LuYm family fewd reaches SC

The civil case of Mrs. Gertrudes Nabua and her children Alex Lu, Cayetano Lu Jr., and Julieta Lu against her estranged son Douglas Luym over the accounting of millions of pesos worth of properties left behind by Don Cayetano Ludo is now at the Supreme Court.

The 89-year-old Mrs. Nabua, the common-law wife of the late Don Cayetano, recently petitioned the SC to order the issuance of a writ of execution for the accounting of the properties in her favor.

Mrs. Nabua's lawyer, Makilito Mahinay, asked the higher court to execute the earlier decision of Regional Trial Court Judge Olegario Sarmiento that entitled her to half of the properties of Don Cayetano and ordered Mr. Luym for accounting of the properties.

Last June 16, the SC, in a 12-page decision handed down by 1st division associate justice Consuelo Ynares Santiago, dismissed the petition for indirect contempt filed by Mr. Luym against RTC Judge Sarmiento and lawyer Mahinay.

Mr. Luym however got a favorable ruling later from the Court of Appeals, which denied Mrs. Nabua's motion to dismiss Mr. Luym's appeal. The CA further denied Mrs. Nabua's motion to order Judge Sarmiento to issue the writ of execution.

Mrs. Nabua decided to raise the case again to the SC. Her lawyer Mahinay argued that "the decision of the RTC in the civil case was already final and executory...and therefore can no longer be a subject of an appeal."

Mahinay contended further: "Can the CA validly allow an appeal before it, over an issue which has been already resolved with finality in a decision rendered by (the SC)? Or, Can the CA validly review a final decision of the SC?"

The lawyer said there is only one issue in the case at the CA and that was whether the CA has "set aside or nullified the decision of the RTC in the civil case."

Mahinay then asked the SC to execute Judge Sarmiento's decision that favored Mrs. Nabua for the accounting of the million of pesos worth of inheritance left by Don Cayetano.

Don Cayetano and Mrs. Nabua have 11 children, including Mr. Luym. -Ramil V. Ayuman/RAE