Malayan Insurance Co., Inc., et al. Vs. Emma Concepcion L. Lin
G.R. No. 207277
January 16, 2017
FACTS:
Respondent, Emma Lin is a client of both RCBC and Malayan Insurance Co., Inc. Acquired through various loans from RCBC, she had insured five of the properties which were six clustered warehouses located at Plaridel, Bulacan to Malayan Insurance Co. The insurance was purposed specifically against occurrence of fire for P 56 million and P2 million for the remaining warehouse.
On February 24, 2008 five warehouses were gutted by fire and 2 months after on April 8, 2008, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) issued a Fire Clearance Certification to respondent after having determined that the cause of fire was accidental.
Despite the foregoing, her demand for payment of her insurance claim was denied since the forensic investigators hired by Malayan claimed that the cause was arson instead of accident. Respondent then sought assistance from the Insurance Commission (IC) which, after a reinvestigation into the cause of fire, recommended that Malayan should pay Lin’s insurance claim to accord with BFP’s findings. Nevertheless, Malayan still refused to do so. As against RCBC, Lin averred that notwithstanding of the loss of mortgaged properties, the bank refused to go after Malayan and instead insisted that she herself must pay the loans to the RCBC. The latter also added that foreclosure proceedings would ensue if the former would not comply; to add insult to injury, RCBC has been compounding the interest on her loans, despite the former’s refusal to after Malayan.
Following the aforementioned, respondent then filed a petition to order the petitioners to pay her insurance claim plus interest on the amounts owing her; that the loans and mortgage to RCBC be enjoined from foreclosing the mortgage on the properties put up as collaterals.
Later on June 17, 2010, while the case was being filed, Lin filed an administrative case before the Insurance Commission (IC) against the Malayan represented by Yvonne, thus docketed as Administrative Case No. 431. The purpose is to put Malayan under liability for unfair claim settlement practice under Section 241 in relation to Section 247 of the Insurance Code. Thus, alleging that Malayan’s license to operate as a non-life insurance company should be revoked or suspended until it fully complies with the IC Resolution.
On August 17, 2010, Malayan filed a motion to dismiss Civil Case No. 10-122738 based on forum shopping arguing that the administrative case’s purpose is to prompt IC into ordering the former to pay her claim and that the elements of forum shopping are present; specifically the identity of parties shared the same interests and were represented in both civil and administrative cases.
Motion to dismiss the Civil Case was denied by the RTC for lack of merit. Petitioners then sued out a petition for Certiorari and Prohibition before the CA, whereas it upheld the decision of the RTC. Petitioner moved for a motion for reconsideration which was also denied by CA. Hence, this petition.
ISSUE:
Whether or not the CA erred in not dismissing the Civil Case on the ground of willful and deliberate {forum shopping} despite the fact that the civil case and the administrative case both seek the payment of the same fire insurance claim.
HELD:
No. The SC held that the case at bar is to be governed by the case law rulings in the Go and Almendras cases where it was stressed that an administrative case for unfair claim settlement practice may proceed simultaneously with the civil case for collection of the insurance proceeds filed by at the same claimant since a judgment in one will not amount to res judicata to the other, and vice versa, due to the variance or differences in the issues, in the quantum of evidence, and in the procedure to be followed in prosecuting the cases.
In the present case, petitioners basically insist that Lin committed willful and deliberate forum shopping which warrants the dismissal of her civil case because it is not much different from the administrative case in terms of the parties involved, the causes of action pleaded, and the reliefs prayed for. Petitioners also posit that another ground warranting the dismissal of the civil case was Lin’s failure to notify the RTC about the pendency of the administrative case within five days from the filing thereof.
These above-mentioned arguments will not avail. The proscription against forum shopping is found in Section 5, Rule 7 of the Rules of Court which cover the very essence of forum shopping itself. It is the filing of multiple suits involving the same parties for the same cause of action, either simultaneously, for the purpose of obtaining a favorable judgment. It exists where the elements of litis pendentia are present or where a final judgment in one case will amount to res judicata in another. The settled rule is that criminal and civil cases are altogether different from administrative matters as postulated in Almendras Mining Corporation v. Office of the Insurance Commission.
The Office of the Ombudsman further reiterated and enunciated in the decision that a civil case before the trial court involving recovery of payment of the insured’s insurance claim plus damages, can proceed simultaneously with an administrative case before the I.C. As the afore cited cases are analogous in many aspects to the present case, both in respect to their factual backdrop and in their jurisprudential teachings, the case law ruling in the Almendras and in the Go cases must apply with implacable force to the present case. Consistency alone demands----because of justice cannot be inconsistent, that the final authoritative mandate in the cited cases must produce and end result not much different from the present case.
Wherefore, Petition is DENIED. Costs against petitioners.
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