Order: Court dismissed dividend case by Compraventa

On February 28, 2020, the Eighth Civil Court of First Instance ruled in favor of Lisa, S.A. and rejected an ordinary lawsuit filed by Compraventa de Productos Alimenticios, S.A., a company in the Avícola Villalobos Group. Compraventa had sought to declare that Lisa’s right to collect dividends—decreed in a May 2, 2012 shareholders’ meeting—was extinguished by prescription. The court found that Compraventa failed to prove that the legal requirements for extinguishing Lisa’s rights had been met.

The ruling emphasized that Lisa had made good-faith efforts to collect the dividends and had been blocked from doing so by embargoes and actions promoted by Compraventa and related companies. The judge confirmed Lisa’s ownership rights over the dividends and held that no valid prescriptive term had elapsed. As a result, the court dismissed the claim in full and ordered Compraventa to pay court costs.