Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Judgment modified.
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608
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Bocobo, J.:
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Civil Code
"Art. 1089. Obligations arise from law, from contracts and
quasi-contracts, and from acts and omissions which are unlawful
or in which any kind of fault or negligence intervenes."
* * * * * *
"Art. 1092. Civil obligations arising from felonies or
misdemeanors shall be governed by the provisions of the Penal
Code.
"Art. 1093. Those which are derived from acts or omissions in
which fault or negligence, not punishable by law, intervenes shall
be subject to the provisions of Chapter II, Title XVI of this book."
* * * * * *
"Art. 1902. Any person who by an act or omission causes
damage to another by his fault or negligence shall be liable for the
damage so done.
"Art. 1903. The obligation imposed by the next preceding
article is enforcible, not only for personal acts and omissions, but
also for those of persons for whom another is responsible.
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610
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611
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616
noted that it was the employer and not the employee who
was being sued.
Let us now examine the cases previously decided by this
Court.
In the leading case of Rakes vs. Atlantic Gulf and Pacific
Co. (7 Phil., 359, 362-365 [year 1907]), the trial court
awarded damages to the plaintiff, a laborer of the de-
fendant, because the latter had negligently failed to repair
a tramway, in consequence of which the rails slid off while
iron was being transported, and caught the plaintiff whose
leg was broken. This Court held: "It is contended by the
defendant, as its first defense to the action that the
necessary conclusion from these collated laws is that the
remedy for injuries through negligence lies only in a
criminal action in which the official criminally responsible
must be made primarily liable and his employer held only
subsidíarily to him. According to this theory the plaintiff
should have procured the arrest of the representative of the
company accountable for not repairing the track, and on his
prosecution a suitable fine should have been imposed,
payable primarily by him and secondarily by his employer.
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from this point that a majority of the court depart from the stand
taken by the trial judge. The mother and her child had a perfect
right to be on the principal street of Tacloban, Leyte, on the
evening when the religious procession was held. There was
nothing abnormal in allowing the child to run along a few paces in
advance of the mother. No one could foresee the coincidence of an
automobile appearing and of a frightened child running and
falling into a ditch filled with hot water. The doctrine announced
in the much debated case of Rakes vs. Atlantic Gulf and Pacific
Co. ([1907], 7 Phil., 359), still rule. Article 1902 of the Civil Code
must again be enforced. The contributory negligence of the child
and her mother, if any, does not operate as a bar to recovery, but
in its strictest sense could only result in reduction of the
damages."
hours when the accident occurred and it is clear from the evidence
that the defendant had no notice, either actual or constructive, of
the defective condition of the steering gear."
"The master is liable for the negligent acts of his servant where
he is the owner or director of a business or enterprise and the
negligent acts are committed while the servant is engaged in his
master's employment as such owner."
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year-old son Moises. The little boy was on his way to school
with his sister Marciana. Some large pieces of lumber fell
from a truck and pinned the boy underneath, instantly
killing him. Two youths, Telesforo Binoya and Francisco
Bautista, who were working for Ora, an employee of
defendant Norton & Harrison Co., pleaded guilty to the
crime of homicide
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hold that articles 1902 to 1910 of the Civil Code refer only
to fault or negligence not punished by law, according to the
literal import of article 1093 of the Civil Code, the legal
institution of culpa aquiliana would have very little scope
and application in actual life. Death or injury to persons
and damage to property through any degree of negligence—
even the slightest—would have to be indemnified only
through the principle of civil liability arising from a crime.
In such a state of affairs, what sphere would remain for
cuasi-delito or culpa aquiliana? We are loath to impute to
the lawmaker any intention to bring about a situation so
absurd and anomalous. Nor are we, in the interpretation of
the laws, disposed to uphold the letter that killeth rather
than the spirit that giveth life. We will not use the literal
meaning of the law to smother and render almost lifeless a
principle of such ancient origin and such full-grown
development as culpa aquiliana or cuasi-delito, which is
conserved and made enduring in articles 1902 to 1910 of
the Spanish Civil Code.
Secondly, to find the accused guilty in a criminal case,
proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt is required, while in
a civil case, preponderance of evidence is sufficient to make
the defendant pay in damages. There are numerous cases
of criminal negligence which can not be shewn beyond
reasonable doubt, but can be proved by a preponderance of
evidence. In such cases, the defendant can and should be
made responsible in a civil action under articles 1902 to
1910 of the Civil Code. Otherwise, there would be many
instances of unvindicated civil wrongs. Ubi jus ibi
remedium.
Thirdly, to hold that there is only one way to make
defendant's liability effective, and that is, to sue the driver
and exhaust his (the latter's) property first, would be
tantamount to compelling the plaintiff to follow a devious
and cumbersome method of obtaining relief. True, there is
'such a remedy under our laws, but there is also a more
expeditious way, which is based on the
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Judgment affirmed.
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