BAGUMBAYAN CORPORATION

vs.
INTERMEDIATE APPELLATE COURT, LELISA SEÑA AND ARTURO SEÑA

Facts:
A lady customer claiming for moral and exemplary damages due to alleged negligence of a waiter which
caused embarrassment to her and destroyed her dress, bag and shoes without receiving any apology from
the management. She was claiming moral damages of P100,000 for herself and her husband for the em -
barrassment caused and the fact that the management did not offer any apology that night. Exemplary
damages of the same amount is being claimed as well to teach the management a lesson.

Rudy Tanchanco, manager in charged of the show, apologized to the plaintiffs in open court in behalf of
the management. Also, the corporation in its answer, apologized and labelled the incident as a fortuitous
event. However, despite the apology, the Señas still sued the corporation as employer of the waiter,
claiming for actual damages of P200,000, attorney’s fees of P10,000, and moral and exemplary damages
as may be fixed by the court.

The trial court awarded the Sena’s P1,540 as actual damages consisting of the value of Mrs. Seña's outfit
and P540, the cost of the six tickets used by the Seña family which was considered a loss because of their
alleged failure to enjoy the show. It also awarded the Señas P50,000 as moral damages, P10,000 as exem-
plary damages and P5,000 as attorney's fees. The corporation appealed, Intermediate Appellate Court af-
firmed the judgment with modification to reduce the moral and exemplary damages to P15,000 and
P5,000, respectively.

Issues:

Whether or not the plaintiffs are entitled to moral and exemplary damages for the embarrassment caused
to them? Whether or not the Trial Court and Intermediate Appellate Court erred in its decision?

Held:
No. The plaintiffs are entitled to actual damages, but not to moral and exemplary damages. The award for
actual damages has legal basis, however, the moral and exemplary damages is lacking of legal justifica-
tion for it was not based on any of the cases enumerated in the Civil Code. Furthermore, embarrassment
cannot be considered as mental anguish as stated in Article 2217, in which moral damages can be recov-
ered. Also, mental anguish must have caused physical injury or where the defendant wilfully, wantonly,
recklessly, or intentionally caused the mental anguish.

Therefore, the Appellate Court erred in considering the case as analogous to the cases mentioned in Arti-
cle 2219. It appears that there was no gross negligence in the case, hence, the Court modified the Appel -
late Court’s decision and ordered the petitioner to pay Lelisa Seña P5,000 as to her actual damages, litiga -
tion expenses and attorney’s fees. The award of moral and exemplary damages is hereby eliminated with
no cost.
CZYRA JANE A. FENIX Obligations and Contracts
FIRST YEAR - JURIS DOCTOR