United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Serra v. Mortiga, 204 U.S. 470 (1907)

Serra v. Mortiga

No. 202

Submitted February l, 1907

Decided February 25, 1907

204 U.S. 470

Syllabus

The guarantees extended by Congress to the Philippine Islands are to be interpreted as meaning what the like provisions meant when Congress made them applicable to those islands.

While a complaint on a charge of adultery under the Penal Code of the Philippine Islands may be fatally defective for lack of essential averments as to place and knowledge on the part of the man that the woman was married, objections of that nature must be taken at the trial, and if not taken, and the omitted averments are supplied by competent proof, it is not error for the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands to refuse to sustain such objections on appeal.

While the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands hears an appeal as a trial de novo and has power to reexamine the law and the facts it does so entirely on the record.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

Page 204 U. S. 471