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CA drops claims by Belo, Santos in Flawless


The Court of Appeals has denied the consolidated petitions filed by Vicky Belo, and her former live-in partner, Jose Santos, in their dispute over the ownership of 24,998 shares of stock of Forever Flawless Face and Body Center Inc. Forever Flawless owns a chain of skin and medical clinics in various parts of the country. In a 21-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Florito Macalino, the appellate court’s Special Sixth Division held that there was no grave abuse of discretion on the part of a Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Reynaldo Daway when he dismissed on May 29, 2009 the separate motions filed by Belo and Santos. The trial court denied Santos’ request to dismiss the interpleader filed by Forever Flawless to resolve the ownership dispute between Belo and Santos over the equity shares in Forever Flawless. An interpleader, in this case, is a legal procedure to find out who between Belo and Santo making the same claim over the shares against Forever Flawless has the rightful claim over the shares. Forever Flawless also asked the trial court that should Santos be judged as the owner of the shares, it given the right to turn down his request to inspect the clinics because he had already set up the Obagi Skin Health Inc., operator of the House of Obagi, a direct competitor of Forever Flawless. Belo, however, wants the Quezon City court to declare Santos in default for failing to answer the court summons within the 15-day provision. As such, the court should rule in favor of Forever Flawless, according to Belo’s request. QC RTC Judge Reynaldo Daway, in denying the motions of Belo and Santos, said that the issue should be resolved based on its merits. The Appellate Court said that the trial court was right in denying Santos’s motion to dismiss the interpleader since it is prohibited under the Intra-Corporate Rules as the grounds he cited for the dismissal of the complaints should have been states and not defenses. “Although the answers of Santos is directed at the allegations in the complaints filed by [Forever Flawless], the matters he set forth therein dealt with the points requested to be admitted. To answer the request would only be a reiteration of what had been earlier agreed," the Appellate Court said. The case stemmed from a dispute over the ownership of 24,998 shares of stock of Forever Flawless registered under the name of Santos. In a letter dated Nov. 6, 2007, Santos demanded that Forever Flawless provide him with copies of certain corporate books and records as part of his rights under Sec. 74 of the Corporation Code and said that he will be inspecting the documents. Belo, however, told Forever Flawless that she and her children were the true owners of the shares that are held in trust by Santos in their favor. The claims Belo and Santos placed over the same shares prompted Forever Flawless to file an interpleader before the trial court on May 21, 2008. The Appellate Court also noted that Belo claimed that Santos was 14 days late in filing his objections to the summons which was finally served at his house in Bulacan through his female caretaker. Santos denied that he received the summons, and the CA noted that Belo was not able to describe the female caretaker who received the order. “It can be said that the female caretaker is of sufficient age but we not find her of sufficient discretion. There is no indication that she comprehended the weight of receiving the discovery devices or the importance of these documents, especially more so if it is considered that Santos claims that he did not receive these documents at his Bulacan address. Hence, we cannot start the counting of the reglementary period on January 16, 2009," the appellate court ruled. Court records showed that Belo and business partner Rubby Coyuito contributed and equally paid the capital and expenses to form and incorporate the facial, body care, and cosmetics business, and the establishment of its first branch in SM Megamall. Without contributing a single centavo to the business, Santos was assigned 24,998 Forever Flawless shares by Belo owing to that fact that they were in a relationship, according to the court documents, and that Belo then asked Santos to act as her and her children’s nominee-stockholder of Forever Flawless. Thus the subject shares were registered in trust under his name. It wasn’t long before things soured between Belo and Santos, who had sought a directorship in the firm, having supposedly acquired 25 percent shares of stock in the company while he and Belo were living together as “husband and wife," according to case records. Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Juan Enriquez Jr. and Normandie Pizarro. —JE/VS, GMANews.TV

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