A regional trial court in Bacolod City junked a petition filed by four Yanson siblings against their youngest brother who serves as the president of Vallacar Transit Inc., the country’s largest bus company, for alleged forum shopping.
Bacolod City RTC Branch 45 Judge Phoebe Gargantiel-Balbin, in a five-page order dated Sept. 24, dismissed the petition for injunction filed by plaintiffs Roy Yanson, Emily Yanson, Ma. Lourdes Celina Yanson-Lopez and Ricardo Yanson Jr. against Leo Rey Yanson for lack of merit.
Gargantiel-Balbin said “the rule is clear that forum shopping is a ground for dismissal of a case.”
The Yanson 4 on Aug. 15 filed the instant petition for injunction against Leo Ray to invalidate his call for a special stockholders’ meeting on Aug. 19. In that meeting, the stockholders including Yanson matriarch Olivia Yanson, elected Leo Rey Yanson, Olivia Yanson, Ginnette Dumancas and Charles Dumancas as members of the board of directors.
Following the election of the new directors, the board held a re-organizational meeting and re-elected Leo Rey Yanson as the president of the company.
Also elected were Charles Dumancas as vice president, Ginnette Dumancas as treasurer and Olivia Yanson as corporate secretary.
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 Leo Rey 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 said.
“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 said.
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 Leo Rey.
The eldest sibling, Roy, in a stockholders’ meeting on July 7 (Sunday), issued a board resolution to oust Leo Rey as company president and to 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. Leo Rey offered a solution to his siblings by “toss coin”, but they refused.
