G.R. NO. 169747 - BAN HUA U. FLOREZ AND BAN HA U. CHUA, VS. UBS MARKETING CORPORATION AND JOHNNY K. UY.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

accordingly executed, in June 1987 or thereabout, to formalize the division. Conformably to the terms of the settlement, Johnny and his wife assigned all their holdings and interests in Soon Kee to the Uy sisters and other members of the family, who in turn ceded their interests in UBS to Johnny Uy and/or his wife. The agreed business settlement, however, did not put an end to the family conflict for, on April 6, 1988, before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Johnny Uy and UBS filed a complaint [7] against the Uy sisters, Soon Kee and accountant Roland King, for the recovery of UBS's corporate books of accounts and the accounting of funds/properties belonging to UBS. In said complaint, docketed as SEC Case No. 3328 , Johnny Uy and UBS stated that, before the segregation, the Uy sisters, who were then directors and officers of UBS, had control and custody of UBS' records, funds and property, and that, after the segregation, his demands for an accounting of funds and the turn over of records went unheeded. Instead of an answer, the Uy sisters, et al ., (collectively the Uy Group) filed a motion to dismiss on jurisdictional ground, it being their posture that there is no intra-corporate relationship between the parties to the suit. The following events then transpired: On May 30, 1988, the SEC Hearing Officer denied the Uy Group's motion to dismiss. Eventually, this Court, in its Decision [8] in G.R. Nos. 93832 and 93839 , declared SEC Case No. 3328 as an intra-corporate dispute falling within the SEC's original jurisdiction. When the Court's said decision became final and executory, Johnny Uy moved and was subsequently allowed in SEC Case No. 3328 to present evidence ex-parte . And on the basis of the evidence thus adduced, the SEC Hearing Officer rendered a Decision [9] dated May 3, 1995 , paragraph #2 of the fallo of which commanded the respondents therein to render full and complete accounting of all the assets for both Soon Kee and UBS for the period stated therein. The Uy Group appealed to the SEC en banc which, on December 21, 1995 , in SEC-AC No. 520 , set aside the SEC Hearing Officer's decision save for the adverted paragraph #2 of the dispositive portion thereof. [10] The Uy Group then moved for a partial reconsideration. The SEC en banc per its resolution [11] of June 24, 1996 , while denying reconsideration, dispositively explained that its order dated December 21, 995 affirming the directive of the hearing officer for accounting covers all responsible persons and/or officers who may now have the custody or possession of the books and records of the corporation. While the CA reversed the aforementioned order and resolution of the SEC en banc , [12] this Court, on review, rendered, on May 31, 2000 in G.R. No. 130328 , a Decision [13] setting aside that of the CA and reinstating the heretofore reversed SEC order and resolution, thus: WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Petition is hereby GRANTED. The assailed CA Decision, date