CONSTRUCTION magnate Reghis M. Romero II has won a round in the Court of Appeals in the long-running court battle with port operators allied with his estranged son.
The appellate court recently ruled the elder Romero should not be stopped from claiming ownership of the disputed Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI)—at least for now.
In an 18-page decision dated Aug. 18, the court’s 17th Division annulled the June 9 order of Pasig Regional Trial Court Judge Rolando G. Mislang directing Romero and his firms—R-II Holdings Inc., and R-II Builders Inc.—to refrain from representing themselves as owners of HCPTI.
Prejudged case
The appeals court said the Pasig judge had prejudged the merits of the case filed by One Source Port Support Services Inc., the port operator that sought to prevent its ejection by Romero. Mislang’s order also touched upon extraneous matters beyond One Source’s civil suit, the CA said.
“It is legally absurd to touch upon and indirectly resolve in the specific performance case the issues on ownership of HCPTI… In doing so, the Pasig RTC acted in excess of its jurisdiction as it had prejudged the merits of the case and encroached upon the jurisdiction and preempted the decision of the other courts,” said the decision penned by Associate Justice Ramon A. Cruz.
The Pasig court also committed grave abuse of discretion as the order would effectively prevent Reghis Romero from pursuing his cases in other courts, even up to the Supreme Court.
No hearing
The appeals court also noted that the order was issued without a hearing, and that it expanded upon a Dec. 1, 2014, temporary restraining order whose 20-day period had long lapsed.
Romero did not appeal Mislang’s order before the Pasig court but went straight to the Court of Appeals.
The appeals court said it dispensed with the requirement of a motion for reconsideration due to the public interest involved.
The court clarified that its recent decision did not resolve the HCPTI ownership dispute, which would be left to the trial courts.
One Source’s assertion of its rights under a 2007 service contract is but one of the many legal disputes hounding Romero’s group since he wrested HCPTI control from his son, Michael, through a special stockholders’ meeting on Feb. 11, 2014.
A Manila trial court is tackling the issue of the takeover, as Reghis sued his son before a Quezon City court for allegedly falsifying his ownership of the port facility. Michael Romero is now the nominee of 1PACMAN party-list group in Congress.
As for the judge, the Supreme Court on July 26 ordered Mislang’s dismissal for gross ignorance of the law for issuing orders stopping the Department of Justice from probing and indicting Globe Asiatique president Delfin S. Lee for syndicated estafa in another case.