The Court of Appeals (CA) has denied the appeal of former Department of Justice (DOJ) Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar who sought reconsideration of its order dismissing his petition against a Manila court’s order that he stand trial for breach of contract and damages lodged by a private company, in connection with the unpaid payments for the production of public awareness shows against human trafficking.
In a resolution promulgated on January 10, the CA’s Former Special Division held that Salazar did not present new arguments in his motion to warrant a reconsideration of its Sept.16, 2022 decision.
“The matters raised by petitioner in his motion has been considered, weighed and passed upon by the Court in said decision,” the resolution stated.
“The motion thus fails to present any new and substantial matter, or any cogent and compelling reason which would justify reconsideration of the Court’s ruling. Wherefore, the motion for reconsideration is denied for lack of merit,” it said.
The decision penned by Associate Justice Fernanda Lampas Peralta was concurred in by Associate Justices Roberto Quiroz and Pablito Perez.
In its assailed decision, the appellate court said the Manila Regional Trial Court did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it denied Salazar’s motion to dismiss the complaint filed by Wall City Entertainment, Incorporated against him, the Inter-Agency Council
Against Trafficking and IACAT-member agencies.
That decision stemmed from a complaint filed by Wall City, a company engaged in multi-media production and established by Intramuros-based JS Contractor, Inc., a company engaged in the recruitment and deployment of overseas Filipino workers, on December 6, 2017 accusing Salazar, IACAT and member-agencies of breach of contract after IACAT only paid P429,750 for expenses incurred in the production of shows for the IACAT TV operations.
Subsequent efforts of Wall City to get paid for services rendered from November 2014 to October 2016.
As DOJ Undersecretary and Undersecretary in-charge of IACAT, Salazar invited Wall City to present its concept on doing promotional shows against human trafficking.
He also signed the Memorandum of Agreement with Wall City.
Salazar, according to the complaint, also gave assurances that IACAT member-agencies would cooperate and fulfill their obligations under the MOA.
In February 2017, then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II refused to pay arguing that under the memorandum of agreement, the implementation of IACAT TV would be at no cost to IACAT and the conduct of promotional activities was subject to prior approval of its member-agencies.
Salazar has argued that the complaint failed to state a cause of action against him, that he could not be held personally liable under the MOA since he acted in good faith and within the scope of his authority, and that he did not violate Wall City’s legal right nor does he failed to perform any correlative obligation.
Salazar, who left the DOJ on August 5, 2015, also said he was not personally liable for the alleged breach of contract as he only acted within the scope of his authority as IACAT representative.
He also said he never told Wall City that he could compel IACAT member-agencies to comply with the MOA nor did he commit any misrepresentation that would warrant the award of actual, moral, and exemplary damages to Wall City.
But Branch 17 of the Manila RTC denied Salazar’s motion to junk the complaint while Branch 10 reaffirmed the finding that he is a real party-in-interest in the case.
The CA also said a perusal of the material allegations in the complaint readily shows the cause of action against him for breach of contract.
