Case involving CityMall site to drag on for years

The legal dispute involving the site of the proposed second CityMall in Cebu is expected to drag on for years.
While there is no prohibition against the construction of the mall, lawyer Negley Tabucanon-Villanueva said it may be “bad form” for CityMall Commercial Centers, Inc. to build on a property that is the subject of a pending case.
“We don’t expect this (case) to be finished for years and years,” she told Cebu Daily News.
Villanueva represents Kelly Luym, a stockholder of the previously dissolved Ludo and Luym Development Corp. (LudoDev) who is questioning the distribution of the CityMall site and 31 other company properties among John Luym, David Lu and other cousins despite a pending case in court over allegedly misappropriated company shares. LudoDev’s corporate life expired in 2006.
The 1.1-hectare property between the Cebu South Bus Terminal and Elizabeth Mall along N. Bacalso Ave., on which the mall is proposed to rise, has been fenced. But no heavy equipment to indicate construction activities could be seen yesterday.
CityMall, which is 66-percent owned by listed DoubleDragon Properties Corp. and 34 percent by SM Investments Corp., has opened its first mall in Cebu in Consolacion town in the north.
DoubleDragon earlier disclosed that it has signed a 30-year contract to lease the property from Dunes and Eagle Land Development Corp., a company represented by a brother-in-law of the Luym brothers.
Villanueva said the Court of Appeals remanded the case early this year to the Regional Trial Court (RDC) Branch 12.
“Both parties were directed by the Court of Appeals to present their evidence at the trial court. The Court of Appeals cannot make a decision without this,” she said.
She said earlier that CityMall was aware of the dispute because the title held by Dunes and Eagle showed an adverse claim to the property.
The family dispute, which has been going on for more than a decade, started with Mr. Lu accusing his uncle Paterno Luym, Sr. and his sons of misappropriating company shares.