Court fines MIB head for ‘forum shopping’

The Baguio City Regional Trial Court Branch 59 has found Multinational Investment Bancorporation (MIB) chairman Ramon Ilusorio and his lawyer Manuel Singson guilty of contempt of court and ordered them to pay a fine of P30,000 each.

The court penalized Ilusorio and Singson for "forum-shopping," or the filing of multiple suits involving the same parties and the same subject matter. Forum-shopping is prohibited by law and is punishable as an act of contempt.

The case stemmed from the expulsion proceedings conducted by the Baguio City Club (BCC) against Ilusorio, who was charged with immoral, offensive and gross misconduct committed within its premises and against the then chairman for life, the late Potenciano Ilusorio.

From Nov. 24, 1999 to March 2000, Ilusorio, with the assistance of Singson, filed four cases at the SEC that sought to obtain a writ of preliminary injunction against the BBC to stop further proceedings for his expulsion. The court found that Ilusorio waived his application for injunction and then later sought to recover the same by filing a second injunction suit. Ilusorio lost his application for a second inunction order and then filed a third suit where he was finally able to obtain it.

The court ruled that Ilusorio and Singson committed forum-shopping after receiving an adverse judgment rendered from one forum, then sought another and possibly favorable decision in another forum. This action is considered an act of malpractice that is prohibited and condemned as it clogs the court dockets.