION 2. Subsections (c) and (h) of section three of Act Numbered Fourteen hundred and seven, entitled "The Reorganization Act," and all other Acts or parts of Acts in conflict or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, are hereby repealed.

SECTION 3. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, July 23, 1907.