Short answer. The Court of Appeals may set the case for oral argument or order memoranda within fifteen days from notice. Under Section 13, the case is deemed submitted for decision once the last pleading or memorandum required by the Rules or by the Court of Appeals is filed.
What the law says
If the petition is given due course, the Court of Appeals may set the case for oral argument or require the parties to submit memoranda within a period of fifteen days from notice.
Rule 43, Section 13 — Submission for decision. Read the full provision →
What the law says
The case shall be deemed submitted for decision upon the filing of the last pleading or memorandum required by these Rules or by the Court of Appeals.
Rule 43, Section 13 — Submission for decision. Read the full provision →
Two options once due course is given
Section 13 mirrors the pattern used elsewhere in the appellate rules: once a Rule 43 petition against a quasi-judicial agency ruling is given due course, the Court of Appeals may set the case for oral argument or require the parties to submit memoranda within a period of fifteen days from notice. It chooses one path or the other depending on what the case needs.
The trigger for submission
Whichever path is chosen, the case reaches the decision stage at a defined moment: the case shall be deemed submitted for decision upon the filing of the last pleading or memorandum required by these Rules or by the Court of Appeals. Nothing earlier — not the due course order, not an earlier brief — counts as submission. If the court instead sets oral argument, the last event contemplated by its own order, rather than a pleading, marks the point the case is ready to be decided.
Why petitioners and respondents should track this
Because so much of Rule 43 practice turns on strict compliance with deadlines, knowing exactly what remains to be filed before the case is submitted lets both sides avoid the risk of an incomplete record at decision time. A party who assumes the case is already submitted, while a required memorandum is still outstanding, may be caught off guard by how the timeline is actually running.
No new pleadings once the case is submitted
Submission for decision is a cutoff, not a formality. Once the last required pleading or memorandum is filed, the Court of Appeals treats the record as complete and proceeds to decide the petition on that basis. A party who wants to introduce additional argument or evidence after that point ordinarily needs leave of court, since the fifteen-day window for oral argument or memoranda under Section 13 is the mechanism the Rules provide for perfecting the record before decision, not an open-ended opportunity to keep filing.
Related provisions
- Rule 43, Section 13 — Submission for decision
- Rule 43, Section 11 — Transmittal of record
- Rule 43, Section 10 — Due course