by Jose Bimbo F. Santos
Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 218 Judge Hilario Laqui dismissed last Nov. 15 ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.’s P25- million suit for breach of contract against its former employees, broadcast journalists Ed Lingao, Jade Lopez, and Anne Francia Torres.
ABS-CBN has filed a motion for reconsideration.
Lingao, Lopez, and Torres were sued by ABS-CBN in 2004 when they resigned after working in the public affairs show The Correspondents as writers, producers, and on-camera talents as well as producers and contributors to other ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs shows.
Laqui also junked ABS-CBN’s complaint against ABC-5, where Lingao, Lopez, and Torres transferred after resigning from ABS-CBN, of “pirating” the three.
ABS-CBN claimed in its complaint that Lingao, Lopez, and Torres conspired with ABC-5 in the “pirating” scheme. ABS-CBN also contended that the three broadcast journalists violated their employment contracts, particularly the “conflict of interest” and “confidentiality” provisions.
The “conflict of interest” clause prevents “during employment with ABS-CBN and for a period of one-year after the termination” the contract signatory from “engaging in any activity which is prejudicial to the interests of ABS-CBN, or which interferes with the performance of (his) job, whether within or outside his working hours, unless (he) obtain(s) the prior written consent of ABS-CBN.”
The “confidentiality” clause states that “all records and documents of ABS-CBN and its clients, and all information pertaining to their affairs are confidential,” and that the contract signatory will “hold in strict confidence all information, data, documentation, materials and all copies thereof, received by reason of (his) employment and shall not disclose the same, at any time during or after employment, without the prior authorization of ABS-CBN.”
ABS-CBN also claimed that the resignations of Lingao, Lopez, and Torres were egged on by ABC-5, a competitor network. ABS-CBN also stated that ABC-5 had thereby sought to gain comparative advantage over ABS-CBN not through fair competitive means but by “pirating” its key personnel.
Lingao, Lopez, and Torres said in their defense that their contracts with ABS-CBN were illegal in the first place, as no authorized ABS-CBN represen-tative was present when they signed the contract. The three broadcast journalists also said they did not violate the confidentiality clause of their contracts since they do not know any trade secrets or confidential information about ABS-CBN operations that they could divulge to ABC-5.
In his decision, Laqui said that the “plaintiff failed to meet its burden of proving the causes of action in its complaint.” Laqui also ruled that Lingao, Lopez, and Torres did not violate the “conflict of interest” and “confidentiality” clauses of their contracts with ABS-CBN, adding that the former’s “restriction is clearly so overreaching in scope” and “clearly so encompassing and so broadly worded.”
With the court’s findings that Lingao, Lopez, and Torres did not breach their contract with ABS-CBN, the latter’s complaint against ABC-5 was similarly dismissed.
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