Week 3 Case 6 G.R. No. 208802 Flashcards
Death of victim was due to another passenger.
Heirs of the victim asks for compensation from the employer, due to breach of contract of common carrier.
Is a common carrier an insurer of the absolute safety of its passengers?
No.
In Mariano, Jr. v. Callejas, the Court explained that:
While the law requires the highest degree of diligence from common carriers in the safe transport of their passengers and creates a presumption of negligence against them, it does not, however, make the carrier an insurer of the absolute safety of its passengers.
Article 1755 of the Civil Code qualifies the duty of extraordinary care, vigilance[,] and precaution in the carriage of passengers by common carriers to only such as human care and foresight can provide. What constitutes compliance with said duty is adjudged with due regard to all the circumstances.
Article 1756 of the Civil Code, in creating a presumption of fault or negligence on the part of the common carrier when its passenger is injured, merely relieves the latter, for the time being, from introducing evidence to fasten the negligence on the former, because the presumption stands in the place of evidence. Being a mere presumption, however, the same is rebuttable by proof that the common carrier had exercised extraordinary diligence as required by law in the performance of its contractual obligation, or that the injury suffered by the passenger was solely due to a fortuitous event.
Thus, it is clear that neither the law nor the nature of the business of a transportation company makes it an insurer of the passenger’s safety, but that its liability for personal injuries sustained by its passenger rests upon its negligence, its failure to exercise the degree of diligence that the law requires.
What was the cause of Battung’s death? What is its effect?
Battung’s death was neither caused by any defect in the means of transport or in the method of transporting, or to the negligent or willful acts of petitioner’s employees, namely, that of Duplio and Daraoay, in their capacities as driver and conductor, respectively. Instead, the case involves the death of Battung wholly caused by the surreptitious act of a copassenger who, after consummating such crime, hurriedly alighted from the vehicle. Thus, there is no proper issue on petitioner’s duty to observe extraordinary diligence in ensuring the safety of the passengers transported by it, and the presumption of fault/negligence against petitioner under Article 1756 in relation to Articles 1733 and 1755 of the Civil Code should not apply.
What should be the applicable provision on the case of Battung’s death?
What particular degree of diligence is applicable in this case?
Since Battung’s death was caused by a copassenger, the applicable provision is Article 1763 of the Civil Code, which states that “a common carrier is responsible for injuries suffered by a passenger on account of the willful acts or negligence of other passengers or of strangers, if the common carrier’s employees through the exercise of the diligence of a good father of a family could have prevented or stopped the act or omission.” Notably, for this obligation, the law provides a lesser degree of diligence, i.e., diligence of a good father of a family, in assessing the existence of any culpability on the common carrier’s part.
What is the diligence of a good father of a family?
The concept of diligence of a good father of a family “connotes reasonable care consistent with that which an ordinarily prudent person would have observed when confronted with a similar situation. The test to determine whether negligence attended the performance of an obligation is: did the defendant in doing the alleged negligent act use that reasonable care and caution which an ordinarily prudent person would have used in the same situation? If not, then he is guilty of negligence.”
Was the implementation of measures to detect danger necessarily applicable in this case?
No.
No similar danger was shown to exist in this case so as to impel petitioner or its employees to implement heightened security measures to ensure the safety of its passengers. There was also no showing that during the course of the trip, Battung’s killer made suspicious actions which would have forewarned petitioner’s employees of the need to conduct thorough checks on him or any of the passengers. Relevantly, the Court, in Nocum v. Laguna Tayabas Bus Company, has held that common carriers should be given sufficient leeway in assuming that the passengers they take in will not bring anything that would prove dangerous to himself, as well as his copassengers, unless there is something that will indicate that a more stringent inspection should be made.
“Fairness demands that in measuring a common carrier’s duty towards its passengers, allowance must be given to the reliance that should be reposed on the sense of responsibility of all the passengers in regard to their common safety. It is to be presumed that a passenger will not take with him anything dangerous to the lives and limbs of his co-passengers, not to speak of his own. Not to be lightly considered must be the right to privacy to which each passenger is entitled. He cannot be subjected to any unusual search, when he protests the innocuousness of his baggage and nothing appears to indicate the contrary, as in the case at bar. In other words, inquiry may be verbally made as to the nature of a passenger’s baggage when such is not outwardly perceptible, but beyond this, constitutional boundaries are already in danger of being transgressed…Of course, when there are sufficient indications that the representations of the passenger regarding the nature of his baggage may not be true, in the interest of the common safety of all, the assistance of the police authorities may be solicited, not necessarily to force the passenger to open his baggage, but to conduct the needed investigation consistent with the rules of propriety and, above all, the constitutional rights of the passenger. It is in the sense that the mentioned services manual issued by appellant to its conductors must be understood.”
Is petitioner civilly liable?
In this case, records reveal that when the bus stopped at San Jose City to let four (4) men ride petitioner’s bus (two [2] of which turned out to be Battung’s murderers), the bus driver, Duplio, saw them get on the bus and even took note of what they were wearing. Moreover, Duplio made the bus conductor, Daraoay, approach these men and have them pay the corresponding fare, which Daraoay did. During the foregoing, both Duplio and Daraoay observed nothing which would rouse their suspicion that the men were armed or were to carry out an unlawful activity. With no such indication, there was no need for them to conduct a more stringent search (i.e., bodily search) on the aforesaid men. By all accounts, therefore, it cannot be concluded that petitioner or any of its employees failed to employ the diligence of a good father of a family in relation to its responsibility under Article 1763 of the Civil Code. As such, petitioner cannot altogether be held civilly liable.
