COMPAIA MARITIMA VS.

ALLIED FREE WORKERS UNION

FACTS:

Compaia Maritima and Allied Free Workers Union entered into a contract of arrastre
and stevedoring services. The stevedoring services of the union was not compensated and they
picketed for nine days. The trial court awarded the company actual damages of P450, 000, moral
damages of P50, 000 and attorney's considering of P20, 000.

ISSUE:

Whether the pieces of evidence was sufficient to support the award of Php520k

SUPREME COURT RULING:

No.

The SC said that on the basis of the reports of the two accountants hired by the company,
the amount of damages does not reach the sum of P 450,000 fixed by the trial court. The
damages, shown in the accountants' reports and in the statement made by the consignees chief
clerk (who did not testify) amount to P349, 245.37, or much less than P450, 000.

The company argues that the accountants' reports are admissible in evidence because of
the rule that "when the original consists of numerous accounts or other documents which cannot
be examined in court without great loss-of time and the fact sought to be established from them
is only the general result of the whole", the original writings need not be produced. That rule
cannot be applied in this case because the voluminous character of the records, on which the
accountants' reports were based, was not duly established. It is also a requisite for the application
of the rule that the records and accounts should be made accessible to the adverse party so that
the company, of the summary may be tested on cross-examination.

What applies to this case is the general rule "that an audit made by, or the testimony of, a
private auditor, is inadmissible in evidence as proof of the original records, books of accounts,
reports or the like". That general rule cannot be relaxed in this case because the company failed
to make a preliminary showing as to the difficulty or impossibility attending the production of
the records in court and their examination and analysis as evidence by the court.