UNITED STATES VS.

DASAL
3 Phil. 6
G.R. No. L-1271 /  December 4, 1903
Ponente: Torres, J.

FACTS:
A number of men belonging to the crew of the steamer Dos Hermanos, an
American steamer duly registered in the Philippine Islands, said steamer
being at that time within the navigable waters of this Archipelago and at a
distance of less than 1 mile from the beach of the town of Virac,
Catanduanes Islands, Albay, conspired together to overcome the rest of the
crew and kill the captain and officers of the steamer, with the intention of
seizing the vessel and its contents and with it leaving for parts unknown.
This outbreak resulted in the death of the first engineer, Antonio Agudo, the
steward, Vicente Amellategui, and the Chinese carpenter, Tan Chuen, and
in the wounding of Captain Morales, First Mate Zabala, Second Engineer
Rendon, and the passenger Faustino Tremoya. The killing of the first
engineer, Antonio Agudo, must be classified as murder. He was put to death
by several of the mutineers on the night of Angust 13, 1902, they acting
with evident premeditation and after reflection concerning the perpetration
of the crime, which they had conspired together to commit. This
circumstance determines the nature of the crime and brings it within the
provisions of article 403 of the Penal Code. The circumstance of evident
premeditation is present in a marked degree, for, without careful planning
beforehand, the crime above related would not have been committed.

ISSUE:
Whether or not the Court of First Instance has the jurisdiction to this case

RULING:
Yes. A crime committed on board a merchant steamer, registered as a
coasting vessel in these Islands and at anchor in a port of one of the islands,
therefore, under the provisions of section 1 of Act No. 400, passed by the
Civil Commission on May 16, 1902, by which the organic law of. The courts,
Act No. 136, passed June 11, 1901, was modified and extended. The
steamer Dos Hermanos having, after the commission of the crime, put into
this city, it is incontrovertible that the Court of First Instance thereof has
sole jurisdiction, to the exclusion of all other courts of the Archipelago, for
the trial of the case. The Court of First Instance of the port where, after the
commission of the crime, a ship licensed in the Philippines put in, has
jurisdiction of a crime committed aboard the ship, to the exclusion of all the
other courts of the Archipelago.