THE Court of Appeals (CA) has referred to the Office of the Court Administration (OCA) for investigating a trial court judge who stopped the implementation of a final and executory decision it issued and affirmed by the Supreme Court (SC).
The CA decision that the judged stopped from being implemented ordered the eviction of wholesale and retail chain Uniwide Holdings Inc. (UHI) from the Coastal Mall property in Parañaque City and to pay almost P1 billion in unpaid rental and liquidated damages.
In a 20-page decision written by Associate Justice Ramon Cruz, the CA’s former Seventh Division said the actuations of Judge Rolando How of Branch 257 of the Regional Trial Court in Parañaque were “an affront to the CA and SC.”
“His attempt to forestall a final and executory judgment of no less than the highest tribunal of the land constitutes a disrespectful and insolent defiance of the authority and impedes the speedy administration of justice,” the CA ruled.
On March 4, 2015, the SC issued an entry of judgment stating that the order by the Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) in Parañaque City Branch 78 on September 28, 2010, and the CA ordering UHI to vacate the 100,000-square-meter property of Manila Bay Development Corp. (MBDC) owned by businessman Jacinto Ng has become final and executory.
However, in an order issued on November 5, 2014, How granted the petition filed by UHI seeking the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction against the implementation of the said final and executory decision, saying that the order to vacate was “premature and void”.
“Had he thoroughly reviewed the records of the case, it would have been impossible for him to miss or to misread the import of the said resolutions. By his acts, Judge Rolando How has tried to prevent MBDC from enjoying the fruits of its hard-earned legal victory,” the CA said.
“In effect, he has been tying the hands of justice and preventing it from taking its due course. His conduct has thwarted the due execution of a final and executory decision,” the appellate court added.
The CA said How must answer why he should not be sanctioned for his failure to properly apply the relevant laws, rules and jurisprudence. “When the laws are sufficiently basic, a judge owes it to his office to simply apply it, and anything less than that would be constitutive of gross ignorance of the law,” the CA pointed out.
Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Noel Tijam and Romeo Barza.
In 1993 MBDC leased to businessman Jimmy Gow the subject property at the Central Business Park II Complex, Reclamation Area in Parañaque City.
Gow subsequently assigned his rights and interests to UHI, which failed to pay monthly rentals. MBDC also discovered that UHI had not been paying realty taxes on the improvements it made on the property.
This prompted MBDC to file a complaint for unlawful detainer and damages before the MTC in Parañaque, seeking to direct UHI to vacate the premises and to pag their rentals in arrears and reimburse MBDC for payments made on realty taxes.
In a ruling issued in September 2010, the MTC in Parañaque directed UHI to vacate the subject property and to pay MBDC the amount of P715.73 million, representing accrued rentals and liquidated damages, with legal interest at the rate of 6 percent per year from the date of judgment. The CA affirmed the said ruling with some modifications, which prompted UHI to elevate the matter before the SC. In a resolution issued on April 7, 2014, the SC denied with finality UHI’s appeal.