Supreme Court (File photo)
MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) to proceed with the collection case filed by a foundation against a learning institution in Mabalacat, Pampanga.
In a recent 14-page resolution written by Associate Justice Ramon Hernando, the SC Second Division remanded back to the Makati court the case filed by the Santos Ventura Hocorma Foundation Inc. (SVHFI) against the Mabalacat Institute Inc. (MII), now known as the Don Teodoro V. Santos Institute.
The Makati RTC Branch 150 was directed to continue proceedings to demand rental payments of PHP2.51 million from MII for the 11.451-square-kilometer property owned by SVHFI.
The foundation said MII has not been paying rent since 1983.
The SC reversed the 2013 ruling of the Court of Appeals which, along with the Makati RTC, dismissed the suit filed by SVHFI for forum shopping, citing two different suits in violation of the rules.
One case was for the collection of the rental sum before the Makati court in 2002 and the other for ejectment before the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Mabalacat and Magalang, Pampanga in 2006.
“The collection case requires a full-blown trial for the parties to show evidence on the propriety of paying rent and its rightful amount. These may not be accomplished in an ejectment proceeding that is summary in nature. Therefore, this Court finds SVHFI not guilty of forum shopping when it filed the ejectment case subsequent to the collection case, while the latter is still pending,” the SC said. (PNA)
