Fraud or dolo – Art.

1338
Case No. 37, Bejerano
Geraldez v. CA, 230 SCRA 320 (1994)
FACTS:
Petitioner Geraldez filed an action for damages by reason of contractual breach against respondent
Kenstar Travel Corp. Petitioner booked the Volare 3 tour with Kenstar. The tour covered a 22-day tour of
Europe for $2,990.00 which she paid the total equivalent amount of P190,000.00 charged by private
respondent for her and her sister, Dolores. At the tour, petitioner claimed that what was alleged in the
brochure was not what they experienced. There was no European tour manager as stated in the brochure,
the hotels where they stayed in which were advertised as first class were not, the UGC leather factory
which was specifically included as a highlight of the tour was not visited and The Filipino tour guide
provided by Kenstar was a first timer thus inexperienced. The Quezon City RTC rendered a decision
ordering respondent Kenstar to pay moral, nominal, and exemplary damages totalling P1,000,000 and
P50,000 attorney’s fees. On appeal, respondent Court of Appeals deleted the award for moral and
exemplary damages and reduced the nominal damages and attorney’s fees to P30,000 and P10,000
respectively.
ISSUE:
Whether private respondent has committed dolo causante or dolo incidente by making misrepresentations
in its contracts with petitioner and other members of the tour group.
RULING:
Yes. Deceptions became patent in the light of after-events when, contrary to its representations, it
employed an inexperienced tour guide, housed the tourist group in substandard hotels, and reneged on its
promise of a European tour manager and the visit to the leather factory, it is indubitably liable for
damages to petitioner. The effects of dolo causante are the nullity of the contract and the indemnification
of damages, 63 and dolo incidente also obliges the person employing it to pay damages.
MAINPOINT:
The effects of dolo causante are the nullity of the contract and the indemnification of damages, 63 and
dolo incidente also obliges the person employing it to pay damages.