Hing v Choachuy 699 SCRA 667

FACTS:

On August 23, 2005, petitioner-spouses Bill and Victoria Hing filed with the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of
Mandaue City a Complaintfor Injunction and Damages with prayer for issuance of a Writ of Preliminary
Mandatory Injunction/Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), docketed as Civil Case MAN-5223 and raffled
to Branch 28, against respondents Alexander Choachuy, Sr. and Allan Choachuy.

Petitioners alleged that they are the registered owners of a parcel of land (Lot 1900-B) covered by
Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) No. 42817 situated in Barangay Basak, City of Mandaue, Cebu;that
respondents are the owners of Aldo Development & Resources, Inc. (Aldo) located at Lots 1901 and
1900-C, adjacent to the property of petitioners;that respondents constructed an auto-repair shop
building (Aldo Goodyear Servitec) on Lot 1900-C; that in April 2005, Aldo filed a case against petitioners
for Injunction and Damages with Writ of Preliminary Injunction/TRO, docketed as Civil Case No. MAN-
5125;that in that case, Aldo claimed that petitioners were constructing a fence without a valid permit
and that the said construction would destroy the wall of its building, which is adjacent to petitioners
property;that the court, in that case, denied Aldos application for preliminary injunction for failure to
substantiate its allegations;that, in order to get evidence to support the said case, respondents on June
13, 2005 illegally set-up and installed on the building of Aldo Goodyear Servitec two video surveillance
cameras facing petitioners property;that respondents, through their employees and without the consent
of petitioners, also took pictures of petitioners on-going construction;and that the acts of respondents
violate petitioners right to privacy.Thus, petitioners prayed that respondents be ordered to remove the
video surveillance cameras and enjoined from conducting illegal surveillance.

In their Answer with Counterclaim,respondents claimed that they did not install the video surveillance
cameras,nor did they order their employees to take pictures of petitioners construction.They also
clarified that they are not the owners of Aldo but are mere stockholders.

On October 18, 2005, the RTC issued an Ordergranting the application for a TRO.

Respondents moved for a reconsiderationbut the RTC denied the same in its Orderdated February 6,
2006.

Aggrieved, respondents filed with the CA a Petition for Certiorariunder Rule 65 of the Rules of Court
with application for a TRO and/or Writ of Preliminary Injunction.

On July 10, 2007, the CA issued its Decisiongranting the Petition for Certiorari. The CA ruled that the
Writ of Preliminary Injunction was issued with grave abuse of discretion because petitioners failed to
show a clear and unmistakable right to an injunctive writ.The CA explained that the right to privacy of
residence under Article 26(1) of the Civil Code was not violated since the property subject of the
controversy is not used as a residence. The CA alsosaid that since respondents are not the owners of the
building, they could not have installed video surveillance cameras.They are mere stockholders of Aldo,
which has a separate juridical personality.Thus, they are not the proper parties.

ISSUE:

1. Whether or not there is a violation of petitioners right to privacy?

2. Whether or not respondents are the proper parties to this suit?

Held

REMEDEIAL LAW: A real party defendant

Section 2, Rule 3 of the Rules of Court provides:

SEC. 2. Parties-in-interest. A real party-in-interest is the party who stands to be benefited or injured by
the judgment in the suit, or the party entitled to the avails of the suit. Unless otherwise authorized by
law or these Rules, every action must be prosecuted or defended in the name of the real party-in-
interest.

A real party defendant is "one who has a correlative legal obligation to redress a wrong done to the
plaintiff by reason of the defendants act or omission which had violated the legal right of the former."

In ruling that respondents are not the proper parties, the CA reasoned that since they do not own the
building, they could not have installed the video surveillance cameras. Such reasoning, however, is
erroneous. The fact that respondents are not the registered owners of the building does not
automatically mean that they did not cause the installation of the video surveillance cameras.

In their Complaint, petitioners claimed that respondents installed the video surveillance cameras in
order to fish for evidence, which could be used against petitioners in another case.During the hearing of
the application for Preliminary Injunction, petitioner Bill testified that when respondents installed the
video surveillance cameras, he immediately broached his concerns but they did not seem to care,and
thus, he reported the matter to the barangay for mediation, and eventually, filed a Complaint against
respondents before the RTC.He also admitted that as early as 1998 there has already been a dispute
between his family and the Choachuy family concerning the boundaries of their respective
properties.With these factual circumstances in mind, we believe that respondents are the proper parties
to be impleaded.

Moreover, although Aldo has a juridical personality separate and distinct from its stockholders, records
show that it is a family-owned corporation managed by the Choachuy family.

Also quite telling is the fact that respondents, notwithstanding their claim that they are not owners of
the building, allowed the court to enter the compound of Aldo and conduct an ocular inspection. The
counsel for respondents even toured Judge Marilyn Lagura-Yap inside the building and answered all her
questions regarding the set-up and installation of the video surveillance cameras.And when respondents
moved for reconsideration of the Order dated October 18, 2005 of the RTC, one of the arguments they
raised is that Aldo would suffer damages if the video surveillance cameras are removed and
transferred.Noticeably, in these instances, the personalities of respondents and Aldo seem to merge.

All these taken together lead us to the inevitable conclusion that respondents are merely using the
corporate fiction of Aldo as a shield to protect themselves from this suit. In view of the foregoing, we
find that respondents are the proper parties to this suit.