Recovery of Moral Damages

University of the Philippines v. Dizon

G.R. No. 171182. August 23, 2012.
Facts:
UP through its president Jose V. Abueva, entered into a General Construction Agreement
with respondent Stern Builders Corporation, represented by its President and General Manager
Servillano Dela Cruz, for the construction of the extension building and the renovation of the
College of Arts and Sciences building in the campus of UPLB.
In the course of the implementation of the contract, Stern Builders submitted 3 progress
billings corresponding to the work accomplished, but UP paid only 2 of the billings. The 3 rd
billing was not paid due to its disallowance by the COA. Despite the lifting of the disallowance,
UP failed to pay, prompting Stern Builders to sue UP to collect the unpaid billings and recover
various damages.
Issue:
Whether Stern Builders is entitled to the award of Php 10,000,000.00 as moral damages.
Held:
No. There was no clear and distinct statement of the factual and legal support for the
award of moral damages in the substantial amount of Php 10,000,000.00. The award was thus
also speculative and whimsical. Like the actual damages, the moral damages constituted another
judicial ipse dixit, the inevitable consequence of which was to render the award of moral
damages incapable of attaining finality. In addition, the grant of moral damages in that manner
contravened the law the permitted the recovery of moral damages as the means to assuage
“physical suffering, mental anguish, fright, serious anxiety, besmirched reputation, wounded
feelings, moral shock, social humiliation and similar injury.” The contravention of the law was
manifest considering that Stern Builders, as an artificial person, was incapable of experiencing
pain and moral suffering.
Assuming that in granting the substantial amount of Php 10,000,000.00 as moral
damages, the RTC might have had in mind the Dela Cruz had himself suffered mental anguish
and anxiety. If that was the case, then the RTC obviously disregarded his separate and distinct
personality from that of Stern Builders. Moreover, his moral and emotional sufferings as the
President of Stern Builders were not the suffering of Stern Builders.