Forum shopping is the institution of two or more actions involving the same parties for the same cause of action either simultaneously or successively, on the suspension that one or the other court would come out with a favorable disposition.
The test for determining whether there is forum shopping is where the elements of litis pendentia are present or where a final judgment in one case will amount to res judicata in the other.
The evil to be avoided by the rule against forum shopping is→the rendition by two competent tribunals of two separate and contradictory decisions, thereby causing confusion, which is present in this case.
Three ways of committing forum shopping
- Filing multiple cases based on the same cause of action and with the same prayer, the previous case not having been resolved (litis pendentia);
- Filing multiple cases based on the same cause of action and with the same prayer, the previous case having been resolved with finality (res judicata);
- and Filing multiple cases based on the same causes of action but with different prayers (splitting causes of action (In re: Ferrer, A.C. No. 8037, Feb. 17, 2016).
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