Steel firm wants 3 CA justices to inhibit selves

MANILA, Philippines - Three justices of the Court of Appeals (CA) have been asked to inhibit from the case involving a $42-million insurance claim by a steel firm.

The Steel Corp. of the Philippines (SCP) formally sought the inhibition of Justices Fernanda Lampas Peralta, Priscilla Baltazar-Padilla and Agnes Reyes-Carpio, members of the former 14th division of the appellate court that issued a decision last Feb. 8 reversing an earlier ruling of Balayan, Batangas regional trial court ordering a panel of insurers to pay its claims.

SCP, through its vice president and corporate legal counsel Nonnatus Chua, accused the three magistrates of “manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence” when they declared as null and void the RTC order dated June 1, 2011 awarding SCP’s insurance claims in the total amount of $42 million or, in lieu thereof, replace or reinstate its damaged equipment.

In its motion, the firm cited the alleged “indecent haste by which the ponente, Justice Peralta, together with the two other members of her division, issued the writ of preliminary injunction and shortly thereafter, the aforesaid decision against SCP, as well as her flip-flopping in the admission of SCP’s reply memorandum, and her refusal to conform to the Supreme Court decision dated Aug. 11, 2010 in the case of China Banking Corp. vs. Cebu Printing and Packaging Corp.”

SCP was also able to ascertain from the face of the CA decision that it was promulgated at 11:30 a.m. last Feb. 8 and was served personally upon SCP’s counsel at 3:15 p.m. of the same day - or in less than four hours.

SCP said that it was with the same indecent haste that Justice Peralta issued the writ of preliminary injunction against SCP based solely on the panel of insurers’ allegation, through its lawyers, De Guzman San Diego Mejia & Hernandez Law Offices, led by Nestor Mejia, that allowing SCP to collect on its insurance claim “will be the death knell of the petitioners’ respective businesses and, without doubt, will spell the end of the whole insurance industry in the Philippines”.

Chua, SCP chief legal counsel, questioned why Peralta immediately believed the insurers’ claim that they would go bankrupt if ordered to pay without even asking them for supporting evidence.

The lawyer said the insurers’ claim was subsequently proven false when one of the insurers (Standard Insurance Co. Inc.) did not join the appeal and instead, paid its corresponding share without suffering financial difficulty.

Chua said that the insurers’ claim is preposterous and baseless because local insurers are required by law to reinsure the risks undertaken by them so that, in the event of a claim, they will pay out of their own pockets only the portion not covered by reinsurance, with the reinsurers shouldering the bulk of the amount.