A Bacolod City Regional Trial Court has junked a petition filed by the Yanson 4 against their youngest sibling and long-time president Leo Rey Yanson (LRY) of the country’s biggest bus company for forum shopping.
“Wherefore, the instant Petition for Injunction filed by plaintiffs, Roy V. Yanson (RVY), Emily V. Yanson, Ma. Lourdes Celina Yanson-Lopez and Ricardo V. Yanson Jr. against defendant Leo Rey V. Yanson is hereby DISMISSED for lack of merit,” the court decision read.
Branch 45 Judge Phoebe Gargantiel-Balbin, in a five-page Sept. 24 resolution, said “the rule is clear that forum shopping is a ground for dismissal of a case.”
Last Aug. 15, the Yanson 4 filed the instant petition for injunction against LRY to invalidate his call of a special stockholders’ meeting on Aug. 19.
But Gargantiel-Balbin said the plaintiffs’ filing of the instant petition “squarely falls under the definition of Forum Shopping, which exists when, as a result of an adverse judgment in one forum, a party seeks another and possibly favorable judgment in another forum rather than appeal or special civil action for certiorari.”
Branch 53 Judge Eduardo Sayson earlier dismissed the petition for a 72-hour temporary restraining order filed by the Yanson 4 against LRY to stop him from performing as the president of the multibillion-peso Vallacar Transit Inc. under the Yanson Group of Bus Companies.
“The determination of all corporate concerns between the parties could be best resolved with finality and without conflicting judgment if lodged in one court alone. This is the purpose of the rule against forum shopping,” Gargantiel-Balbin pointed out.
“This is the purpose of the rule against forum shopping. With these findings, this Court will not anymore discuss the other ground of splitting a single cause of action cited by defendant (Leo Rey) in his Opposition,” she invoked.
From a 14-seater jeepney plying only a single route, the Yanson patriach, Ricardo Sr., and his wife, Olivia, founded the parent company, Ceres Bus Lines, that eventually evolved into the multibillion-peso Vallacar Transit Inc. with 18,000 employees and 4,800 buses operating in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Ricardo Sr., who passed away in 2015, left the multibillion-peso transportation empire to his youngest son LRY.
The eldest sibling, Roy, in a stockholders’ meeting on July 7, a Sunday, issued a board resolution to oust LRY as company president and to illegally take over the management.
The Yanson 4 filed a TRO petition before the sala of Sayson, insisting that their July 7 board resolution was legal.
LRY offered a solution to his siblings by “toss coin,” but they refused.
