Avícola Las Margaritas Smear Campaign Damages Claim Against Lisa Dismissed

I. Ordinary Damages Lawsuit

Order

Avícola Las Margaritas, S.A. (successor by merger of Compañía Alimenticia de Centroamérica, S.A.) filed an ordinary damages action against Lisa, S.A. on March 19, 2012, claiming Q4,467,032.32 in patrimonial damages arising from an alleged smear campaign and purportedly abusive legal actions filed across multiple jurisdictions. The plaintiff invoked as central evidence a case file from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Canada (CV-11-9062-00CL), to demonstrate the corporate structure that allegedly financed the actions against the Avícola Group.

Lisa, S.A. answered in the negative, raised five peremptory exceptions, and counterclaimed for abuse of right, arguing that the simultaneous filing of 22 summary exclusion proceedings and 21 damages suits by the Avícola Villalobos Group was a strategy to avoid paying dividends.

The court applied Article 1648 of the Civil Code and examined the documentary evidence, concluding that the acts attributed to Lisa, S.A. were carried out by Xela Enterprises, LTD and Boucheron Universal Corp., not by Lisa in its own name. The court sustained the exception of inadmissibility for acts committed by third parties and dismissed the claim. The remaining four peremptory exceptions were denied. Lisa's counterclaim was also dismissed for lack of reliable proof of damages. No costs were imposed.

The dismissal establishes that Lisa's legal actions did not give rise to extracontractual civil liability, and that the plaintiff failed to satisfy the burden of proof under Article 1648 (proving the damage suffered).

II. Appeal

Appeal Ruling

The First Chamber of the Civil and Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the first-instance judgment in full on May 17, 2023, denying the appeal filed by Avícola Las Margaritas.

The appellant raised two grievances: that the trial judge failed to evaluate evidence linking Lisa to the harmful acts (the Canadian case file and the accounting certification for Q4,467,032.32), and that the judge failed to address lawsuits filed directly by Lisa in Guatemala and abroad. The Court of Appeals determined that the evidence established acts carried out by the defendant or through intermediaries, but not the actual damage suffered, the essential prerequisite under Article 1648 of the Civil Code. The appellant itself acknowledged that its evidence did not demonstrate the harm effectively caused.

The Court of Appeals ordered Avícola Las Margaritas to pay costs at the appellate level. The confirmation reinforces that the damages claim failed due to evidentiary deficiency on the element of damage, not for lack of connection between Lisa and the alleged acts.

III. Cassation

Cassation Ruling

The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice dismissed the cassation appeal filed by Avícola Las Margaritas, S.A. on April 5, 2024. The appellant invoked error of fact in the appreciation of evidence by omission with respect to two documents: the accounting certification for Q4,467,032.32 and the protocolization of the Ontario, Canada case file.

The Chamber verified that the Court of Appeals did omit analysis of both documents, but concluded the omission did not affect the outcome. The accounting certification recorded expenses and provisions without establishing a causal link between Lisa's conduct and the alleged patrimonial harm. The Canadian case file proved the existence of a foreign commercial proceeding but not the claimed damages.

The Supreme Court imposed costs and a fine of Q500.00 on the appellant. This ruling rendered the dismissal of the damages lawsuit against Lisa, S.A. final across all three instances, definitively closing the case after more than twelve years of proceedings.