Supreme Court junks ABS-CBN counterclaims vs Willie Revillame
The years-long legal battle between ABS-CBN and Willie Revillame has reached its conclusion. The Supreme Court on Aug. 12 junked ABS-CBN's over P1-billion counterclaim against the TV host, who allegedly breached his contract with the company.
In a 22-page decision released on Aug. 15, 2023, the SC Third Division ruled in Revillame's favor and ordered the dismissal of ABS-CBN's Compulsory Counterclaim based on its previous ruling that found the company guilty of "forum shopping."
According to the SC, forum shopping is the "deplorable" practice of filing two or more lawsuits in different courts so they could increase the chances of obtaining a favorable judgment. It, however, could result "in the possibility of different competent tribunals arriving at separate and contradictory decisions."
The battle began on August 23, 2010, when Revillame, who was then the host of ABS-CBN's noontime show Wowowee, officially filed a civil action before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court requesting to "cancel, terminate, and rescind his three-year contract with ABS-CBN."
ABS-CBN then filed its Answer with Compulsory Counterclaim on September 15, 2010, requesting liquidated damages in the amount of over P700 million, along with P400 million "for each further violation by Revillame, or for each week of violation of their contract."
Around this time, Revillame seemingly confirmed his transfer to TV5 and the launch of his new show Willing Willie which is strikingly similar to Wowowee.
On November 24, 2010, ABS-CBN applied for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and/or Writ of Preliminary Injunction against the TV host. This is an effort to "retrain Revillame from performing with TV5, owned by ABC Development Corporation (ABC Corporation)."
The RTC denied the TRO application for the "lack of merit" but ordered Revillame to "post a bond in the amount of P426.917,646.96 as security for any damage that may be inquired by ABS-CBN."
After its TRO denial, ABS-CBN filed a copyright infringement suit before the Makati RTC against Revillame, ABC Corporation, Wilproductions, Inc., and one Ray Espinosa on the similar ground of alleged contract violation. ABC Corporation and Espinosa then appealed to the Court of Appeals (CA) to "restrain the Makati RTC from proceeding with the copyright infringement case."
The CA favored ABC Corporation and Espinosa, concluding that ABS-CBN had committed "forum shopping" for filing two suits: (1) its Compulsory Counterclaim at the Quezon City RTC and (2) the Complaint for Copyright Infringement at the Makati RTC. They found that both cases are based on the same reason—Revillame's alleged breach of contract with ABS-CBN.
Quezon City RTC was then ordered by the court to continue with the pending civil case but without ABS-CBN's compulsory counterclaim.