This case has been cited 2 times or more.
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2007-01-31 |
SANDOVAL-GUTIERREZ, J |
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| As a general rule, an order denying a motion to dismiss is interlocutory and cannot be the subject of a petition for certiorari, the remedy of the aggrieved party being to file an answer and interpose as a defense the objections raised in his motion and in case of an adverse decision, to appeal in due course.[5] An exception, however, may be made where the denial of the motion to dismiss was made with grave abuse of discretion or without or in excess of jurisdiction.[6] | |||||
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2003-01-28 |
BELLOSILLO, J. |
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| Declarations made about a large class of people cannot be interpreted to advert to an identified or identifiable individual. Absent circumstances specifically pointing or alluding to a particular member of a class, no member of such class has a right of action[11] without at all impairing the equally demanding right of free speech and expression, as well as of the press, under the Bill of Rights.[12] Thus, in Newsweek, Inc. v. Intermediate Appellate Court,[13] we dismissed a complaint for libel against Newsweek, Inc., on the ground that private respondents failed to state a cause of action since they made no allegation in the complaint that anything contained in the article complained of specifically referred to any of them. Private respondents, incorporated associations of sugarcane planters in Negros Occidental claiming to have 8,500 members and several individual members, filed a class action suit for damages in behalf of all sugarcane planters in Negros Occidental. The complaint filed in the Court of First Instance of Bacolod City alleged that Newsweek, Inc., committed libel against them by the publication of the article "Island of Fear" in its weekly newsmagazine allegedly depicting Negros Province as a place dominated by wealthy landowners and sugar planters who not only exploited the impoverished and underpaid sugarcane workers but also brutalized and killed them with impunity. Private respondents alleged that the article showed a deliberate and malicious use of falsehood, slanted presentation and/or misrepresentation of facts intended to put the sugarcane planters in a bad light, expose them to public ridicule, discredit and humiliation in the Philippines and abroad, and make them the objects of hatred, contempt and hostility of their agricultural workers and of the public in general. We ratiocinated - | |||||