Love and lawsuits

(Yesterday’s column)

“How to get sued” is a hilarious yet truthful look into the world of litigation. Its author, J. Craig Williams, is a practicing lawyer in California and is one of my earliest online acquaintances when I started blogging in 2003. I went on to write for the print media; Craig became a broadcast media personality and, quite recently, a book author. Weeks prior to the launch of “How to get sued,” Craig sent me an e-mail asking whether I was interested in a copy. Of course I was.

“How to get sued” is not a guide on how to test the limits of the law as the title may suggest but, rather, an illustration that everything we do in life can lead to us getting slapped with lawsuits even if we do not break the law. A lawsuit, after all, does not always spring from the commission of a crime. Most lawsuits begin with conflict of personal and very private interests. It’s an observation that I wholeheartedly agree with.

Craig lists the top 10 ways to get sued and at the top of his list is falling in love. Not many people may be aware of it or, perhaps, most people would rather not be vocal about it, but lawsuits arising from romantic relationships are countless. Craig cites stories culled from court decisions; the interesting thing is that these stories are repeated the world over every single day. A common issue: Is the girl entitled to keep the engagement ring if the marriage does not take place? And that’s just one of the many instances that lead to lawsuits among lovers who don’t even make it to the altar. Back in my freshman year in the U.P. College of Law, we read Supreme Court decisions and learned, for instance, that a promise to marry is not actionable. If Boy promises to marry Girl then changes his mind, Girl cannot sue him for specific performance. But, if expenses have been incurred (wedding gown, caterer, gifts, etc.), and especially, if the jilting subjected Girl to public humiliation, Boy might be liable for damages although he still cannot be compelled to marry Girl.

When a marriage takes place, the reasons for suing multiply. Annulment, divorce and legal separation are only three kinds of lawsuits involving married couples and they do not constitute the bulk of spouse versus spouse litigation. Most begin with squabbles over money.

Infidelity also spawns lawsuits. And it is not always about rights of illegitimate children or the mistresses’ right to own property that rightfully belongs to the community property of the husband and his legal wife. Sometimes, the wronged wife seeks more.

Take the case of the female lawyer who fell in love with a married man who was already the father of four children. They lived together and she gave birth to a daughter. When the wife learned of the affair, she confronted the female lawyer who assured her that her relationship with the husband was over. It was a lie the wife would later discover. That was when she filed an administrative case to get the female lawyer disbarred. During the proceedings, the female lawyer was caught lying when she submitted a fake marriage certificate to support her claim that she and the man were married abroad. Despite that, she was not disbarred but merely reprimanded (Supreme Court, Second Division, A.C. 3319. June 8, 2000). End of story? Not quite.

Subsequent records (CA-G.R. SP 90910) prove that the lawyer and the married man continued to live together for at least a couple of years as husband and wife, his first marriage having been annulled after the disbarment case. Then, trouble in paradise erupted. The man sold the Ayala Alabang house they were living in and took the proceeds. The female lawyer slapped an estafa case against him claiming the property was hers alone, having inherited it from her mother. The female lawyer filed a separate civil case to declare the nullity of her “marriage” to the man she accused of having absconded with her money.

That would be three separate lawsuits arising from a single romance. But while the estafa case was pending, the husband filed at least one petition for certiorari to stop the trial court from trying the estafa case until the issue of the nullity of the marriage has been decided. According to him, if the marriage was declared valid, there would be no estafa since the house would be his as well as hers. Can you imagine–one illicit romance and all those lawsuits?

Apart from falling in love, Craig’s top 10 ways to get sued include owning a business and going to work (just check the caseload of Labor Arbiters and Commissioners, and you’ll know this is true in the Philippines as well), home ownership, having a pet, having kids, enjoying oneself, committing a crime, living on Earth and indulging in a few vices. In every case, he cites documented instances (many quite hilarious and made even more hilarious by the fact that they are true stories) that unequivocally prove that even the most law-abiding citizen can get sued and it doesn’t necessarily mean that he has done something wrong. Sometimes, people get sued just because they pissed off another.

All of that has made me think. Owning a pet is not among the top ways to get sued in the Philippines although it is a widespread practice for people to allow their dogs to roam around to poop and pee in other people’s properties to save themselves the trouble of cleaning their own yards.

Then, there’s the matter of how people enjoy themselves. Karaoke singing being one of the most popular recreational activities in the country, what about us who just want to sleep in peace and not have to bear the out-of-tune singing blaring from the distant sari-sari store or beerhouse?

The Filipinos are not exactly a confrontational people. Hence, situations like those rarely lead to lawsuits. Just don’t cheat them about money or you’re sure to land in court.

In the archive

• Revisiting Manderley
• I have a lot to thank manga for
• Encourage your kids to read…
• Stuff movies are made of
• Forced marriages, arranged marriages
• Pre-nuptial agreement
• Physical violence and legal separation
• Filipina’s husband sentenced for her murder
• Marriage and adultery
• Jennifer (or Jeff) Cagandahan and Congenital adrenal hyperplasia