Case Digest (G.R. No. 154259)
Facts:
Nikko Hotel Manila Garden and Ruby Lim v. Roberto Reyes, G.R. No. 154259, February 28, 2005, the Supreme Court Second Division, Chico‑Nazario, J., writing for the Court. Petitioners are Nikko Hotel Manila Garden (Hotel Nikko) and its executive secretary Ruby Lim; respondent is actor Roberto Reyes (a.k.a. Amay Bisaya), plaintiff below. The complaint below sought damages under the human relations provisions of the New Civil Code (Articles 19, 20, 21) for alleged humiliation and forced escorting out of an exclusive hotel birthday party.On 13 October 1994 Reyes, while in the hotel lobby, was approached by Dr. Violeta Filart and invited to a birthday party at the hotel penthouse for the hotel manager. Reyes joined the party and later went to the buffet table where, he alleged, Ruby Lim loudly told him in the presence of other guests to stop eating and to leave because he was not invited. Reyes claimed the celebrant’s party guests and others heard the reprimand, that Dr. Filart ignored his pleas, and that a policeman later escorted him out; he sued for actual, moral/exemplary damages and attorney’s fees.
At trial Lim testified she organized the exclusive guest list and that Reyes was not invited; she stated she discreetly inquired of Dr. Filart’s companions and requested that they tell Reyes to leave, and that when she finally addressed Reyes she did so closely and politely. Dr. Filart also testified she did not invite Reyes and that she had told him to leave. Reyes’s witnesses only corroborated that Dr. Filart had invited him to go up with her group; none corroborated his account that Lim loudly humiliated him.
The Regional Trial Court (Quezon City, Branch 104) dismissed Reyes’s complaint, crediting Lim’s testimony and holding Reyes assumed the risk of being asked to leave since he was uninvited. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed, finding Lim had needlessly embarrassed Reyes before other guests and holding Hotel Nikko, Lim, and Dr. Filart solidarily liable for ...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Does the doctrine of volenti non fit injuria (assumption of risk) bar Reyes’s recovery?
- Did Ruby Lim (and, derivatively, Hotel Nikko) commit an abuse of rights or an act contrary to morals/good customs under Articles 19 and 21 of the Civil Code, thereby making them liable for damages?
- Did the Court of Appeals err in reversing the trial court’s fact...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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