CARIAGA VS. LAGUNA TAYABAS BUS CO. AND MANILA RAILROAD CO.

FACTS:
A road mishap involving a bus of the laguna Tayabas bus company severely injured the
plaintiff and several others. Respondent paid all the hospital, medical and miscellaneous
expenses from June 1952 to April 1953. Plaintiff’s parents filed an action for actual,
compensatory, moral and exemplary damages for the plaintiff and for the same concepts
for the parents themselves. Ltb denied liability blaming co-defendant for the accident;
hence, its cross-claim against the latter for the recovery of damages it paid to the plaintiff.
The manila railroad company countered denial attributing the negligence to the bus driver
of the laguna Tayabas bus co. The rtc faulted ltb and ordered to pay compensatory
damages. The plaintiff assailed the rtc decision for awarding meager compensatory
damages, and its setting aside of the actual and moral damages. Ltb, for its part, argued
that the RTC should have held both the defendants liable, thus, questioning in dismissing
its cross-claim.

ISSUE: W/N THE CONTENTIONS OF THE PLAINTIFF ARE TENABLE.

RULING: no. the court agreed with the RTC that the circumstances from which the action
for damages was based were not part of the provisions of the civil code in claiming moral
damages under articles 2219 and 2220 and the provision on attorney’s fees under article
2208, with the case being one arising from a breach of contract and not a criminal offense
or a quasi-delict. the court likewise struck down the action for damages filed by the
parents of plaintiff for themselves as the spouses were not a party to the case insofar as
LTB is concerned.