13
33.
When determining such petition to remove, on June 3, 2003 the CPAM
declared the judgment by the First Court to be null and void, and established that
the latter, by not declaring the precautionary motion not to be in order, incurred in a
“serious legal error of an inexcusable character.”41
34.
Judicial error has been held to be inexcusable by the STJ when “it cannot be
justified through reasonable legal criteria, something which turns it into a serious
offense, deserving the maximum disciplinary sanction, that is, removal from office.”
Furthermore, it has been pointed out that “it is an undetermined or indefinite legal
notion, for which reason in every specific case the attitude of a normal judge should
be weighed and on such basis, considering the characteristic features of the legal
culture in the country, establish whether action by the judicial officer is inexcusable.”
In such context, it has been repeatedly considered in the case law that “the judge
incurs in inexcusable or unjustifiable error when, for instance, he pronounces a death
sentence or a life sentence in a penitentiary, or when a public square is subjected to
a seizure order, just to cite some extremely serious cases under the [Venezuelan]
legal order.”42
35.
When dwelling on the case, the CPAM deemed it to be “an extremely serious
irregularity for the First Court […], when deciding the original petition for the
precautionary amparo, to have found it in order[, …] since the natural effects of
[such finding] would be for the document pending registration to be recorded,
something which has clear constitutive effects that, potentially, may generate a
number of situations contrary to the due legal certainty the real estate registration
system must express and provide.”43 This judgment ordered for a copy thereof to be
forwarded to the IGC. 44
36.
On July 17, 2003, once a copy of the judgment by the CPAM was received by
the IGC, the IGC “agre[ed] to institute on its own motion the pertaining preliminary
investigation.”45 On September 5, 2003, after analyzing the case file, the IGC
commissioned an inspector to further the inquiry and ordered notice of such act to be
served upon those affected,46 which was done between September 10 and 12 of
2003.47
37.
On October 7, 2003, the IGC filed an accusation with the CORJS against the
five members of the First Court. It held that “the Judges […] handed down a
judgment […] wherein they incurred in serious inexcusable judicial error, as the
[CPAM] has established” and that such finding “impli[ed the existence] of the
disciplinary offense provided in part 4 of Article 40 of the Ley de Carrera Judicial
41
Cf. judgment No. 809 of May 29, 2003 issued by CPAM, supra note 38, p. 1031.
42
Cf. judgment No. 465 of March 22, 2001 issued by CPAM, supra note 13.
43
Cf. judgment No. 809 of May 29, 2003 issued by CPAM, supra note 38, pp. 1029 and 1030.
44
Cf. judgment No. 809 of May 29, 2003 issued by CPAM, supra note 38, p. 1034.
45
Cf. order of July 17, 2003 issued by IGC (Evidence file, Book II, Appendix C.3, p. 506).
46
Cf. order of September 5, 2003 issued by the IGC (Evidence file, Book II, Appendix C.3, p. 507).
47
Cf. record of service to Judge Ana María Ruggeri Cova of September 10, 2003, record
to Judge Evelyn Marrero Ortiz of September 11, 2003; record of service to Judge Perkins Rocha
of September 11, 2003, record of service to Judge Luisa Estela Morales Lamuño of September
record of service to Judge Juan Carlos Apitz Barbera of September 12, 2003 issued by the IGC
file, Book II, Appendix C.3, pp. 508 to 517).
of service
Contreras
11, 2003,
(Evidence