CA dismisses P100M GMA suit vs ABS-CBN

MANILA, Philippines—The Court of Appeals has granted the petition of Lopez-owned television network ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. to dismiss the P100 million civil suit filed against it by GMA Network Inc.

ABS-CBN accused GMA of stealing a video footage of the arrival and press conference of Iraqi hostage victim Angelo Dela Cruz in 2004.

On account of their existing agreement, ABS-CBN’s news coverage was also carried by Reuters Television Service, on the condition that any footage coming from ABS-CBN would be categorized by Reuters under “embargo” against use by its other subscribers in the country.

But since GMA was a subscriber of both Reuters and CNN, it received the live video feed of the coverage of said arrival that was beamed by Reuters from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Immediately, GMA carried the Reuters feed in its flash news report simultaneously with its own live broadcast.

GMA later explained that it did notice that what Reuters was airing were footages of ABS-CBN and that said live video was under embargo in favor of the Lopez-owned station.

Following the incident, GMA claimed that ABS-CBN aired a report about its alleged violation of ABS-CBN’s intellectual property rights.

GMA then filed a complaint against ABS-CBN for the alleged defamatory statements it issued against them.

In a resolution issued on Dec. 3, 2004, the complaint for libel was dismissed by the Office of the City Prosecutor of Quezon City for lack of probable cause.

GMA appealed the resolution to the Department of Justice which was also later denied. The motion for reconsideration of the denial is still pending before the DOJ.

Then, GMA filed its complaint for damages in November 2005 with the QC RTC which was later dismissed by the court due to prescription.

Under the Civil Code, a civil case for defamation must be filed within one year.

However, acting on the motion for reconsideration of GMA, the trial court reinstated the civil case for damages prompting ABS-CBN to go to the Court of Appeals.

In a seven-page decision, the appeals court’s 6th division through Associate Justice Florito Macalino nullified the rulings of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court dated Dec. 17, 2007 and July 18, 2008 that reinstated the civil case of GMA against ABS-CBN.

The appeals court said QC RTC Branch 216 presiding Judge Ofelia Arellano Marquez  violated Section 2, Rule 111 of the Rules of Court when she ordered the reinstatement GMA’s civil suit despite the pendency of the criminal complaint for libel filed by GMA against ABS-CBN based on the same incident.

Under the rules, “after the criminal action has been commenced, the separate civil action arising therefore cannot be instituted until final judgment has been entered in the criminal action.”

It added that if the criminal complaint was filed after the civil suit had already been instituted, “the latter shall be suspended in whatever stage it may be found before judgment on the merits.”

“Despite the availability of the separate civil action for damages to the private respondents, however, they cannot file the same in view of the pendency of their criminal complaint. There should be nothing to suspend since the criminal action was filed ahead of the separate civil action.”

“The public respondent should have dismissed this civil action and should have reinstated and suspended it while the criminal action is not yet disposed of. The assailed orders, as such, are patently void for being contrary to law,” the appeals court said.