Case Digest (G.R. No. L-10605)
Facts:
Precillano Necesito, Etc. v. Natividad Paras, Et Al., G.R. Nos. L-10605 and L-10606, June 30, 1958, Supreme Court En Banc, Reyes, J.B.L., J., writing for the Court.
These consolidated actions arose from a single motor-vehicle accident on January 28, 1954, involving Philippine Rabbit Bus Lines autobus No. 199. In G.R. No. L-10605 the plaintiff-appellant was the injured minor Precillano Necesito; in G.R. No. L-10606 the plaintiffs-appellants were the heirs of Severina Garces, who drowned in the same accident. Defendants-appellees were the owners and operators of the bus line; the vehicle was driven by Francisco Bandonell.
On the morning of January 28, 1954, Severina Garces and her one-year-old son boarded the bus at Agno, Pangasinan en route to Manila. After passing Mangatarem the bus entered a wooden bridge; the front wheels swerved to the right, the driver lost control, the truck tore through the bridge rails and fell on its right side into a waist- to breast-deep creek. Severina Garces drowned; the child sustained abrasions and a fractured left femur and was treated at the Provincial Hospital of Dagupan. Money, a wristwatch and a cargo of vegetables were lost.
Two suits for damages and attorney’s fees (Court of First Instance of Tarlac, Cases Nos. 908 and 909) were filed against the carrier. The carrier pleaded that the accident was due to “engine or mechanical trouble” beyond its control. After a joint trial, the trial court found the proximate cause to be the fracture of the right steering knuckle whose interior core was “bubbled and cellulous,” a latent casting defect not detectable by visual inspection; it also found the carrier performed thirty-day visual inspections, last done Jan. 5, 1954, ...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Was the carrier liable to the passengers for the accident caused by the fractured steering knuckle, or was the accident a fortuitous event that absolved the carrier of liability?
- Were the damages awarded by the trial court properly assessed—specifically, are moral and exemplary damages recoverable and were the amounts fixed by the Supreme Court appropriate?
- Was the ...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)