• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The petition of Vallacar Transit Inc. matriarch Olivia V. Yanson (OVY) for the annulment of deeds of extra-judicial settlement of estate, reconveyance and prayer for the issuance of temporary restraining order, and/or preliminary injunction, and or/status quo ante has been dismissed by the Regional Trial Court in Bacolod City.
In an order dated Oct. 2 this year, Branch 42 Presiding Judge Maria Lina Gonzaga said she ordered the dismissal without prejudice on the petition of Yanson.
The defendants in the petition, as stated in the Civil Case No. 18-15199, are the Yanson siblings Roy, Emily, Ma. Lourdes Celina and Ricardo Yanson Jr., also known as the Y4.
Gonzaga noted that OVY’s counsel filed an amended complaint on Oct. 11, 2018 only to be amended by a second complaint on Sept. 25, 2019.
Then on Sept. 25 this year, the plaintiff counsel subsequently moved to withdraw the second amended complaint and to continue the proceedings under the first amended complaint, according to a statement issued by the Narvasa Law Office, whose services were hired by the Y4.
The court noted that plaintiff and counsels, through submission of the second amended complaint and the subsequent withdrawal of the same after the lapse of more than two years, excluding the pandemic years, showed a proclivity to trifle with the court process as further proven through the prayer to continue the proceedings under Oct. 11, 2018 complaint, the Narvasa Law Office quoted Gonzaga’s order as saying.
The plaintiff received the Aug. 11, 2023 order in Aug. 24 through electronic mail, which the counsel acknowledged on the same day.
It was given until Sept. 8, 2023 to comply with the court’s order.
The Narvasa Law Office press statement further quoted the judge, who said that instead of filing compliance, the plaintiff filed the second withdrawal of the second amended complaint, withdrawal of counsel’s appearance and a second motion for extension to file compliance.
It added that Gonzaga stated that these actions have taken up the court’s precious time, which could have been spent resolving other more important cases.
The statement further said that Gonzaga also denied the withdrawal of Atty. Melanio Elvis Balayan as plaintiff counsel, since it failed to contain any valid reason.
Records show that plaintiff failed to comply with the court’s order until this timen and despite the lapse of 17 days, plaintiff did not file compliance but asked for extension instead, the judge said.
The complaint is, as it should be, ordered dismissed without prejudice, Gonzaga stated in the order.
According to the Narvasa Law Office, Ricardo B. Yanson (RBY) Sr., the founder of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies (YGBC) died intestate, or without leaving a will, on Oct. 25, 2015.
Subsequently, his compulsory heirs — OVY and their six children — executed extra-judicial settlement of his estate on Dec. 16, 2015 and amended later on Dec. 20, 2017 to include all existing properties not found in the first extra-judicial settlement in order to partition and distribute RBY’s entire estate among themselves, taking cue from the shareholders’ agreement all of them — both parents, six children and the latter’s spouses — acquiesced into earlier on Oct. 10, 2013 where they all agreed to a seamless transfer ultimately of all shares in the bus companies to be divided equally among the six Yanson siblings, the law office’s statement said.
In the dismissal of the Civil Case No. 18-15199 or OVY’s challenge to the legality and validity of the extra-judicial settlement, it means that she and their faction, which includes Leo Rey Yanson and Ginette Yanson-Dumancas, had failed to invalidate the extra-judicial settlement deeds until now, it added. | GB
