Lawyer sues judge, sheriff over mall closure

MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer is suing a municipal trial court (MTC) judge and a sheriff for damages in connection with last year’s closure of a shopping mall in Metro Manila.

In a complaint filed before the Parañaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) last week, lawyer Salvador Hababag accused MTC Branch 78 Judge Ramsey Domingo Pichay and court sheriff Hildo Epres of “unlawful and willful” confiscation of his company’s properties when Uniwide Coastal Mall Plaza was padlocked on Oct. 29, 2014 arising from a legal dispute between Uniwide Holdings Inc. (UHI) with its lessor, Manila Bay Development Corp. (MBDC).

Hababag said he is president of First Paragon, one of the mall tenants whose properties were seized by Epres and then turned over to MBDC despite the failure of either the sheriff or MBDC to post a bond to cover these assets, as required by law.

The lawyer said Pichay should not have ordered Epres to confiscate the mall tenants’ properties since they are not part of the legal dispute.

He wants the judge, sheriff and MBDC to pay P100,000 in exemplary damages and P200,000 in attorney’s fees plus lawsuit and litigation expenses.

UHI chairman Jimmy Gow had earlier filed his own damage suit against Pichay, Epres and MBDC in connection with the padlocking of the mall and its auction last April.

He said the MBDC was allegedly “pre-ordained” as the winner with the highest bid of P32.025 million, which was “a grossly insufficient amount,” given the Coastal Mall building’s estimated value of P2.7 billion.

Gow alleged that the mall’s closure, which led to the layoff of some 2,000 mall employees just before the Christmas season started, was done on the basis of an Oct. 10, 2014 eviction notice and Oct. 15, 2014 writ of execution issued by Pichay in favor of Uniwide’s lessor MBDC.

The mall remains padlocked despite an injunction order issued by the Parañaque RTC Branch 257 on Nov. 14 to reopen the mall and return the confiscated assets to UHI and the mall tenants pending a final court resolution of the dispute, Gow said.