SC upholds LTO’s interpleader in Stradcom ownership row

The Supreme Court has quashed the bid of businessman Cezar Quiambao to dismiss the interpleader suit filed by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to step into the intra-corporate dispute at Stradcom Corp., the LTO’s information technology services provider.   An interpleader is a third party filing for a court to determine ownership rights of rival claimants to money or property held by that third party, which, in this case is LTO represented by its chief Virginia Torres.   Torres is withholding the P1.2 billion payment for Stradcom services, until the ownership row between Quiambao and rival Bonifacio Sumbilla is settled.   The court en banc also affirmed its Aug. 23, 2011 decision and denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Quiambao to be recognized as the controlling owner of Stradcom.   Quiambao failed to raise new arguments that would convince the court to reverse its decision, the high tribunal said in a four-page resolution.   The LTO’s interpleader suit is properly filed with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to settle Stradcom’s ownership issue, according to the SC.   “… As the Republic, being the payor, it is in a quandary as to which group should be recognized as having legal control over Stradcom and therefore, entitled to payment. It was but appropriate and judicious for the Republic to avail of the interpleader as a remedy under the rules,” the SC ruled.   The LTO noted that the ownership issue of Stradcom confused LTO officers and personnel who were “at a loss as to who it will recognize as the rightful representative of Stradcom Corporation.”   The Quiambao and Sumbilla groups made separate demands for payment from the LTO.   On June 29, 2011, the QC court ordered the Quiambao and Sumbilla groups to interplead and that the P1.2 billion payment be deposited with the court until the ownership issue is resolved.   The SC found the interpleader case the proper course of action. Still it ordered that the case be re-raffled as QC RTC Branch 22, presided by Judge Edgar Dalmacio Santos, where the case was originally raffled off, was not a special commercial court.   “As the action was a special civil action, it was proper for the Republic to file it before the RTC of Quezon City, which had jurisdiction over the action, and to so choose said court in accordance with the rules on venue,” it said. — VS, GMA News