Realtor dies unpaid in UI sale transaction
The family of the late realtor Quin Baterna, who succumbed to cancer last Friday, May 22, vowed to pursue the case filed by the former against Alberto Lopez former president of University of Iloilo (UI) and another former UI official Leandro Fernando L. Montelibano.
The case stemmed from the failure and refusal of Lopez to pay Baterna his commission on the sale of the university to Philippine Investment-Management Inc. (Phinma) Group of Companies.
Baterna, being an established real estate broker in the country, initiated the negotiation for the acquisition of UI by Phinma Group which dates back to August 2003.
Early this year, it was reported that the buy-out of UI by Phinma Group was consummated in the amount of P315 million plus the taxes attendant to the sale.
Baterna in his complaint for Sum of Money, Specific Performance and Damages against Lopez claimed that he initiated the transaction between UI and Phinma Group by virtue of an Offer to Buy dated August 18, 2003 which Lopez himself allegedly received.
“Aside from submitting the offer to buy, the plaintiff (Baterna) performed services for the purpose of promoting and closing the deal between the prospective buyer and the defendants as sellers. He has arranged for meetings between representatives of the buyer and seller, he has accompanied the representatives of the buyer to site inspections and due diligence review of records and assets of the defendant corporation,” part of the complaint reads.
However, during the final stage of negotiation between UI and Phinma Group, Baterna alleged that he was no longer informed of their negotiations and also they “failed or refused to reveal the details thereof, particularly the price agreed upon thus plaintiff could not determine his compensation based on the final purchased price agreed upon.”
Baterna later requested for the payment of his services amounting to five percent of the undisclosed final price agreed upon by the parties as he was already diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing medical treatment.
Defendants, however, ignored the demands made by Baterna and “brazenly excluded him from the negotiations of the details of the sale in spite of their knowledge of plaintiff's serious medical condition.”
Atty. Marven Daquilanea serves as counsel for Baterna.
University of Iloilo, then the Iloilo City Colleges, was founded by the Lopez brothers Don Eugenio and Don Fernando Lopez in June 1947.