RCBC Damage Suit Against Bank of Bangladesh Dismissed by Court

The Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) has dismissed the ₱100 million damage suit filed by the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) against the Bank of Bangladesh.

With a 9-page order, Makati City RTC Branch 142 granted the motion for reconsideration filed by Bangladesh Central Bank last October 28, 2021.

The Bangladesh Bank sought for reversal of the court orders issued last July 19, 2019, and  October 18, 2021.

The RTC maintained that it had no jurisdiction over the Bangladesh Bank due to a lack of provisions in the Rules of Court for the service of summons to a foreign public corporation.

“Such may be. Nevertheless service of summons is an entirely different matter and is based on express and specific provisions under the Rules of Court,” the order read. “In short, which certain domestic procedural processes may be jurally presumed to mirror foreign ones, the said principle cannot be validly applied successfully where the domestic procedural provision themselves do not provide for jural template that could be regarded with minor effect as to presume that they have their foreign counterparts.”

“If our own rules do not provide for service of summons to foreign public corporations, then there is no processual presumption to apply in favor of herein plaintiffs and against herein defendants,” it said.

The court stated that RCBC’s notion of extraterritorial service of summons against Bangladesh Bank has no legal basis.

RCBC’s plaintiff was National Sales Director Ismael S. Reyes who claimed that the Bangladesh Bank of maligning the reputation of RCBC when it called for a news conference to implicate the bank in a heist.

Source: Business Mirror