Section 157Sec./Art. 157

Detail of Judges to Another District - Whenever any judge in any of the Court shall certify to the Executive Judge that the condition of the docket in his Court is such as to require the assistance of an additional judge, or when there is any vacancy in any Court, the Executive Judge may, in the interest of justice, with the approval of the Supreme Court, assign any judge of the Court of Agrarian Relations whose docket permits his temporary absence from said Court, to hold session in the Court needing such assistance or where such vacancy exists.

Whenever a judge appointed or assigned in any branch of the Court shall leave his district by transfer or assignment to another Court of equal jurisdiction without having decided a case totally heard by him and which was duly argued or opportunity given for argument to the parties of their counsel, it shall be lawful for him to prepare and sign his decision in said case anywhere within the Philippines and send the same by registered mail to the clerk of court to be filed in the Court as of the date when the same was received by the clerk, in the same manner as if the judge had been present in the Court to direct the filing of the judgment: Provided, however, That if a case has been heard only in part, the Supreme Court, upon petition of any of the interested parties to the case and the recommendation of the respective district judge, may also authorize the judge who has partly heard the case to continue hearing and to decide said case notwithstanding his transfer or appointment to another court of equal jurisdiction.