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THE
Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered the Regional Trial
Court in Manila City to reinstate the civil suit filed
by the Bureau of Customs aimed at collecting duties and
taxes of P48.8 million—that includes damages—allegedly
paid with questionable tax- credit certificates by
Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
Associate Justice Rebecca de Guia-Salvador of the CA’s
Eleventh Division ruled that Manila RTC Judge Eduardo
Peralta Jr. acted with haste in dismissing Customs’
complaint on May 17, 2005, noting that the lower court
failed to adhere to Section 3, Rule 17 of the 1997 Rules
of Civil Procedure.
This
section states that a civil action may be dismissed due
to the fault of the plaintiff based on three instances:
if he fails to appear before the scheduled trial without
any justification, if he fails to prosecute his action
for unreasonable length of time, and if he fails to
comply with the rules or any order of the court.
The CA
said the failure of Solicitor Nelia Bandila-Bustria to
appear on two successive trial dates in the case cannot
be considered a dilatory tactic or a prolonged
postponement of the proceedings that would warrant
dismissal because Bustria’s nonattendance on one of the
dates was due to the 3-day hospitalization of her
5-year-old child.
“To
constitute a sufficient ground for dismissal, the
inattention of the plaintiff to pursue his cause must
not only be prolonged but also unnecessary and dilatory,
resulting in the trifling of judicial processes.”
The
appellate court further noted that litigation should be
settled on the merits and not on technicalities. “The
policy of the courts is, finally, to afford every
litigant the amplest opportunity for the proper and just
determination of his case free from constraints and
technicalities…If not for anything else, petitioner’s
complaint should, all told, be reinstated in the
interest of substantial justice to allow the prosecution
of the case without further unnecessary delays.”
The case
was initially set for presentation of evidence on
September 13, 2003, but was rescheduled to November 15,
2004, after Customs counsel deputy commissioner Gil
Valera left the agency.
The
Office of the Solicitor General then took over the case,
but hearings were further rescheduled several times for
valid reasons. The case was finally set for April 26,
2005, and when on that date no counsel for the plaintiff
appeared, the hearing was postponed for the last time
for May 17.
That was
when Bustria failed to appear again—when her child got
sick—leading the lower court to grant Mitsubishi’s
motion to dismiss. |
